Surfside PPC Podcast

Okay, question number one, basically only question this podcast episode is what are the best practices when it comes to Google Ads keyword targeting? So, this is one of those things that has changed a ton over the years. When you really look at all the different ways that you can target with keywords, when I very first started, you could use contextual keywords to target the display network, it never worked, but it was decent, I guess, but it really never worked that great. But basically, when it comes to keyword targeting, essentially what we're talking about is somebody goes to google.com and they search something, you know, if I'm doing, you know, for example, I have a client that is selling pet food, you know, somebody searches pet food here, how do we target that exact keyword, you know, comp compared to somebody who's selling pet food containers, pet food storage containers, um pet food pantry near me is actually probably going to be a place where they have free pet food, I assume. I don't know. So, basically, you know, if you take one keyword and you say pet food and we go packaging companies, okay, there's another market right there that you know is something that you can advertise. So, when it comes to something like pet food, there's probably 10 or 20 different things that you can target from people searching for pet food to people who actually sell pet food, who are trying to figure out how do we design this? How do we package this? do we ship this? How do we do logistics on this? You know, and there's probably a lot for pet food because it is something that can go bad. So, ultimately, when it comes to keyword targeting, it's like, how do we target the right people who are searching the right keywords at the right time? If I'm trying to reach people actively looking for Google Ads consulting, how do I find the people that are searching keywords where they're basically ready to convert? Because you could see this Google Ads consulting, you could see consultant near me, jobs, San Francisco, Melbourne, salary. So, you get a lot of different things. here. And ultimately, the challenge sometimes is okay, Google Ads consultant near me. Now, I would assume all these ads are probably not going to be this is actually was my ad I was running previously. I'm actually going to run this again and we'll we'll do it in the premium section, but you'll see certified Google Ads expert, Google PPC consultant, zero BS, Hawk SEM is always there, agency PPPC.com, need a Google Ads consultant. Our track record is unmatched. So, different locations here. These are probably the ones. Yeah, these are the ones closest to me. Um, I should be in here, but obviously I need to do a better job with my local presence. South Carolina PPC management, award-winning full service PPC agency. I do actually have pages on my website for this, but I highly doubt I'm going to come up here. So, basically, Google Ads consultant near me is, you know, this person is looking for somebody to run their Google ads. So, pretty simple sometimes, but ultimately what we're trying to do here is within our campaigns, we create a campaign and we're targeting keywords. Um, I have this example of this commercial pest control campaign. So, this is actually a good example because when it comes to keyword targeting and obviously this isn't running when it comes to keyword targeting I just did one in here for commercial pest control so basically how do we target just people looking for pest control for their business like we want business contracts for pest control basically what you can do you know you're creating a new campaign within your campaign you want to create ad groups so the very first part of keyword targeting is always grouping keywords by ad group based on what it actually is that you're selling so if for example if I have Google ads consultant Google Google Ads course, Google Ads Management, Google Ads agency. Those can all be different ad groups. The main thing is where are you sending traffic to? You know, what does your landing page look like? What do your ads look like? But within the actual ad group themselves, when you're doing your keyword targeting, basically you have three options when it comes to keyword targeting. When you go to add new keywords, generally you have this built-in Google keyword planner right here. So, if we're doing commercial pest control, basically none of these are going to work because these are not commercial pest control. Let's assume We're saying, "Okay, we want to start going after the residential side and we want to be, you know, we do bed bug extermination. You know, we have a page for pest control. We have a page for termites." So, ultimately, what you want to do is you want to separate these keywords into different ad groups. And then you want to have different landing pages where you're actually sending that traffic to. So, you don't have just one main homepage where it's like, "Yes, we do 20 services. Go find the page." Basically, here is the exact service you're looking for. So, you see termite company near me. What we can do is I can just do something like termite near me and we'll just see what comes up here. So, termite near me, not the greatest. Maybe termite inspection, termite exterminators, best terminate companies, termite pest control, termite service, termite control, treatment companies, you know, all of these are good. Control, good. These should all be pretty much the keywords that we need if we're doing termite services. So, the next thing we could do is say termites near me. Now, you probably don't need to do this with the way Google Ads keyword targeting works. Essentially, Google is not going just think like, okay, you know, termites and and all of these are termite anyway, so doesn't really make a difference. But basically, when it comes to plurals, if you had like termites inspection near me, not really going to make a huge difference in in this version of Google Ads. Essentially, doing searches like this, you know, and especially for a local service company. This is going to get you some some really good searches generally, but when you're first getting started, these would be broad match keywords. So, the syntax essentially for broad match is there's nothing around the key. keyword. If you want to use phrase match keywords, then there's going to be quotes around it. If you want to use exact match keywords, brackets around it. I only use exact match keywords for brand new campaigns or ultra niche services. So, if somebody is doing, you know, we provide service