How to Choose the Right Keywords in Google Ads

People are searching Google by keywords. To match your ads with users search, you need to choose the right keywords.

Finding the right keywords is not only about making sure your ads are matched with users search terms, but also attempting to understand users needs and expectations. Then, providing them better products and services.

Google Ads isn’t free of charge, you pay for the keywords, you don’t want to choose the keywords carelessly and randomly. Here is the guide to choose the right keywords for your Google Ads Campaign.

Understand Users Search Intent

Search intent is an important factor in your keyword research because it indicates how well you understand your customers. Your products or services are widely purchased when your website can address the problems that users have.

“Put yourself into your customers’ shoes”. Try to understand what keywords your customers use to describe you. From that, you can expand variations and you won’t miss the opportunities.

There are 4 types of search intent you should know.

1. Informational

Google is used to find information. People use informational search terms because they want to know more about a certain topic. Hence, the topic is clearly defined in their mind.

This type of keyword usually comes with the form of: “what is…”, “how to…”, “why…”, “guide”, “benefits”, ect.

Google understands user search intent, so they only retrieve the most related results. For instance, if a user searches “what are the benefits of Google Ads”, Google won’t suggest Google Ads agency website for that user.

Even though the topic is clear, this type of keyword takes time to convert into sales.

2. Navigational

People with this type of search intent want to land in a specific website. In other words, they know where they want to go. Sometimes, users are not sure about the URL they want to go to, they simply type the name of the organisation into Google.

Do remember that users use this type of keyword when they already know about your business and what you offer. This type of keyword is not suitable for building brand awareness.

Navigational keyword is unclear in users intent, except for following product or service is typed. When a product or service is mentioned on their search terms, this keyword now is potential for targeting the customers in the middle of purchasing funnel.

3. Commercial

People who have the intention of buying something but haven’t made a final decision go to Google to make a search. They don’t have a specific idea of which product or service is best suitable for them. So, they look at the reviews and comparisons.

This type of this keyword usually comes with the form of: “best…”, “…vs…”, “…reviews”, “…comparison”, “top…, ect.

This type of search intent is favourable because the user intent is clearly defined and the conversion rate is high. This is the type of keyword that many businesses are targeting.

4. Transactional

When people are in the bottom of the purchasing funnel, they know what they want to buy. They search on Google where to buy this product or service.

Compared to the other three search intent keyword types, this is the most specific and the highest conversion rate. However, this is dominated by e-commerce websites.

This type of keyword is highly competitive and expensive due to it converting potential.

Steps to Research Keywords – How to Use Google Keyword Planner

Step 1: Deciding Your Seed Keyword

Deciding your seed keyword requires you to understand your business and users needs. Seed keywords can be your product name, product category, service name, your brand, your category. Whatever seed keyword is, this must be aligned with the topic of your landing page. You can start with the most generic, important and relevant term.

When you have your seed keywords, this is the time to expand your list by using Google Keyword Planner. Here are the steps to navigate to Google Keyword Planner.

Step 2: Expanding Your List of Keywords

Expanding your list of keywords will help you maximise the chance to reach out to customers. This can be done by including variations, synonyms or make the list more specific.

Generic keywords are broadly searched but highly competitive; while long-tails are less searched but cheaper and highly converted. It is important to combine those keywords effectively to reduce the advertising cost but increase the conversion rate.

After typing in the seed keywords, Google Keyword Planner will return the list of related keywords.

Google offers you some seed keywords to broaden your search. To add them, simply click to the button. Below are the search volume trends by device over the time.

Step 3: Refining Your List

Not every keyword variation fits your business. That’s why you need this step: to filter and sort the results.

In this step, you evaluate the list based on three metrics: search volume, competition and CPC.

Search volume is useful to choose which keywords are highly searched. The higher the volume is, the higher chance customers can find you. You might want to ignore the keywords that don’t have many searches.

Competition is how competitive a keyword is on Google Ads (do remember it is not about how difficulty to get rank on SEO). A high competition means that more people are bidding for that keyword and this might increase your cost.

CPC indicates the lower range of what advertisers have paid for that keyword. In other words, it is expected what you will pay to get one click.

I don’t need to explain how you choose keywords. Obviously, pick the one that has high search volume, low competition and low CPC. But filtering keywords is not always as sweet as that. Sometimes, you have to trade off between these metrics. It is depending on your campaign goals and budget that you can filter the final list.

In Google Keyword Planner, you can filter or sort the list to narrow down the results. Keywords can be chosen by ticking on the box next to the keyword. Those ticked keywords will be saved to your plan.

Step 4: Reviewing your List

The last step in keyword research is reviewing your list. In Google Keyword Planner, you can see the overview of your keyword plan and the list of keywords you have chosen.

Depending on your campaign objectives and budget, you can make changes on your plan until you are satisfied with the estimated result.

Above are the steps to do keyword research and how to choose the right keywords to your Google Ads campaign. After having understanding about your marketing goals, your customers and list of keywords, you’re ready to set up a Google Ads campaign!

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