Keywords: Use Reverse Integration of Keywords for Maximum Relevance

-Dan Cubero                                      May 22, 2012

A unique disadvantage a national brand faces when making creative and marketing messages is that it is, more often than not, one step removed from the final customer. PPC provides a solution to this information chasm. Each time a customer or prospective customer enters a search query, it is recorded into the keyword database associated with your company’s PPC campaign. Without this information, a brand is typically forced to guess what words or phrases come to mind, or must conduct costly market research such as polls, surveys, trials, test markets, etc. to find out what feelings are aroused by its products/services – this is not the case in the digital world.

With a wealth of information at its disposal, a brand has the ability to understand more; first of all, what words are costing them the most in the online media space. This can provide the platform for a basic cost/benefit analysis to see if bidding on the most competitive words (read: expensive) is justified or within their budget. If not, they can be eliminated, still allowing for cheaper long-tail keywords. Or, just as importantly, perhaps it compels additional ad spend, funds willing, to capture the most relevant keywords, customers and leads.

To find the database of terms that online searchers are using to find your site or brand, follow these simple steps (picture below instructions):

1. Log into your Google AdWords account
2. Click on the relevant Campaign
3. Navigate to the Keywords Tab
4. Click “See Search Terms” menu (middle of the page, just below the campaign timeline)
5. Click “All.”

Listed will be all the keywords that searchers used to find your site, via your Paid Ads during the time frame you have selected (below).

But what’s potentially even more valuable is that a brand can use this database to identify whether the words it uses in its traditional media lines up with the same words that its current and potential customers are using in their searches, acting as a sort of cost-efficient media audit. It goes like this: if there is dissonance between the verbiage in the two types of mediums, it is likely that either the brands’ keywords are costing more for using only semi-relevant keywords to attract clicks (as a result of a low quality score) or that they are receiving less impressions and traffic overall because their ads are not deemed relevant by various search engines to appear on the SERP.

NOW FOR THE TIP: A digital campaign is essential because it allows brands to see what its market is actually searching for, at a fraction of the cost of more traditional market research. Furthermore, it allows this information to be leveraged immediately back into the digital campaign for better results or to be reverse integrated into the creation of future traditional media campaigns. Summarily, a brand using this strategy will gain the benefit of using words and phrases that have already proven to capture the attention of its intended audience historically, maximizing relevance, and as a likely result, increasing conversions and leads.