How do you choose the best keywords for your PPC campaign?

In addition to understanding your business goals, be sure to consider the market itself. What do they want that is causing them to use a search engine? What information do they hope to find? To what problem are they seeking a solution? Understanding your ideal customer and the reasons they use search engines (in relation to your product or service) will allow you to begin with the proper focus and prevent you from throwing keywords against the ceiling like spaghetti.

On 2023, Google is encouraging a focus on long-tail keywords, which search term data seems to support. This makes it well worth testing Dynamic Search Ads, which match search terms to the content of your provided website pages, rather than provided keywords. However, Google is also persistently encouraging the use of Broad Match keywords, which are often quite bad at matching the intent of the search to the intent behind the target keyword. As time has gone on, Phrase Match keywords have begun to match searches to target keywords in a very broad way that does not match the description above. The same is true for Exact Match keywords. Google seeks to match the intent behind the target keyword, rather than the word itself.

In days past, it was important to use ad groups with one to three hyper-relevant keywords. As Google's machine learning has developed and keyword match types have changed, it has become keywords by the intent of the search. Thus, searches for "software engineer salary" would be grouped separately from "software engineer jobs", as the first searcher is likely deciding whether they should be a software engineer or is already a software engineer deciding whether they are paid enough, whereas the second is likely seeking a company for which to work as a software engineer. Segmenting your ad groups this way will allow you to show relevant ads to both types of searcher, increasing the chances that they will click on your ad.

Pro Tip: When using broad match for your keywords, it is important to review performance at the 'search terms' level and not just for 'Keywords'. You'll often be surprised that a lot of or sometimes even all of the traffic / costs are from search terms not as relevant or aligned with your target landing page. But that's easy to fix, once you identify them. One option is to add them as a negative keyword to the ad group, campaign or account level with a 'phrase match' to exclude phrases matching those specific set of terms. Alternatively, you may move them to a different campaign or create a new landing page to serve the intent for some search terms. You may have to check back and repeat this from time to time.

Here is how I do it : Start by researching your target audience and understanding what keywords they are using to search for products or services similar to yours. Use keyword research tools such as Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to identify high-volume, relevant keywords for your campaign. Consider the intent behind the keywords and choose keywords that align with your campaign goals and target audience. Include long-tail keywords in your campaign, as they are more specific and typically have lower competition. Analyze your competitors' keywords to identify opportunities for differentiation and to ensure you are targeting the most relevant keywords in your industry.