I just gave a lady my opinion about whether the ad is more important or the KeyWord.
I told her I think the KeyWord is more important. Given that your ad is ok and relevant, (not misleading), I think the KeyWord is more important.
This post may seem pointless, but I would like your opinions.
C.K.
If I sold dog food and bid on the keyword travel, don't think I'll have a very good conversion rate.
Conversely, if my ad was terrible, but at least the keyword was highly targeted, my CTR would be low, but at least my conversions should be decent as the keyword is what is actually being searched for.
We sell a complex service which is somewhat hard to describe in only a few words. Our potential customers may not know precisely which words to search on.
Consequently, we cast a *very* large net in terms of keywords and make our ads *very* specific to what we do. So we get lots of impressions with low CTR's. But we get enough.
Often this forum assumes you are selling simple to describe things like dog food or tires but there are complex products and services as well.
[edited by: nyet at 4:47 pm (utc) on May 27, 2004]
We sell a complex service which is somewhat hard to describe in only a few words. Our potential customers may not know precisely which words to search on...Often this forum assumes you are selling simple to describe things like dog food or tires but there are complex products and services as well.
You are absolutely correct, nyet, and thanks for the reminder. I certainly recognize myself in the dog food and tires example, and it is good to be reminded that things are not always that simple.
Just this week, I've really wrestled to find appropriate keywords for a couple of advertisers with very new products which have never been on the market before - and your post underlines the point as well.
Well said.
AWA
You can use the text of the ad to make a keyword [more] relevant by anticipating what the user may be thinking and using the wording of the ad to build on that to draw them to your site and grab a new customer.
Skibum, could you elaborate on the last part about making your ad more relevant?
Thanks,
C.K.
Things that play on peoples' emotions, things they may be self conscious about. Lets say you're selling an online diet program. Obvious (and expensive) keywords might be lose weight, diet pills, diet suppliments, sandy beach diet. We can infer the person searching is thinking I need to get healthy, I need to lose weight. They have in mind what they need to do and how they want to do it.
If you are selling a diet program, you can stretch a little bit and buy "diet pills" and use the creative to catch the persons attention and highlight a safer way to lose weight. In this case you're taking someone who has identified a problem and has a solution in mind. You present them with a solution they may perceive as better or healthier.
Health problems are often associated with emotions as well. Sadness, depression, loneliness.
Any one of a number of issues could cause these emotions, could be sudden unemployment, a relationship breakup, being unhealthy, lets go with needing to lose weight.
We have some emotions in mind that people feel as well as several ideas of what might be causing the emotion. There is a correlation between obesity and depression. We have our target in mind.
Someone looking for a healthy solution to a heath problem. They might simply type in how they feel. "Feeling depressed", "depression", "feel better".
Take that expressed emotion and tie it to the product or service. Take the keyword "Feeling Depressed"
Stop Feeling Depressed
Try our healthy new diet
program and feel better now!
http:/*@@@dietprogram.com
They could also be feeling depressed because a relationship just ended and need to reach out. A personals site might work in this case.
Stop Feeling Depressed
Meet people in your area
and make new friends tonight!
http:/*@@@personals.com
It could be mounting bills - this would be a bit of a stretch but.....
Stop Feeling Depressed
Fast payday loans online in
seconds. Guaranted Approval!
http:/*@@@personals.com
When people buy or make most any decision for that matter, they consider the facts but emotion is what generates the sale or the action. Tap into those emotions and you can make more sales and get cheaper keywords to convert.
You might target different lifestyles.
[keyword] and lonely?
Join some community free
and meet other [lifestyle] here!
http:/@@@personals or communitysite.com
The keyword could even just be "Feeling Lonely"
Feeling Lonely?
Join some community free
and meet other [lifestyle] here!
http:/@@@personals or communitysite.com
Sometimes people don't know what they are looking for, they just know how they feel and they express their emotions in the form of search queries. Anticipate why they may feel a certain way and present them with something that may fill the need or void.
Along the same lines, the way a person uses a word can reflect not only what they are looking for but whether they are looking to buy or just looking.
Lets say you wanted to incorporate your business. YOu'd go through a few stages in the buying process.
How do I incorporate?
Where can I do it?
I know what it takes, now lets do it!
A good site selling incorporation services would need to address all these questions but so does your keyword strategy. Things you might type in to a seach engine along the way include:
Florida incorporation
Florida incorporate
incorporation in Florida
incorporating Florida
incorporate in Florida
You can make inferences about the intent behind each of these queries.
Florida incorporation - they might be looking to buy a service but it seems like they may still just be looking for information.
Florida incorporate - maybe a little closer to making a purchase - Does it really seem to express intent to buy, to take action?
Incorporating in Florida - that seems like a question, how do I go about incorporating in Florida. Buyer, or someone still looking for info?
Incorporating Florida - about the same
Incorporate in Florida - This might be interpreted as I want to incorporate in Florida, I want to buy.
Bottom line is very slight differences in keywords, can signal very different user intents. Look at your logs and track PPC campaigns down to the actual keyword searched and it is possible to pick up on these very subtle, yet critical distinctions. When the stakes are high, in this case up to $10.00 per click, it can make all the difference in the world.
The incorporation service should have several different landing pages just for those few keywords because each expresses a different intent and need for different information.
Intent as expressed by the query language can make a big difference.
Thanks for the detailed reply. You really go into things.
I understand what you are saying about the weight loss example, but wouldn't "feeling depressed" be a little too broad to use in that campaign? Of course you could test it...
Like you said, people typing in "feeling depressed" could be feeling depressed over anything. I don't know if it would go well with our diet product.
What I did think though, is that the ad would stand out better within an actual diet KeyWord. Say a bunch of people have ads for the KeyWord "Lose Weight". You could apeal to someone searching for that by asking them in the headline "Feeling Depreseed"? It would stand out further than the standard "Lose Weight Now"
Again you have got me thinking.
Thoughts?
C.K.
There are so many different ways to slice things and present products and services through AdWords & other PPC programs.
You do bring up another interesting thing though. If there are 8 ads on a page, all looking to get up and running w/o much thought or effort, all using dynamic keyword insertion like this:
Dynamic Keyword Inserted
Buy dynamic keyword inserted
and save money today!
While putting keywords in the titles is catching on, not everyone does it yet so a bolded keyword in the title makes the ad stand out.
Eventually, most everyone may dynamically insert the keyword in the title, at which point we'll have 8 ads on the page that all look exactly the same at a quick glance. What's a user to do?
Click on the ad that stands out, the one that stands out because its unique and doesn't have the keyword in the title?
It's not always about the keywords & ads. The buying cycle of a product, and buyer 'intent' come into play as well.
I think intent, with regards to keyword order and grammer is one of the most underanalyzed aspects of PPC marketing.
