Posted by Chris Beck, Program Manager (Paid Search)
One of the most effective ways to discover new paid search keywords, as well as better define your keyword list, is to let searchers do the work for you. You’ll want to utilize campaign specific click stream traffic data to identify two actionable categories of keywords: negative keywords and positive keywords. Negative keywords include irrelevant searches coming from broad matching. If your historical search data shows keywords that deserve to be eliminated, they should be added as campaign level negatives to prevent irrelevant matching, thus helping you reach the most qualified searchers. This will decrease your overall costs and increase your ROI.
Click stream traffic data can also uncover keywords from relevant searches coming in from keywords not currently included in the paid search campaign. These keywords may drive conversions or leads and should be added to the campaign. Campaign goals will have to be assigned to each new keyword’s bid strategy. CTR, CPA, and ROI should also be measured in order to manage the new stream of relevant traffic coming from the new keywords that searchers have identified for you. Closely analyzing click stream data to uncover effective new paid search keywords can really impact overall campaign performance.
Another great place to look for new keywords (including potential negative matches)that is often under utilized is from on site search data. In addition to giving you some new high performing keywords for your paid search campaigns analyzing on site search data also can help prioritize new content development.
Posted by: Jeremy | July 07, 2008 at 09:51 AM