ABC for company XYZ. It's like sometimes using exact match keywords makes more sense in that case. If you only provide termite inspection for restaurants, then it's one of those things, you know, where it's like, okay, we need to target that probably as an exact match keyword. But over time. What you can do is start expanding out your keyword targeting to phrase match to broad match as you get more conversion data coming in. So broad match keywords can work really well with good conversion data and a really strong negative keyword list. The biggest difference for how keywords work is if you're targeting something as a broad match keyword. If I say, you know, if I take termite treatment as a broad match keyword, it's going to target people looking to do DIY termite treatments, people looking for costs, people looking for why they need to do it, people that might just be looking up searches about termites, you know, how do termites work? What do termites eat? You might get ads, you know, for this type of keyword, you're basically casting the widest net possible, even to the point where you're probably going to be showing for a lot of other competitor ads, you're going to be showing for a lot of other potentially other pest other pest control type keywords. So, ultimately, if you're starting your keyword list and you go, okay, we're going to do a phrase match keyword, termite treatment near me. Phrase match keywords to me gives you kind of the best of of exact match and broad match. But there are times when it's like, okay, let's kind of open it up to broad match keywords. Ultimately, what broad match is going to give you is a wider net. You're going to enter more auctions. There's going to be more searches available to you. So, you need to be really diligent when it comes to negative keywords. You still need to be diligent with negative keywords when it comes to phrase match. And with the way that I've been running campaigns, more running more performance max campaigns, you know, you just need to add a lot of negative keywords in because ultimately what Google's doing is trying to cast this wide net, figure out who out there can convert and then basically through all of that data continuously optimize your campaign with smart bidding. So basically there's really you know there sometimes I kind of consider and especially for larger budget clients running broad match keywords like just running you know if somebody contacted me today myrtle beach area let's say and said we're doing you know we want to focus specifically on termite treatments myrtle beach we want to spend $300 a day which probably not but let's just say that's the case or like we are or maybe they're South Carolina or you know or four different counties like we want to spend $300 or $400 a day. We want to make sure that we're kind of everywhere and we want to be we want to get as many termite contracts as we possibly can this year. So, good strategy obviously. Basically, you would start with keywords like this as your initial keywords that you're targeting. These have all really good search intent because these are all people looking for actively looking for services. The only, you know, possible thing is if people are searching for pest control companies, some people do companies to look for jobs. But for all of these, I would say the These are all people looking for actual services. And then all you need to do for the near me is basically change that to whichever keyword you're actually targeting. Didn't want to do that. Change that to whichever keyword you're targeting. So, you know, kind of for all of these keywords, you would say termite treatment and let's just say we're in Nashville. I was use random cities. Termite treatment Nashville. So, basically, you would take all of these for Nashville. Now, maybe you service 20 cities around the Tennessee area, around the Nashville area, maybe Nashville, Knoxville, you know, all the cities in between. You know, basically what you could do is create separate ad groups for all of these different cities, especially if it's a larger city. Now, if you have something where it's like 10,000 population, near me is going to work. And most likely the actual keyword of that city itself is not going to come up. So, basically building out these keywords for all of these different cities, all of these different services. And then ultimately, what you want to do is come up with like, okay, what's the best ad group structure for this? But when it really comes to like what keyword match types and what's going to actually Uh let's actually look at what Google says because sometimes I like to look at what their example actually says. Google ads keyword match types not keywords about c keyword matching options. So broader match types capture all the queries of narrower match types plus more. That means a phrase match keyword match all the searches as the same keyword and exact match. Broad match will match all the searches of equivalent phrase and exact match keywords plus additional searches. So basically what Google kind of says is you're better off using less broad match keywords. That's kind of what this is saying right here. Get the same benefits of multiple match types in one broad match type without needing to repeat keywords. So, here is kind of the way that this can work. Ads may show on searches that relate to your keywords. So, this is for the keyword furniture store. Broad match might match home decor. So, you see how broad it goes. The other one might be cream colored leather sectional. Great longtail keyword. Now, ultimately what we want to do, and this will be coming out in my series of videos, is how do we actually get people searching for this? Not to our sofas page, not to our homepage, not to our leather sectionals page, but to a page on our website with cream colored or something similar leather sectionals. Ultimately, that's what our goal is with Google ads so that you're giving people the ultimate experience. They get to a page with 10 leather sectional options, they're like, "Well, we'll find it here." So, phrase match, you definitely get a little bit more relevance. Cheap furniture stores matches better. Living room furniture deals matches better. What store is the best place to find a bedroom dresser matches better? This is kind of my experience that phrase tends to be, you know, you see moderate matching. To me, comprehensive matching is not the right way to look at broad. Broad is definitely going to cast a wide net. You're going to spend a little bit more money. You might waste a little