GOOGLE: 'You Can't Sit With Us!'

As of the end of June 2016 Google has restricted access to exact search data on keywords, allowing only advertisers with higher monthly spends to view this information. What does this mean for small budget advertisers and self-proclaimed SEO rock stars? YOU CAN’T SIT WITH US!

That’s right! In an official post from the big G themselves, advertisers with lower monthly spends are now limited to viewing data ranges in the Keyword Planner like 0, 1-100, 100-1k, 1k-10k, 10k-100k, 100k-1M, 1M+. These ranges now make the planner almost useless for these advertisers and SEO planners. Another way that users may experience this ranged data is if they search for keyword search data too often.

What can we do?

A Blog post circulated by Marketingprofs in their ‘Top Marketing Trends for 2017’ newsletter, suggests that by creating small PPC campaigns, you can get keyword data as well as capitalize on several other benefits you may not have been aware of with the keyword Planner before Google built ‘the wall’. Here’s how:

PPC can help you identify new keywords: It is quick and can automate what was traditionally a long planning and search process.

PPC can help estimate conversion rates: You are now able to find out which keyword phrases are most likely to produce leads. Now you know where to focus your SEO efforts.

PPC can test your message: Now that you know the keywords and phrases that your audience is using, incorporate them into your landing pages and other online assets for optimization. Utilize this method as a way to perform A/B split tests on your ads. Whichever gives you the most clicks/conversions is the message your audience resonates with.

The power in using PPC campaigns as your keyword planning tool lies in the exact insight it provides you about your audience’s possible pain points and content consumption needs that you should capitalize on. For example: You are able to determine exactly what search phrases people use to look for you and what messages resonated with your audiences. Ideally how best to communicate to your audience!

Here’s how it’s done:

1. Set up your Ad Campaign

2. Enter a few modified broad match phrases in the search tool and add them to the campaign

3. Once the campaign goes live, you will see the exact search queries that accompany the ad clicked. These search queries are actual phrases potential customers have entered while searching for you or your offering on the internet.

Use this new insight to determine which phrases are searched more frequently along with the search-relevance based on the keywords’ competitive score, in addition to which have the highest conversions.

But how small is small? What budget amount is ideal for carrying out this keyword research exercise? That’s really left up to you, your need and your budget. The lesser the daily budget the less impressions your ad will receive. Insufficient data or no data at all to determine which words work best for your campaign are possible outcomes. Also, if your ad space is highly competitive these miniature campaigns may not stand a chance, leaving you despite your best efforts, without a seat at the game table.