What advanced keyword research techniques can you use to inform your PPC bidding strategy?

1 Analyze the search intent of your keywords

One of the most important aspects of keyword research is understanding the search intent behind each query. Search intent refers to the goal or purpose that the user has when typing a keyword into a search engine. By analyzing the search intent of your keywords, you can align your ads and landing pages with the user's expectations and needs, and increase your chances of conversion. There are four main types of search intent: informational, navigational, transactional, and commercial investigation. You can use tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Google Trends to identify the search intent of your keywords and segment them accordingly.

2 Use keyword gap analysis to find new opportunities

Keyword gap analysis is a technique that allows you to compare your keywords with those of your competitors and identify the gaps or opportunities that you can exploit. Keyword gap analysis can help you find new keywords that you are not targeting yet, but that your competitors are ranking for, or keywords that you are both targeting, but that you can bid more aggressively on. You can use tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz to perform keyword gap analysis and discover new keywords that can improve your PPC performance.

3 Leverage long-tail keywords to target niche audiences

Long-tail keywords are keywords that consist of three or more words and that have a low search volume, but a high conversion rate. Long-tail keywords are more specific and descriptive than short-tail keywords, and they reflect the user's intent more accurately. By leveraging long-tail keywords, you can target niche audiences that are more likely to be interested in your offer and less likely to face competition from other advertisers. You can use tools like AnswerThePublic, Ubersuggest, or Keyword Tool to generate long-tail keyword ideas based on your seed keywords.

4 Optimize your keywords for voice search

Voice search is a growing trend that has an impact on keyword research, as it changes the way users formulate their queries. Voice search queries tend to be longer, more natural, and more conversational than text-based queries, and they often include question words like who, what, where, when, why, and how. To optimize your keywords for voice search, you need to consider how users would speak their queries rather than type them, and use tools like Google's People Also Ask feature, Google Assistant, or Amazon Alexa to find relevant voice search keywords.

5 Test and refine your keywords based on data

The final step of keyword research is testing and refining your keywords based on data. You need to monitor and measure the performance of your keywords in terms of impressions, clicks, conversions, cost, and ROI, and use this data to adjust your bidding strategy accordingly. You can use tools like Google Ads, Bing Ads, or Facebook Ads to track and analyze your keyword data and optimize your campaigns. You should also conduct regular keyword audits to remove or pause low-performing keywords, add new keywords, or modify existing keywords based on your results.