How to Create a PPC Keyword List?

You have a great web­site and you start­ed get­ting the hang of your social media con­tent plan­ning. If you’re like most peo­ple, you may not be an expert of the won­der­ful world of online strat­e­gy, but you don’t mind learn­ing along the way to take your busi­ness to the next lev­el. We’re with you and we get it. 

As experts in this field, we work with online mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy every day and know a thing or two about it. So, what is a PPC key­words list any­way and what are key­word vari­a­tions? It may sound like a for­eign lan­guage right now, but by the end of this expla­na­tion, you’ll be flu­ent in no time. And if not, we are just a phone call away. Now, let’s get started!

What is PPC and how does it work

First, let’s define what PPC is and is not. PPC, also known as pay per click, is an online adver­tis­ing busi­ness mod­el in which adver­tis­ers pay a pub­lish­er every time an ad is clicked. This is an opti­mal web­site traf­fic gen­er­a­tion tool and works wonders. 

If you’re not yet part of the PPC club, now is the time to join. PPC is a phe­nom­e­nal way to tar­get your poten­tial cus­tomers and increase web­site traf­fic. PPC is not an organ­ic lead gen­er­a­tor. Is it like buy­ing vis­its to your site? Yes, and it’s incred­i­bly effective. 

One of the most pop­u­lar forms of PPC is search engine mar­ket­ing (SEM). This method allows adver­tis­ers to bid for ad space on those sites that are spon­sored by search engines. 

When some­one search­es for a key­word that relates to your busi­ness offer­ing, a link spon­sored by the search engine will appear with your company’s busi­ness infor­ma­tion on it. When­ev­er this ad is clicked, the vis­i­tor is sent to your web­site and you pay a fee. How­ev­er, at the end of the day, this small fee becomes triv­ial since the idea is for those vis­i­tors to become customers. 

This makes the vis­it worth more than what you are pay­ing for, con­vert­ing your vis­its to a huge prof­it. And that’s how we like it! But if that isn’t enough to con­vince you to join the band­wag­on, we have a few oth­er rea­sons why PPC is good and ben­e­fits everyone: 

• Searchers: Accord­ing to avail­able research, con­sumers click on paid search ads more than any oth­er form of online adver­tis­ing. This indi­cates that those who are search­ing on the web don’t mind this form of adver­tis­ing as long as it fits their needs. 

Since the ads are high­ly rel­e­vant to the prod­ucts and ser­vices being searched, it is high­ly like­ly they will be clicked. Google’s for­mu­la helps in mak­ing the con­nec­tions between online adver­tis­ing and con­sumer needs. 

• Adver­tis­ers: This mod­el gives adver­tis­ers a direct oppor­tu­ni­ty to place unique ads with their prod­ucts or ser­vices on the radar of the tar­get­ed audi­ence active­ly look­ing for what they have to offer. Traf­fic is mea­sured based on how close­ly aligned the traf­fic flow to your web­site is to the online ad that is post­ed. This makes for a win-win oppor­tu­ni­ty for both con­sumers and advertisers. 
• Search engines: PPC allows search engines to cater to and tar­get search­es and adver­tis­ers simul­ta­ne­ous­ly. Search engines are look­ing to pro­vide rel­e­vant results while gen­er­at­ing a high­ly tar­get­ed rev­enue stream. 

What’s great about PPC mar­ket­ing is that ad net­works reward every­one. This includes those with the high­est qual­i­ty ads and the most pop­u­lar ads. Still not con­vinced this is the way to go? 

Take a look below and see if this reflects your thought process: 

• I want to grow my cus­tomer base.

Are you look­ing to con­nect to the searchers look­ing for your prod­uct or ser­vice? One of the best things about PPC is that it con­nects you to searchers who are active­ly seek­ing what you have to offer. PPC puts you in an ide­al posi­tion to respond by pro­vid­ing an offer that’s rel­e­vant to their search query. It’s a match made in heaven. 

• I want to gen­er­ate leads but don’t want to spend a lot.