bit more money, but ultimately long-term, if you're running broad match keywords, high budget, you have the competitive advantage in your industry. Sometimes I'm like, what happens if I just targeted Google Ads Consulting as a broad match keyword and set my budget high? Would I sell a bunch? Would I get nothing? It's kind of an interesting uh interesting test. Maybe we'll try one time. Exact match, you're basically getting furniture store, home furnishing shop. So, exact match is very very close synonyms. Same meaning. Exact match has has expanded as well. And all three of these match types kind of continuously expand. Who knows what the long-term, you know, future of keywords are. To me, I hope Google always keeps them kind of similar to how they are because it creates somewhat of a skill, you know, in terms of Google Ads management skill when It's not just, you know, okay, there's one keyword match type, now everybody kind of has a level playing field. Exact match does give you the opportunity to do different things. And with phrase match and exact match, you could do more where you're like, hey, I just want to target termite treatment as a phrase match keyword. We don't want to open it up to broad and we want to target all of these as broad match keywords. I've also done these as exact match. It's really a budget-based, you know, thing that you want to focus on because if your budget is $50 a day, you're going to be a little bit tighter with your keyword matching and targeting. If your budget's $500 a day, it's a lot easier to say, "Let's go phrase match. Let's see what we're spending." If the client's looking for more, let's go broad match and open it up completely. And that's kind of my process for everything. If I were to start, I would say generally for higher cost per click, I'm kind of in the exact match range. So like a roofing company, an HVAC company, a lawyer, I would rather go exact match and pay a lot in the very beginning while I'm collecting conversion data. From there, go to phrase match. Open it up a little bit. Understand that you're going to have to add negative keywords. It's always good to communicate with your client, too. Just basically saying, "Hey, we're opening up our keyword match types. You know, we're we're trying to get a little bit better, you know, a little bit more in in our campaign." And sometimes you do run into volume issues. But if you're targeting like the United States with some type of service that you provide across the United States, you really don't need this massive list of keywords. You don't need to use broad match keywords. You could really just get away with using phrase match keywords. Keep things really targeted. Now, the thing I always go back and forth on is I do feel there's an element of Google where using broad match using a high budget is a competitive advantage and might sound counterintuitive but ultimately if you're the pest control company targeting termite inspections and I have the highest budget set in my market and I'm targeting all these keywords as broad match keywords and I have really good conversion data going into my account and I'm using you know conversionbased lists and audience targeting and you know I have all of that dialed in maybe performance max running Ultimately, your competitive advantage is you are casting the widest net in your market. If your quality scores are really strong, you have really good landing pages, you're converting really well, you're going to get the majority of jobs in your market because ultimately Google is just putting everything to the top, you know, in terms of ads at the top of the search results. So, if you're getting 20, 30, 40 clicks a day for termite inspections and you're converting five, six, seven of them a day, you know, it helps you get a lot more of these yearly contracts coming. in every single day. And ultimately, you're just investing money for this long-term customer lifetime value. So, when it comes to keyword targeting, I would say to kind of finalize this video here. And we'll make this a little bit bigger so it's easier to see. Exact match does have a lot of limitations. When you're using smart bidding and exact match, you're basically not allowing Google to go out and find additional keywords. Phrase match kind of gives you the best of both worlds, but if you're looking for more volume, broad match is the way to go. Starting a campaign with a high budget with broad match is a good way to waste a lot of money initially, but long-term it does work really well with good conversion data. So, conversion data, broad match works pretty decently. Conversion data, phrase match works well. Um, and then conversion data, exact match is when you really want to start expanding things. Exact match is really meant for we want to target this specific thing and we're willing to pay more to do it. Really, you have like if you're in this zone of I need to hit these exact keywords, it's not the way to be in Google ads anymore. The goal is basically saying allow Google ads to go after all of these relevant keywords and ultimately you want high search intent keywords. Termites as a keyword is a terrible keyword. Termite inspection as a broad match keyword, not a great keyword. Termite inspection as phrase or exact can work, but sometimes they end up eating up the majority of clicks as a phrase match. So use the near me, use your location-based local termite treatments, termite treatment companies, and as you get more and more data, if you're looking for more leads, start expanding budget, start bidding a little bit more aggressively, and use more broad match keywords. That's ultimately what you have to do when you're really trying to get more and more out of your Google Ads campaign. And ultimately, if you're in a certain market, there's only so many people searching for a certain service on a daily basis. So, you can't just say, "Well, we want 50 leads a day." Those leads might not be out there. So, if you have any questions about this, you know, you can always leave them in the comment section. This is our first video podcast, so we'll see how this goes, it'll probably be more popular than my standard audio podcast. I have a lot of plans to do, you know, different things with the podcast. So, there'll be a lot of things uh a lot of things coming out. So, stay tuned with everything. And if you're looking for a little bit more information about AI marketing, Surfside PPC Premium is going to have you covered. So, thank you again for listening, subscribing, sharing, and supporting the Surfside PPC podcast.