The Power of Negative Keywords, eight (8) tips

Many people wait too long before really delving into Negative Keyword research for their Google AdWords campaigns. This is a mistake!

Negative Keywords have more of an impact than most people realize.

Not only do Negative Keywords save you money by minimizing clicks from visitors who really are not interested in your product or service, but they increase your Clickthrough Rate (CTR) and Quality Score! This decrease in 'bad' impression will automatically give you higher quality clicks that can have a real impact on your conversion rate.

Negative Keywords can be hard to find, but the search is worth it.

Here are eight tips and tricks to getting the most out of your Negative Keyword research:

1. Run a keyword report for all keywords within your account. Sort the report by impressions and focus your research on the keywords receiving the highest impressions.

2. Use the Negative Keyword tab of the Google Keyword Tool

3. Use a keyword database tools such as Trellian or Wordtracker.

4. See what comes up organically for your high impression keywords. Maybe there is a restaurant or a famous book name with your keyword in it? Add it as a negative!

5. Use a thesaurus! Since Google's Broad Match can match you on "highly relevant keywords, including synonyms and related phrases" it's important to research these synonyms.

6. Do some industry research. You may find many people are looking for courses or books on your product and not your actual product.

7. If you have Google Analytics or any other Web Analytics reports study your organic keyword reports for new negatives.

8. Install the handy Keyword Tracking Script Michael Harrison (my coworker :-) ) created. It allows you to see exactly what people are typing in before they see your PPC ad within Google Analytics. He has installed this on many of my client accounts, and now I can't live without it!

So Negative Keyword research can be tedious and tiring. You may only find 5 new negatives and might think your hard labor wasn't worth it. Rest assured, your efforts will pay off!

I have seen impressions decrease by 30% within a client account and conversions conversely increase by 2% with just a handful of negatives.

By Page Christenbury, PPC Specialist

ROI Revolution