Google is flooded with around 3.5 billion searches every day. To ensure your Google Ads grab the attention of the right users, you can determine within the scope of your campaign when your ad should be showcased based on certain searches and keywords.
The importance of the right keywords for your ad campaign
Users looking for information via Google enter search terms, or keywords, with their search request. These can be individual words or word combinations. Based on these phrases, Google examines its index for the matching keywords, before providing the best search results in the end.
To ensure Google delivers the right ads together with the results of the organic search, the right keywords have to be defined first. To help you in this task, there are tools such as the Google Keyword Planer.
Keyword Planer: how to find the right keywords
The Keyword Planner from Google is a component of every search engine optimisation process and delivers reliable search volume for keywords. This tool helps you to discover new keywords for ads, to compare trends and to determine offers. To use the keyword tool, you need to have an own Google Ads account.
- Find new keywords: Advertisers can search keywords which match your product or service. With the help of groups of words, websites and categories, the relevant search terms can be determined and promising new keywords can be recommended.
- Discover keyword trends: The Keyword Planner also provides an overview of which terms users have been searching with and how their search behaviour has changed over the past 12 months. If keywords gain popularity, it makes sense to use them. What’s more, details about cities, countries or regions can be called up in which a keyword is frequently used. The helps to advertise certain geographic areas in a targeted way with specific keyword combinations.
- Plan budgets: The analysis tool delivers forecasts such as how many clicks certain keywords will generate and how much a click will cost. This lets you plan the necessary runtime of a campaign better and determine your advertising budget in more concrete terms.
Google Match Types for defining target groups
To specify keywords further, you can define various Match Types with your Google Ads. This feature sets the criteria or the degree of precision the keyword should take depending on the actual search request. Generally speaking, there are four types of keyword options which can be defined for ads and their triggering search:
1. Broad Match
2. Exact Match
3. Phrase Match
4. Negative Match
Below is an example of how these keyword options work.
Example: “buy real estate” keyword
1. “Best Match” means ads are showcased which contain similar keywords and are related to the search request. The keyword itself does not have to appear. Such searches could be:
- New house
- Buy house
- Real estate prices
- Own flat
- Become homeowner
2. “Exact Match” means the search either contains the exact words or very similar words with the same meaning. Such search requests could be:
- Buy real estate
- Buy house
- Buy flat
- Buy villa
3. “Phrase Match” is a group of words or similar groups of words matching the search request. Additional words can be at the start or end of the phrase. Such searches could be:
- Buying real estate easy
- Buy real estate today
- Plan buying a house now
- Buying current flat
- Buy commercial property
4. “Negative Match” is keywords for which the ad should not be showcased. In this example, the negative keyword could be “rent”. The ad would not be shown with the following searches:
- Rent property
- Rent a house
- Let a flat
- Let a bungalow
