Effective SEM - Use Negative Keywords Approapriately

Continuing on the theme of seven steps of effective SEM that I outlined in one of my previous posts, in this post I will discuss the fourth step (Use Negative Keywords Approapriately) in details. Note: All the examples used in this post are related to Google Adwords.


Being thoughtful about negative keywords is an important step in setting up effective search engine marketing campaigns. If you do not include the right negative keywords in your campaign, you will be wasting a lot of impressions resulting in significant increase of your advertising cost. For example, if you are an enterprise software provider and you do not want your ad to be shown to people searching for "free" software, you should use "free" as a negative keyword in your campaign.

Effective SEM - Optimize the Organization of Ad Groups, Ads, and Keywords

Continuing on the theme of seven steps of effective SEM that I outlined in one of my previous posts, in this post I will discuss the fourth step (Optimize the organization of Ad Groups, Ads, and Keywords) in details. Note: All the examples used in this post are related to Google Adwords.

How you organize your ad group, ad copy, and keywords have a great impact on how your ads perform. As I mentioned in my previous post, the other key ingradient to this is the relevant landing page. If you do not optimize the organization of your ad group and ad copy with the relevant keywords you end up with lower quality scores. The result: lower average position for your ad, paying more for your ad etc.

Effective SEM - Improving Relevance of Your Ad Text

Continuing on the theme of seven steps of effective SEM that I outlined in one of my previous posts, in this post I will discuss the third step (improving relevance of your Ad text) in details. (Note: the examples used in this post are all related to Google Adwords)

Your ad copy is one of the most important vehicles to reach to your prospects. You need to make your ad copy enticing for the user to click on the link and look at your offer. Making the ad text very relevant to the search the user did and adding appropriate call to action increase the probability of someone clicking on the link. For example, by including one of the keywords in the ad text (preferably on the title), you make the ad very relevant to the search the user is doing.

Effective SEM - Keyword Evaluation

Cartoon credit Edouard Blais

In my last post before the summer hiatus :-) I talked about 7 steps for better search engine marketing. In this post I will talk in details about one of the tips mentioned in the post - continuing to use keywords effectively.

Keywords are undoubtably one of the most important artifacts for running effective SEM campaigns. It's, however, not sufficient to identify the right keywords and set them up in the campaigns as a one time deal. For your keywords to remain relevant, make sure that you evaluate the performance of your keywords on a regular basis and make adjustments as necessary. People might use new terms to search for your product over time - you need to potentially add those as keywords to your campaign. You want to revisit what search terms your competition might be using to drive traffic to their sites.

Here are some of the steps you want to consider taking to do periodic evaluations of your keywords (Note: my examples are based on Google Adwords):