AdWords Tips – Start with a Keyword Cooker

by Tom Hale

Most of my clients are SMBs (small-mid sized business). As such they do not have Madison Avenue sized war chests to fund elaborate AdWords campaigns right out of the starting gate. So I have to work quickly and efficiently.

“The initial keywords and two or three ads come from the target website, keyword tools, and a little common sense web surfing.”

One of the lessons I have learned is to let the market do the research. Sure you have to be smart about initial keyword and ad selection, but you do not have to crack the code before beginning.

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So I usually start with one ad group, including several dozen to a couple hundred keywords and phrases, depending on the clients scope and budget. The initial keywords and two or three ads come from the target website, keyword tools, and a little common sense web surfing. Granted I do this a lot, so I am comfortable with the process and have some instincts that’s serve me well in this phase, but I don’t wrack my brain.

I call this ad group a Cooker. Because once I fire it up all those words and ads start bubbling and cooking. Within hours I start rendering data on Clickthrough Rate, Avg Position, and Impression volume. From there I whack, whittle, expand, and drill down as the data warrants. I am then always working in a hot niche of my clients market, as determined by real time market data, specific to my clients particular situation. Additional keywords, ad copy, ad groups, and campaigns, grow out of the data.

Now this all goes a lot faster if I have good conversion metrics and analytics in place, which varies from client to client. Technical support in the SMB market can be a real bugaboo. But I digress, back to the kitchen.

Over time, if all goes well, including a website and sales staff that can convert targeted traffic into profit; an intricate, elaborate, and effective ROI system emerges based on growth dictated by results – not opinion, punditry, or bureaucracy.

It all starts by Cookin’ up some keywords and ad copy with a healthy measure of relevancy and a dash of inspiration.

About the Author: Tom Hale is a Google Qualified Professional Advertiser, a Yahoo Search Marketing Ambassador, and was chosen to participate in the U.S. pilot of MSN adCenter. As an expert, in Pay-per-Click advertising he shares his passion with readers of his Blog (ThomasCreekConcepts.com), for select Web Publications, and with a growing list of clients.

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