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I'm new to the forum and this is my first post. My question pertains to keyword research and analysis with the focus on affiliate marketing through Ad Words.
I am finding it very difficult to locate targeted keywords that have decent traffic. By "decent" I mean more than 2,000-3,000 searches per month.
On rare occasions when I think I've found a winner (or at the very least managed to break into a good position despite high competition), I find that my conversion is very poor.
I'm still very new to the game and find myself at a loss as to how to succeed. There are so many potential products out there - yet, I know I could also work backwards, think of a niche, do the research, and *then* locate the product. But, too many options = lack of focus so far.
It's maddening! Can anyone shed some light on this subject? What procedure or mindset must I have in place in order to find that 'dream scenario' of great traffic and great conversion?
Thank you for your help,
Bethany
You're attacking the right problem first. Finding the right keywords and phrases for a product is an ongoing learning process.
The first place I visit is Google Sets [labs.google.com] I create a very broad list. Then I visit Overture's Suggestion Tool [inventory.overture.com] and type in the broad terms.
Then I visit Wordtracker. I refine the list, using my best judgement. Personally, I prefer focused terms over "traffic terms". It's a little more difficult if you don't have a website to mine log data as the log data provides an opportunity to find real search terms.
After you have a list of say, 200 key phrases create a campaign or three and start testing. The difficult part is writing different versions of ad copy and testing that copy with several different key phrases to determine what converts the best for you but it's a very necessary step.
The "dream scenario" you refer to has no set of universal rules but if you set up a methodology for testing and discipline yourself to constantly refine your key phrase set and your ad copy you'll see a considerable increase in your investment regardless of what products you choose to market.
Thank you for that info! And also for letting me know that I'm looking at the right problem. I'll try some brainstorming with Google Ad Sets (haven't really made full use of that up to this point)and see if I can broaden things a bit. By the way, when you've got a list in front of you, how much weight do you put on relevancy versus 'suspected' user intention for the search terms?
Thanks again!
Bethany