We know how it is. A mar­ket­ing bud­get can eat away at resources. The beau­ty of using PPC in your online mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy is it’s high­ly tar­get­ed approach. For this rea­son, it allows you to reach poten­tial cus­tomers that have indi­cat­ed in the search engine that they are in the mar­ket for prod­ucts and ser­vices like yours. Hence, the vis­i­tors that come to your web­site are ready to pur­chase. You will also enjoy a dis­count for mak­ing the search engine users happy. 

Ok, now that we’ve con­vinced you of this win-win oppor­tu­ni­ty for your busi­ness, let’s dig a lit­tle deep­er about cre­at­ing PPC cam­paigns and how it’s done.

PPC keyword research and how it’s done

Devel­op­ing a PPC key­word list is time-con­sum­ing but instru­men­tal in the suc­cess of your cam­paign. In fact, your whole PPC cam­paign is built around key­words and the most suc­cess­ful adver­tis­ers reg­u­lar­ly refine this list and grow their cus­tomer reach. Yet, it is not as sim­ple as under­stand­ing key­word vari­a­tions. Here are a few key ele­ments that you must include in your PPC campaign: 

• Rel­e­vance: This goes with­out say­ing. Your PPC cam­paign must be geared towards tar­get­ing high-qual­i­ty leads that are inter­est­ed in your prod­uct and ser­vice offer­ing. If not, you’re wast­ing your mon­ey. Using tar­get­ed key­words will lead to more prof­it. All key­words you bid on should be close­ly relat­ed to what you’re offering. 
• Exhaus­tive: A key­word list should include a long tail search. Long tail key­words are more spe­cif­ic and less used but gen­er­ate the most traffic. 
• Expan­sive: Adapt, adapt, adapt! You want your PPC cam­paign to be flex­i­ble and mold­able to your cur­rent and chang­ing needs.

Begin look­ing through your company’s web­site ini­tial­ly and iden­ti­fy­ing core words and phras­es to describe your busi­ness. See any key­words or themes there? Once you’ve iden­ti­fied them, you may want to get orga­nized. Remem­ber to group key­words to appro­pri­ate themes. 

You’ll also want to include brand­ed key­words, which gen­er­al­ly have high­er con­ver­sion rates and low­er cost per con­ver­sions. To cre­ate a list of key­word vari­a­tions, go through this list and think of any syn­onyms or vari­a­tions of each word on this list. 

Now, take a step back and look at your web­site through the eyes of your cus­tomer. Ask your­self what your cus­tomer would type into a search engine to find your prod­ucts and ser­vices. By doing this, you’ll be able to iden­ti­fy key­word vari­a­tions that you may have not thought of before. Your cus­tomers may not be as knowl­edge­able about your offer­ings as you are and this is impor­tant to take into con­sid­er­a­tion when cre­at­ing key­word variations. 

Some quick tips for creating a keyword variation list: 

• Baby steps

Start small when cre­at­ing your list ini­tial­ly. It’s quite easy to get lost in a sea of thou­sands of key­words. The best ones are those that are spe­cif­ic to the con­tent of your website.

• Don’t gen­er­al­ize

You want to min­i­mize the com­pe­ti­tion so these cus­tomers find you. When key­words are too gen­er­al, this increas­es the cost per click amount. Unless you have a large bud­get, work on mak­ing your key­words spe­cif­ic and targeted. 

• But don’t be too specific

Yes, this may sound con­fus­ing, but you don’t want to lim­it your ad expo­sure either. 

This is an ongo­ing process that will improve the more you do it. Begin­ning with a strong key­word list will move you in the right direc­tion from the start. The chal­lenge is just get­ting there. 

Do you have ques­tions about devel­op­ing suc­cess­ful PPC cam­paigns that increase busi­ness traf­fic and prof­its? Our high-qual­i­ty inte­grat­ed mar­ket­ing strate­gists have helped thou­sands of cus­tomers like your­self. We know how to nav­i­gate the online jun­gle and can help you do the same. Give us a call today!