Selection of key phrases for search network campaigns

When creating a search campaign in Google Ads, i.e. one whereby our ads will appear in the search network when specific phrases are typed into Google (and beyond), we have the combative task of selecting both the right keywords for the campaign and the match type. This is very important and affects the final effectiveness of the ad itself and the quality of the customers and leads acquired thanks to it. 

Do you want your ads to appear for high conversion rates in search results? Find out:

• What are the most important issues to consider when selecting keywords for your campaign?
• What categories do keywords fall into on the search network?
• How to properly select the type of match for a keyword phrase in a campaign;

Factors to consider when selecting keyword phrases for a search network campaign

Relation of the key phrase to the advertised product or service

In a nutshell, you need to figure out what phrases people type into a search engine when they plan to buy the products or services you offer. Sound like the obvious? The reality may surprise you! 

Remember to get creative at this stage. Try to put yourself in your potential customer’s shoes by coming up with new keyword suggestions. Key phrases that seem obvious to you will not always be so to others (and vice versa). It is also necessary to analyze whether you have missed a phrase or whether the one you consider necessary to include in the campaign certainly has high enough potential. 

Some websites offer tools for learning about new, popular keywords, analyzing key factors for preparing campaign settings that include them, and determining the competitiveness of the keywords you provide for analysis. Take advantage of them to improve the efficiency of your work.

Free tools you can use to perform keyword analysis for your search campaign are, for example, Google Ads Keyword Planner, Wordstream and Keywordtool.io

Personally, I think the first of these tools (i.e., the keyword planner available directly on the Google Ads platform) is by far the best choice, as it offers the most data and keyword suggestions of all those mentioned. Besides, it is easy and clear to use, and we can quickly and directly export selected keyword suggestions to ad groups in campaigns in our Google Ads account. 

The stage of the buying decision where the potential customer is

To get the keyword phrases right for your ad content and campaign settings, it’s a good idea to first define the search engine user’s intent when typing in the keywords.

How to do this? First, remember that there are four search engine query intent types, the so-called search intent. These are:

Informational queries (informational) – this category includes all key phrases that a user types into a search engine when looking for more or less specific information on a topic. Examples of this type of queries are:

• „How old is Dwayne Johnson?”;
• „how to make a sponge cake”;
• „West Cordillera” (sometimes queries of this type are not questions but specific key phrases, but if the user needs more specific information, he will most likely include an adverb in his search, writing for example, “where is the Western Cordillera”)
• „What is an operating system?”.

Navigational queries – we use them when we want the search engine to serve as navigation to find specific web pages. These pages can be „business cards” of brands, people, events, etc. Examples of navigation queries are as follows:

• „spotify login”
• „Sephora app”
• „Jan Nowak Facebook”
• „Up&More Blog”

Commercial, preparatory queries (commercial) – these are key phrases that a user searches for when he or she is at the stage of gathering information about a product he or she is preparing to buy, for which he or she is looking for alternatives, or when he or she expresses a desire to buy a particular product in the unspecified future. Examples of queries in this category are:

• „Best washer dryer 2022”
• „ps5 games promotion”
• „online tea store”
• „Lenovo legion 5 reviews”

Transactional (transactional) queries – specify searches caused by the user’s goal to buy something immediately. Sometimes, these queries are the logical consequence of commercial inquiries, and sometimes, they follow a referral from a friend or research on some product or specific service by means other than searching for information on the Internet.  Examples of such queries are:

• „duka kettle loft”
• „MyBeauty Salon”
• „Lenovo legion 5 online store”

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Cost per keywords in search network

Before using selected keywords in our campaign, it is worthwhile to first analyze what kind of price per click on an ad that we can expect from a user’s search for a given phrase. This way, budget management will be easier, and you will avoid unpleasant surprises in the form of campaign limitations by budget. 

The main aspects that affect the final cost of key phrases are the level of competition, the industry or niche from which the phrase comes, and the choice of language and location of the phrase’s audience. In addition to this, the cost is also affected by the fit of the keyword, but we will come to this issue later in the article.

