What are keywords, and why do they matter?
Research keywords before launching a search advertising campaign. They help connect your ads with the searches people make. Start by building a keyword list around your products, services and audience.
A relevant keyword list provides a useful foundation for a campaign. Performance also depends on the offer, ads, landing page, targeting and budget. Search advertising and advertising on partner sites use different targeting settings, so review each campaign type separately.
Here is a practical approach to researching keywords for your first search advertising campaign.
Ads for products and services appear online every day. For keyword-based search campaigns, a keyword list helps the advertising system assess which searches are relevant to your ads. How do you choose those keywords and prepare a campaign? Let us look at the main steps.
Understand the customer’s need.
Suppose you are advertising a fitness center. Your audience includes people who already exercise and people who want to start. They may be looking for a nearby gym or an affordable membership. These needs can guide your keyword research.
Once you understand what potential customers are looking for, select relevant keywords and organize them into a list.
Keyword research tools can help you collect ideas. Find keywords using Wordstat or the Keyword Planner. Use Wordstat when working with Yandex Direct, and the Keyword Planner when preparing a campaign in Google Ads. You can also use SpyWords to support keyword research. These tools can reduce the time spent finding and analyzing relevant terms.
You can also research keywords manually. Enter relevant searches and review the ads and competitors that appear.
Estimate the budget.
A budget forecast can help with planning. It uses advertising statistics and accounts for factors such as seasonality and trends, including:
- Bids;
- Impressions;
- Clicks for the keyword you have selected.
Every project has a budget. Before launching a campaign, you can use the forecasting tool from Yandex. It can help estimate the cost per click, click-through rate and other planning metrics. Treat these as estimates when setting your budget.
Review the searches covered by your keywords.
People phrase searches differently: they may use slang, alternative names or misspellings. Review relevant variations and how the platform matches them, including:
- Misspellings;
- Foreign terms, model names and names written in Latin or Cyrillic characters;
- Synonyms and slang.
Build a negative keyword list.
Negative keywords help exclude searches that are not relevant to your offer. Review them carefully to reduce unwanted impressions and clicks without excluding potential customers. Depending on what you sell, examples to assess at campaign or ad-group level include:
- essay;
- overview;
- photo;
- video;
- free;
- repair;
- diagram;
- reviews.
Competitor brand names or locations you do not serve may also be candidates for exclusion, depending on the campaign’s objectives.
A search does not always need to contain the exact words of a keyword for an ad to be eligible.
For a campaign targeting “fitness center in Moscow”, review whether searches such as “gyms in Moscow”, “Moscow news” and “fitness events” fit your offer. Related wording may be relevant, while other searches may need to be excluded. Use the search terms report and appropriate negative keywords to refine the campaign.
Refine targeting with operators or match types.
Use the available keyword operators in Yandex Direct and choose broad, phrase or exact keyword match types in Google Ads.
We work with clients to identify advertising approaches that fit their companies and objectives. During a project, we can discuss suitable campaign strategies. Contact our agency!
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