10 Keywords To Include In Every Google Search Campaign

Keywords are key to a successful Google Search campaign.

The right keyword will ensure that your target audience see your Google Search ad.

But what keywords are relevant and high quality? And ultimately, what keywords are effective?

Here are some keyword categories and bonus tips that you can consider when launching a Google Search campaign.

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1. Brand Keywords

To ensure that your ads appear when people search for your organization, you should add brand keywords into your Google Search campaign.

This should be your number 1 priority. By adding these keywords, you’re protecting your space.

Imagine that a potential customer searches for your brand and yet, all they see are your competitor ads that are ranked at the top of the search engine results page. This potential customer might then be attracted to a more compelling offer from your competitor. And you don’t want that to happen, right?

Hence, I strongly recommend that you always protect your brand space. You should at least be running an evergreen brand campaign all year round (including off-season) to keep your brand at the top of your customers’ minds.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels

2. Product & Service Keywords

When people search for your products or services, your ad should obviously appear.

You can target such keywords alone or pair them together with your brand keywords. I recommend that you do both then analyze performance and from there, decide if you should pause certain keywords.

Do include as many products and services that you offer, including the various types and models.

Source: geekishop via Etsy

3. Generic or Industry Keywords

For people who might not know your brand, it’s better to target generic or industry keywords. This way, they’ll stumble upon your ad and may even convert if your ad copy and landing page are irresistible.

Take for instance that you sell Nike shoes. Nike shoes will be a product keyword while running shoes will be an industry keyword. I recommend that you craft your ad copy differently. In fact, you should tailor your message to these audiences at different stages in the buyer’s journey.

Source: By Amanda Sellers via HubSpot

4. Competitor Keywords

As mentioned earlier, your competitors can bid on your brand keywords. You, too, can target competitor keywords.

It’s okay (and recommended) to add competitor keywords. People who search for your competitors are likely to be interested in the products and services that you are offering. In addition, you can build brand awareness so they know that your brand also offers similar products and services.

Photo by KeithJJ on Pixabay

5. Location or Country Keywords

Let’s say your business is a fast-food restaurant franchise chain and you open fast-food restaurants in certain neighborhoods and countries. You might consider adding keywords of these locations or countries.

To leverage the rise of “near me” searches, I recommend that you target location or country keywords as well as add locations and countries in your ad copy. This will ensure that your ads are relevant. People who click on your ads will then most likely be near these locations and thus, can make a store visit.

Photo by Ibrahim Asad on Pexels

6. Top/Best/Great Keywords

When I’m searching for a product or service, I like to include “top”, “best” or “great” in my search query so that I’m aware of the industry-leading products or services.

Likewise, you can tap into this and target these keywords. This way, your ad will appear above the search results.

You can include these keywords in your ad copy but ensure that you mention the reasons why your product or service is the best.

Photo by arembowski on Pixabay

7. Review Keywords

If your target audience are in the decision stage, they’ve already decided on a solution category and are deciding on the specific solution that best meets their needs.

Besides checking on the pros/cons and benefits of your product or service, they will probably be researching for customer reviews.

Thus, you should target these review keywords and point ads to a landing page with customer reviews. You can include something along the lines of “10,000+ Customers Trust Us” in the ad copy to build credibility.

Also, I usually put these review keywords under brand or product and service ad groups. By pairing the review keyword with brand or product and service keywords, you’ll only target people who have high purchase intent.

Photo by geralt on Pixabay

8. How-To Keywords

Numerous people are turning to search engines to look for answers and solve their problems. Have you ever entered a search query that begins with “how to”? Cause I did. After attending an open terrarium workshop with my best friend recently, I googled how to care for my succulent plants.

You should then take advantage of this “how to” search query. If I sell succulents, I will definitely target “how to care succulents” and reach people like myself 😀

There are a few ways to craft “how to” keywords

• how to [solve a problem]: Figure out the problem that your product or service solves
• how to [achieve goal]: Figure out the goal that your product or service achieves
• how to [become X]: Let’s say you provide permanent resident application service, you might consider targeting “how to become a permanent resident in [country]”

Photo by TeroVesalainen on Pixabay

9. Transactional Keywords

Transactional keywords are the most important category, especially if your goal is sales. These are terms that people search for when they are ready to make a purchase.