Competition level – another important factor we can analyze in the Google Ads platform keyword planner. It is determined by one of three indicators: Low, High, or Medium. It can be found in the „Competition” column, and the higher the indicator representing it, the more expensive the keyword, or cost per click, will be. It is worth analyzing the level of competition for the keywords you choose, to find more detailed information about it we can use tools available outside the Google Ads platform, such as SEMrush or Wordtracker, for example. 

The industry, or niche, to which the phrase is related – on WordStream, we can read an article which presents the twenty most expensive keywords in the search network. If we analyze the chart presented there, the conclusion quickly comes to mind that the most expensive phrases typed into Google search are related to various forms of financial management and the credit industry. The peculiarities of this industry, the level of competition within it, and the resources that competitors can devote to advertising activities significantly affect the final cost of the typical words in the search network.  

Customers and their location – When using the keyword planner, we can define the location and language to analyse the phrases. It is very important to include at the stage of analysis the location for which we plan to finally broadcast campaigns in the search network and the language spoken by its potential recipients. This will ensure that the estimates obtained will be the most accurate and that our preparations for the campaign launch will not be in vain. 

Selecting the type of match for key phrases in a search network campaign

When we have already created a list of keywords for our search ad groups in a Google Ads campaign, we still need to select the right match. We have three types of keyword matching to choose from:

• approximate matching;
• expression matching;
• strict matching;

Broad Match (Broad Match)

This is the default type of match assigned to a phrase when you include it in a keyword list line. Google defines this type of match as follows:

“The [approximate] keyword match type allows ads to be displayed in searches related to the keyword meaning, which may include searches that do not contain keywords. This achieves more searches than strict matches and phrase matches.”

On the one hand, using this type of matching can be a good way to reach a larger audience, but on the other hand, it can easily lead to budget burnout.

This is because our ads will be presented not only under the keywords we supplied to the ad group but also under those related to it according to Google’s artificial intelligence. Unfortunately, these additional keywords under which our ad will be presented are not always relevant. To be effective, this type of matching requires frequent human intervention manifested by filtering the search phrases that led to the appearance of our ad in the search network. 

Phrase Match)

To include this type of match in a keyword list, enclose the phrase in quotation marks, writing, for example, „blog up&more”. 

Keywords for which a phrase match type has been applied cause ads to be displayed when the user’s search term matches the exact sequence of keywords in the ad group. However, the query may contain additional words before or after the keyword phrase.

Exact Match)

A key phrase is assigned the type of exact match by enclosing it in square brackets—[ ].

This type of matching guarantees that our ad will appear in the closest approximation to the key phrase in the search results. Purely theoretically, the keyword typed into the Google search engine and leading to the display of our ad should, in fact, be 1:1 with what we included in square brackets in our list of key phrases (with minor exceptions in the case of word variation, which in Polish are sometimes particularly treacherous).

How to choose the type of match for keywords?

The most important factors in keyword match selection are the following aspects:

• the relevance of the keyword and
• price per keyword

The accuracy of keyword matching is a significant plus when using an exact match, but we must consider that this type of matching significantly affects the price per click. This is because with close matching, it increases significantly, just as with the rest of the case of using phrase matching vs. approximate matching.

Remember, however, that this budget is not lost, as in the case of an incorrect match of an ad to a key phrase using approximate matching.

Choosing the degree of accuracy with phrase matching also depends greatly on the nature of your business and the products or services you are promoting. If you’re running a niche business offering a small range of products, a good choice would be to use more exact matches for the keywords in your campaign. However, if you’re running a business with a fair amount of competition and offering a very wide range of products or services in a particular category, go toward approximate matching.

If you use approximate matching, remember to constantly control the key phrases under which your ads appear. You can do this easily using the Google Ads platform by selecting the “keywords” tab in the left-hand menu and then “search terms.”