As Digital Marketers, nothing makes us happier than a successful Pay-Per-Click Advertising Campaign, which generates top class leads and brings in good ROI. For its success, we are always on the lookout to make our PPC more refined. Which includes, making the ad copy more refined, checking on the current keywords, updating the keyword list and most importantly, adding negative keywords.
In this blog, let’s take a deep dive into negative keywords and understand how adding these keywords can boost your PPC campaign success!
But before we venture any further, let’s go over the basics so that we’re on the same page!
What are Negative Keywords?
Negative Keywords are basically specific words that you add to your PPC campaign to make sure it does not reach a specific target audience. Let’s make it simple with a small real-life example.
You are a PPC Advertising Agency in Dubai, dealing with the PPC Campaign of a high-end sneaker shop. You might bid for terms like “Sneakers”, “High-tops” & “Low-tops”, to hyper-target your audience. But if you add negative keywords like “Cheap”, “Shoes”, your ads won’t be visible to the audience that search for “Cheap Sneakers”, or “Cheap shoes for sale” (The people who don’t fall under your target audience)
Make sense?
Well, adding negative keywords to your campaign is a lifesaver, if you are a Digital Marketer who rarely adds negative keywords to your Campaign…make sure you do it religiously!
Here’s a few reasons:
Why Negative Keywords Matter in Your PPC Campaign Boosts Your ROI
Our goal is always to bring in quality leads and investments. Adding negative keywords to your campaign does exactly that! By excluding the irrelevant searches, your ads would reach the right audience i.e the people who are more likely to look at/purchase your service/product.
By hyper-focusing your target audience, you are more likely to get more clicks, better leads and eventually a good ROI!
Increase your Click-Through-Rate (CTR)
By adding negative keywords to your PPC Campaign, you make sure that the ads are working against the irrelevant queries (uninterested impressions) and make sure that the ads reach the target audience, where you’re more likely to get genuine leads and ultimately bring in more sales and conversions.
Save on Ad Spend
A successful PPC Campaign signifies money well spent. By adding negative keywords to your ads, you make sure that your budget is not wasted on irrelevant clicks and uninterested impressions and make sure that it reaches the right audience where you are bound to get quality leads which will eventually drive more conversions and sales.
Now that we’ve gone through the basics, let’s get into
How to use Negative Keywords
Below are some of the few ways you can identify the negative keywords of your specific needs and implement them on your PPC campaign
Conduct Keyword Research
Just like your standard keyword research, your negative keywords also require keyword research, which can be a bit more tedious when compared to your standard research. You can kick off the search by researching or brainstorming the most common keywords you’d like to avoid (Ex: Cheap, Discount Sale) and add it to your list. For further research, the internet is filled with AI and Non-AI tools like SEMRUSH, Google Keyword Planner & Ahrefs to broaden your negative keyword list.
Add Negative Keywords to Your Campaign
Once you have identified your negative keywords, it’s time to apply it to your PPC Campaign. You can do this basically at 2 levels, the campaign or ad level, depending on how specific you want the exclusions to be.
Monitor and Upgrade
PPC Campaign isn’t a one-off campaign you set and forget. It’s all about monitoring and seeking to improve. So make sure that you constantly monitor your negative keywords so that they are successfully excluding irrelevant searches. Always refine/improve your negative keyword list to make sure that you are not missing out on any new relevant searches and to weed out irrelevant impressions.
Conclusion
Negative Keywords are an integral part of your Pay-Per-Click Campaign. Not only are you making your ad reach the right audience but you’re also saving budget by weeding out unwanted clicks. Moreover, by using this optimization technique, you’re making sure that your campaign is fool-proof and making sure to bring in quality leads, which ultimately become solid clients and produce good conversions and sales!
So if you’re not utilising negative keywords in your PPC Campaign, stop the wait! Now is the time to start! Take your campaign to the next level!
Also, do not forget! Negative keyword is not a one-time set-forget technique. It’s all about the constant research, refining and keyword list updating to make sure that you are effectively excluding the unwanted clicks and ensure that you’re not missing out on any new relevant searches! So put in the work and reap the benefits!
If you’d like any assistance or support in creating your campaign’s negative keyword list or general optimisations, please do not hesitate to contact Netventure today!
