Plugging PPC Broad Match Money Holes
Share this page: TweetThe most common reason that pay per click (PPC) advertising does not provide a good return on investment (ROI) is the fact that your ads are being clicked for search queries that will never convert in to business.
How to unknowingly waste money: When you enter keywords into a PPC campaign the default method is 'Broad Match', which means that your ads will show for many different variations of the keywords entered. Some of which will never ever convert into business and will only waste your advertising budget.
How to waste time: The most controlled way of building your keyword list is by using 'Exact Match', which means that your ads will show for search queries that match your keywords exactly. You will need to specify plural and single variations and every connotation possible to maximise the amount of clicks.
The best strategy: By simply being aware of the 'Broad Match' potential to waste money you are half way to the solution. The amount of time required to build an exhaustive 'Exact Match' list is considerable, so this should be ongoing over a long period of time. Use 'Broad Match' keywords to help identify and build your 'Exact Match' list, but make sure you plug the 'broad match money holes' as soon as possible!
Plugging the broad match money holes: This is actually very easy... You simply build a list of negative keywords, which is a list of keywords that you don't want your ads to show for. Just Login to your PPC account and follow the step by step instructions below.
1. Click on the 'campaigns' tab
2. Select 'All online campaigns'
3. Select 'Keywords' tab
4. Using the 'Keywords details' drop down select 'All'
5. Set the date range to 'All Time'
6. Identify the search query that are wasting you money: These keywords are going to be easy to spot as you will probably be surprised that your ads are even showing for them... Tick/check them and move onto step 7.
7. Add as negative keyword
Use the same procedure to identify and add exact match keywords just modify step 7 accordingly!
Over time as your list of exact match keywords becomes more extensive you might want to consider reducing your bids on broad match keywords.
