The process of building a quality keyword list takes a good deal of planning, research, and organization.  Below are some tips and tools to help you develop and organize your keyword lists.

Before you begin I suggest advertisers start offline, create an outline of your products and services, identify your advertising goals and consider a realistic daily budget, once you have that complete you are ready to get started with building your keyword list.

STEP ONE – Research

The free tools below will help you develop your initial keyword list.  Some of these tools will even provide data such as search volumes, competition, and approximate costs per click.

I suggest that you avoid keywords that are general, vague, or have dual meanings.  All of your keywords should be very relevant to your products or services.

1. AdWords Keyword Tool – AdWords – Located Under Opportunities - great for negatives too!

2. AdWords ‘Search Based’ – AdWords – Located Under Opportunities

3. Insights for Search – AdWords – Located Under Opportunities

4. Wordstream – Free Keyword Niche Finder

5. Search Query Report - (current AdWords advertisers only) – Under Reports Tab

6. Google WonderWheel - Sadly, this tool was retired – RIP.

7. Google Ad Preview Tool View actual search results for ideas by using the AdWords Preview Tool

There are also several great paid keyword research tools.  If you are interested in paid tools I suggest that you research and evaluate each individually.

STEP TWO – Organize

Organize your keywords into groups. This process is important when it comes to your eventual account architecture because these lists are going to develop into ad groups once they are completed.

Example below:

Business Model:  Dirt Bike Retailer – Carries major brand names.

Continue this process of keyword grouping for each make/model.  These groups are going to be your ad groups.  Each ad group is designed around a keyword theme and ad text can be created that is very relevant to the keyword theme.  People looking for a Honda XR650L will be presented with ad text all about the Honda XR650L.  This ‘relevance’ will not go unnoticed by your potential customers or Google, when it comes to your click through rate (CTR). For even more information on this important process and it’s effect on your quality score read Organizing Ad Group Themes here on AWHE.

STEP 3 – Keyword Matching Options

Now you have these tightly knit themed keyword groups.  Next is to learn about keyword matching options.  There are 4 keyword match types to consider: Broad, “Phrase”, [Exact] and -negative.  Each will have a different effect on your keywords performance and are essential to a good keyword list.   Read more about AdWords Keyword Matching Options here on AWHE.

to Summarize, well built keyword lists are going to take some time and effort to build.  There are tools out there to help you get started.  The information and articles linked above will give you a better understanding of how to organize your keyword lists into ad groups.  This process is one of the first steps to achieve better organization, customer interaction, quality scores and have a profitable experience with AdWords.
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Article by:  +Kim Clinkunbroomer Clinks Web Service  a  Google AdWords Partner Company Subscribe: RSS Feeds  |  Follow me on Twitter

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