In the online world of pay-per-click advertising, or PPC, your keyword strategy is essential — but negative keywords can be just as critical to your success and the preservation of your ad budget. First, let’s take a quick review of what PPC is and how to use it.
The Basics of PPC
Pay-per-click on Google Ads or other online advertising platforms involves bidding on a per-click cost for your ad according to the search keywords you choose. When shoppers use those keywords on the search engine to find vendors, they’re likely to find your ad.
Your PPC campaign success is determined by your conversion rate — the percentage of ad clickers who respond according to your call to action, whether it’s to place an order, subscribe to a newsletter or call a number, etc.
Since you’re going to pay the set amount every time a respondent clicks on your ad, your strategy must be to turn as many “clickers” into “converts” as possible.
Turning a Negative Into a Positive
As you can see, the “wrong” kind of ad respondents can kill your advertising budget quickly. That’s why attracting customers isn’t enough. It’s equally important to come up with an effective strategy to ward off those shoppers who might stumble on your ad by accident and quickly leave when they realize you don’t have what they’re looking for. That’s why a negative keyword strategy is just as crucial to your success as the keywords you do use.
Negative keywords help keep search engine users away who don’t belong in your prospect circle. For instance, if you’re selling high-end vintage Italian sports cars, you don’t want shoppers to find your ad when looking for “used cars.”
Similarly, if you’re selling dress shoes, terms such as “athletic” or “running” are likely to draw the wrong kind of footwear customers.
One final example. Let’s say that you own a restaurant known locally for its beef stroganoff. You’re looking for customers who wish to dine on the dish, not learn how to prepare it. With that in mind, you might add the word “recipe” to your negative keyword list.
When you compile these unwanted search terms and add them to your Google Ads negative keywords list, you should have fewer useless clicks, a higher conversion rate and an ad budget that lasts longer and goes farther.
Call Us For Winning PPC Strategies
As an Internet marketing and PPC company Las Vegas, Send It Rising can show you how to use negative keyword strategy to make the most of your advertising budget. Just call us at (702) 263-0141 for this and other strategies for greater success with your digital marketing campaigns. Let’s win together.
