Using Google Adwords for conducting effective Keyword Research.

Paying for more than just visitors

By Barry Fenning © 2006

Google Adwords is a great tool for conducting cost-effective and extremely targeted customer acquisition. But one of its most powerful and sometimes overlooked features is its ability to act as a very powerful keyword research tool.

If it is used properly then you will find that the extra time that you invest in Google Adwords will help you and your website save money in the long-run

PC Galaxy Home of Computers

The best way to show you the keyword research power of Google Adwords, let’s have a look at a fictional company called PC Galaxy Home of Computers. PC Galaxy sells a large range of computer hardware equipment to all parts of Ireland so they really want to be finishing in the top 10 results of Google.ie

Google Adwords broad match gets specific

When it comes to Google Adwords it usually gets difficult to get “clicks throughs” while paying the 5 cent minimum bid especially when PC Galaxy and a number of their competitors are bidding for the same obvious keywords.

This is where the Google Adwords broad match feature comes to the aid of PC Galaxy.

By choosing the obvious broad match one-word and two-word keyword phrases that PC Galaxy feel is targeted to the search terms that their prospective customers will be using to search for their products they will learn of many relevant keywords that they may have overlooked.

Haystacks in Needles

Every time a visitor to clicks on one of PC Galaxy’s broad match keywords there will be an entry in the website logs. The “referring URL” section of the entry is where the missing keywords will appear. It looks something like this:

http://www.google.com/search?h1=en&q=computers+for+sale+btnG=Google+Search

The text that follows the “q” parameter in the query string is exactly what the user searched for that triggered the Google Adword advertisement. The term “computers for sale” was the search term in this incident.

Make things specific

By carefully examining the search terms within the website logs a number of missing keywords or new subject areas should provide PC Galaxy with more specific keywords and phrases that they can target more cost-effectively. Common search terms that arise through this process can then be targeted using exact match saving PC Galaxy money by avoiding expensive bidding wars.

This process can take a long time to complete (depending on the time that is invested by PC Galaxy), but the result is an extremely streamlined marketing campaign with a much higher return on investment.

The biggest Adwords advantage.

If PC Galaxy invests the time into their Adwords campaign they will be able to reap the most valuable reward for their efforts… Free Traffic.

PC Galaxy now know exactly what keywords drive the most targeted and relevant visitors. If they have been using (and they should be) conversion tracking within their campaign, they also know which keywords bring the visitors that become customers to their website.

With an extensive list of quality keywords PC Galaxy can start to optimise their website in such a way that they can feature in the top 10 of the search results on Google and get the benefit of free traffic.

The moral of the story…

Adwords is much more powerful than just a quick way to pay for traffic.

Relevant Articles of Interest:

How to effectively select and use keywords for your website
Keyword Research… Why it’s so important? And, how do I do it properly?
10 of the most important SEO design tips