You’ve heard of the three little PPC pigs right? The first PPC pig started building his account without conducting any keyword search because it was the easiest thing to do. The second PPC pig created a list of generic keywords which made his account a little stronger than the first. But the third PPC pig spent time looking at his website, expanding upon relevant keyword variations, understanding his customer, and utilizing keyword research tools which made his PPC account was the strongest of all… I am sure that every PPC manager has their own technique/process for keyword research. So, this is just one approach to building your list. We’ll break the process down into 6 steps. Keep in mind, you should complete all 6 steps before you load your first keyword into your PPC campaign.

1. Identify your target audience

First, you need to determine who your PPC ads are targeting. From offline to online, your core customer probably isn’t going to change dramatically. But how you gain their attention and capture it long enough for their interest to be peaked is going to be different. You need to get into the mindset of your audience/customers. Here are some questions to ask: How would you describe your company/product/service to someone in 100 words or less? This description is filled with keywords! Write them down. What are the attributes and/or benefits of your product/service? People often don’t know exactly what they’re looking for, so they’ll use descriptors to search. What would you type in to the search engines to find your site without using your name? That’s how people may be searching for you. If you follow these steps you should have a handful of keywords.

2. Review your existing materials

You might be surprised that you already have keyword-rich materials just lying around your office. Review your printed/collateral materials and your existing website. Simply read through your sales letters, brochures, presentations, catalogs, trade show displays, press kits and just underline the keywords.

3. Review your website analytics

Your website analytics will provide a wealth of keywords that people are using to find your site organically. Why re-invent the wheel when you can already get some great insight as to how your audience is thinking and how they are finding you.

4. Review your competition

Make a list of your top competitors and review their websites. You can get an idea of what they are targeting, and you can also brainstorm on how you can set yourself apart and make your company/product/service unique.

3. Review your website analytics

With the previous 4 steps you should have a pretty healthy start on your keyword list. Now, you need to find the variations for all of these keywords. Here are some free keyword research tools that we recommend: • Word tracker • Google AdWords Keyword Tool • Keyword Discovery • MSN Ad Intelligence

6. Sort your keywords

Now, you should have a very robust keyword list. Before you even put one keyword in your PPC campaign you need to break your keywords down into groups that should range from 5-20 keywords per group. This way your keyword groups are tightly themed and you can write relevant, targeted ad texts. Following these steps to build you initial keyword list is a great way to build a killer keyword list. Remember, the success of every PPC campaign hinges on its keywords – so make them good!

When search engine marketing enters the conversation in PR circles and vice versa, it’s usually search engine optimization, not pay per click that gets attention. However, there are numerous opportunities to use the on-demand visibility of Pay Per Click as a method to attract visitors to news related content. Publishers of online news and media use Pay Per Click to create instant search visibility for hot and trending news stories. Here’s an example of the NY Times using AdWords to promote a story about Twitter. You can also see from this screenshot via Spy Fu, some of the topical and time sensitive keyword phrases they’ve bid on to drive traffic to news stories. PR professionals can do the same with brand names, company names or executive names that often get searched on. PPC can be used to attract attention to specific news items, stories and content that is likely to be passed along once people get a chance to see it.

Tips For PPC Keyword List Creation

Start small. Once you start researching keywords it’s very easy to create a list of thousands upon thousands of keywords. It’s important to focus on the quality of keywords rather than the quantity. The best keywords are the ones that are relevant to your products or services and accurately reflect the content of your website. I recommend starting your PPC account with an initial list of a couple hundred keywords. Let these keywords run and then see where your PPC account has opportunities for growth. Don’t be too general. General keywords are going to have a lot of competition, which means a higher cost-per-click. For example, even though PPC is a form of advertising I wouldn’t bid on the keyword “advertising”. Unless you have a large PPC budget, stay away from very general keywords and focus on more specific keywords that better describe what you offer. Don’t be too specific. Although specific keywords tend to perform better than general keywords, being too specific can limit your ad exposure if very few people are searching for it. For example, I wouldn’t include “companies that can improve my ppc performance” but instead just include “improve ppc performance” which will pick up traffic from those longer-tail search queries.

Keyword research is an on-going process, but starting off with a strong list of initial keywords will start you on the path to PPC success.