Here are some examples that you can consider adding to your Google Search campaign

• buy
• discount
• promotion
• sales
• deals

Photo by Artem Beliaikin on Pexels

10. Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are keywords or phrases that are more specific and longer than commonly used keywords. Although these keywords get less search traffic, they usually have a higher conversion rate because they’re more specific.

For instance, a long-tail keyword for protein powder could be “best protein powder for muscle growth”.

I recommend that you try identifying long-tail keywords from the Search Terms Report. If you’re already targeting generic keywords, you can look at the Search Terms Report and consider adding those search queries as long-tail keywords in your campaign if they resulted in many clicks or conversions.

Source: By Corey Frankosky via Surfside PPC

Bonus Tip: Include Keywords In The Ad Copy

To ensure that your ads are highly relevant, it’s recommended that you include the keywords in the ad copy.

This can be easily done for most keywords, except competitor keywords. In this case, you shouldn’t explicitly state that your brand is better than your competitors. Instead, you should mention the unique selling proposition of your brand, product or service. Perhaps, you have a patented technology or a decade of experience that you want to highlight in your ad.

Photo by Wokandapix on Pixabay

Bonus Tip: Be Careful When Using Keyword Insertion

Keyword insertion will automatically update your ad copy with the keywords that caused the ads to appear. This will make your ads more relevant.

For example, here’s the headline for my ad: Get {KeyWord:Chocolates} From $3

This headline will change to other keywords in my ad group like “dark chocolates”, “milk chocolates” and “gourmet handmade chocolates”. So it’ll change to Get Dark Chocolates From $3, Get Milk Chocolates From $3 and Get Chocolates From $3 (for keywords that are too long and exceed the character limit, Google will use the default text). Check out my blog post on Google Search Text Ad Best Practices for more keyword insertion tips~

Keyword insertion is good in that it ensures that your ads are relevant. But do check that each keyword agrees with your syntax so there’s no grammatical error. The inserted keywords will also need to make sense. Google has listed some common reasons why keyword insertion might not be working for you.

Bonus Tip: Use The Right Keyword Match Type

Google recently made some changes to phrase match and broad match modifier. Starting in February 2021, phrase match will begin to incorporate behaviors of broad match modifier (BMM) to simplify keywords and make it easier to reach relevant customers. Both phrase match and broad match modifier keywords will now have the same matching behavior and may show ads on searches that include the meaning of your keyword.

Whether you’re adapting to these changes or are new to Google Search campaigns, do remember to read up the various keyword match types and their matching behavior. Then, use the right keyword match type.

• Broad Match: searches that relate to your keyword
• Phrase Match: searches that include the meaning of your keyword
• Exact Match: searches that are the same meaning as your keyword

See It In Action: Keyword Examples For A Google Search Campaign

Let’s say I sell computers, including desktops and laptops and my brand name is Nitronics. My most popular laptop model is UltraX. My competitor, CyberLab, also sells computers. Here are some keywords that I will target:

• Brand: [nitronics]
• Brand + Product: “nitronics desktops”
• Brand + Country: nitronics united states
• Product + Review: “ultrax reviews”
• Transactional + Product: “buy ultrax”
• How-To & Long-Tail: “how to reduce game lag”
• Best + Industry: “best gaming laptops”
• Competitor + Product: “cyberlab computers”

Photo by FirmBee on Pixabay

Now It’s Your Turn

Have you added any of the abovementioned keywords in your Google Search campaign? How was the performance? What other keywords do you target?

If you have marketing budget or prefer spending time on more important business matters, you can consider hiring a search engine marketing expert from Fiverr instead. There are also top-rated professionals from Fiverr Pro who are hand-vetted for stellar quality and service.

For more business growth tips, join online business classes and marketing and sales classes. Or watch streaming broadcasts of free online classes at CreativeLive! You can also join online courses at Fiverr Learn~