Creating and Managing Keyword Lists

When it comes to online advertisement and especially pay-per-click (PPC) advertisement, one of the most important elements for a successful campaign is creating and managing keyword lists. The list of keywords is the cornerstone of any successful PPC marketing campaign, so choosing the correct keywords and building the right lists can make or break your online marketing efforts. Today I would like to concentrate on some strategies to develop your initial PPC keyword list and how Ads Machine can help you in the process.

Broad vs. Deep Keyword Lists

Your choice of keywords will determine the quality and quantity of visitors that will see and eventually click on your paid advertisements. Unfortunately there is a very common mistake that stops a lot of marketers dead in their tracks: choosing a deep keyword list rather than a broad one.

This concept is explained brilliantly by Amit Mehta in his post Keyword Research: Go Deep or Going Wide First?, I’ll summarize it so you can follow along.

A broad keyword list is one that has lots of related and lateral keywords, and not just variations of one root keyword, while a deep keyword list is one that specializes from a few root keywords and tends to be too specific. Below are examples of both:

Broad Keyword List

Deep Keyword List

delete adware delete backdoor delete browser hijacker delete cookie delete Dialer delete keylogger delete malware delete spyware delete toolbar delete trojan delete w32 delete worm destroy adware destroy backdoor destroy browser hijacker destroy cookie destroy Dialer destroy keylogger destroy malware destroy spyware destroy toolbar destroy trojan destroy w32 destroy worm find adware find backdoor find browser hijacker find cookie find Dialer find keylogger find malware find spyware find toolbar find trojan find w32 find worm remove adware remove backdoor remove browser hijacker remove cookie remove Dialer remove keylogger remove malware remove spyware remove toolbar remove trojan remove w32 remove worm

anti spyware anti spyware free anti spyware software antivirus spyware best free spyware remover best spyware download free spyware download spyware blaster free anti spyware free kazaa spyware remover free removal of spyware free spyware download free spyware downloads free spyware protection free spyware removal free spyware removal programs free spyware removal software free spyware remover free spyware scan mcafee anti spyware microsoft anti spyware remove spyware spyware blaster spyware blocker spyware cleaner spyware detector spyware doctor spyware download spyware programs spyware protection spyware removal spyware remover spyware scan spyware software spyware terminator spyware virus protection totally free spyware removal

As you can see, the above terms are all specializations of root word ’spyware’. The main problem with the deep approach is that it makes market demand testing a lot harder. In fact, the excessive specialization allows only finding which keywords that derives from the root keyword(s) work well, but it leaves a whole spectrum of keywords untested. This leads to risky campaigns and, on the long run, lower Return on Investment (ROI).

On the other hand, if you start out with a broad approach you can test a lot more combinations simply because you are using less specific keywords with no particular root. This is excellent because it lets you assess the market and find out which keywords and search terms people are really using. After you have found the keywords that work for your market niche, you can go deep and specialize them into more detailed key phrases.

Using Ads Machine to Create and Manage Broad Keyword Lists

Now that we understand why broad keyword lists are better than deep keyword lists, let’s see how Ads Machine simplifies your life when you go about creating your list.

As an example, we will try to recreate the previous list, but first we have to dissect it and understand its parts. If you look closely, you can see that the deep keyword list can be made by combining two shorter lists: the first is a list of verbs, the send a list of nouns. This is a key principle that you should always keep in mind when working with keyword lists. In fact, most of the time you will reuse one of the lists for multiple campaigns (for example you could create a list with all the ways of saying “Buy”).

Let’s look at how this works in Ads Machine.

If you wish to follow along, please download the free version of Ads Machine. You don’t have to purchase one of the premium versions to leverage this feature.

1. The first thing you have to do is create a new Ads Machine Campaign by clicking on the “NEW” button.
2. Now click on the “Keywords” tab located just below the Ads Machine logo. Don’t worry about filling up the “Campaign” tab; you won’t need it if you just want to work on your keywords.
3. Type (or paste) in the “First List” text area the following list:

delete destroy find remove

1. In the “Second List” text area we will insert the following words:

adware backdoor browser hijacker cookie Dialer keylogger malware spyware toolbar trojan w32 worm

1. You can swap the position of the lists, save them for later reuse or load new ones. The lists are saved as simple text files, so you can edit them in your favorite word processor (I like to use Notepad).
2. Now, when you generate the campaign, Ads Machine will combine the two lists to create the same exact list that is shown above.

The Bottom Line

As you can see, Ads Machine allows you to manage complex lists easily and, more importantly, lets your reuse lists of keywords that you commonly use.

In the next post I will show you how to use Ads Machine to continuously improve your ads Click Through and Conversion Rate with the “A/B Split Testing” technique.