Google Search Ads

When people think of what makes a Google Ads campaign successful, most think about ad copy, keyword selection, and landing page development. However, your Google Ads bidding strategy is just as important. How much you bid and the bid strategy you select will have a large influence on when your ads will be shown and how much you’ll be paying. In this article, we’ll go over how bidding works in the Google Ads search network and the different types of bidding strategies. How Google Ads Bidding Works Before we dive into bidding strategies, let’s go over how bidding works in Google Ads. Google is “auctioning” its ad space on its search engine results page and advertisers have to put in a bid in order for an ad to be seen. An auction happens every time a user conducts a search. However, Google is taking into account more than just your bid price. It will take a look at: Max bid price: This is the maximum amount you are willing to pay for someone to click on your ad. Ad quality score: Google will analyze your landing page experience and ad copy to estimate your expected click-through rate. As an advertiser, your goal is to get a high quality score for a higher chance of landing the top spot. Impact of ad assets: These are assets like sitelinks, call-out extensions, call extensions, and structured snippets. Ad Rank: Value that Google uses to determine where your ad is shown on the page compared to competing ads. Ad context: Google will look at your ad and how it fits in the context of the searcher’s location, time of search, device, and other signals. Due to all of these factors, offering the highest bid isn’t always going to get you the highest spot. And this is a good thing! A carefully crafted campaign will end up saving you more money than overspending on clicks and having infinite budget. Should You Trust Google Ads Smart Bidding? Smart bidding is a hot topic amongst advertisers in the PPC industry. These are bid strategies that leverage Google’s AI and machine learning to optimize and set bid prices based on your campaign goals. In contrast, manual bidding is where you’ll be setting the bid price for each keyword without Google’s help. Automation sounds great, doesn’t it? However, you need to proceed with caution when it comes to Smart Bidding. Depending on your industry’s average CPC and the strategy you choose, Google can actually waste a lot of your budget. Automated strategies may not be the best choice for every business, especially advertisers with smaller, more limited budgets. You need to make sure specific limits are set to not waste money, but with enough wiggle room to give your campaign time to collect enough data. If your account structure isn’t too large and it’s organized properly, you should start with manual bidding. Smart Bidding can be a great option for more complex accounts, but you need to keep your risk tolerance in mind. Automated strategies can cause disturbances in your account if you aren’t watching carefully and can take a few weeks to get dialed in. Types of Google Ads Bid Strategies Manual CPC Bidding This is a strategy where you are setting your own maximum CPC for ads – no artificial intelligence involved. Manual CPC offers a lot more control and less budget waste. If you are a small business, this is the strategy you want to start with and most likely will stick with. However, manual CPC requires a lot of oversight. You are going into the account and setting the bids one by one for each keyword. If your account has a large number of keywords, you may be better off using an automated strategy.  Target CPA (cost-per-acquisition) Target CPA is a strategy where you are aiming for a specific CPA number and Google will adjust bids in real-time to meet this goal. You need to have some conversion data in order for Google to make proper decisions and bid adjustments. It’s recommended to have at least 15 conversions in the last 30 days (per campaign) in order to give this bid strategy enough data to learn. Many advertisers make the common mistake of setting too low of a target CPA. This will cause your performance to tank because Google can’t meet your CPA requirement, thus limiting your reach. Make sure you keep your CPA value reasonable and realistic to make Target CPA work. Maximize Conversions This strategy is meant to drive the maximum number of conversions given your daily budget. Since it’s a Smart Bidding strategy, this means Google will adjust the bids to hit that maximum number. Use Maximize Conversions when you have been running your campaign manually for at least 45 days and if you have a larger budget of at least $5,000 per month. Monitor your account like a hawk since Max Conversions can drive up your CPC. It can even double or triple your average CPC (if you were on manual before) in order to get the max conversions, rustling in you running out of your budget very early on in the month. To combat extremely high CPCs in this automated bid strategy, you can set a bid limit that Google cannot exceed. Double-check your conversion tracking before implementing this strategy. The last thing you want is to count page views as a conversion. Maximize Clicks Maximize Clicks is exactly what it sounds like. Google will adjust your bids to achieve the maximum number of clicks given your daily budget. This is a great option if you are trying to drive more traffic and click volume, but reconsider this strategy if your CPC is super high. It’s also best to put a max click bid limit in order to not waste money. Many advertisers with large, enterprise-level accounts and little manpower to implement manual bidding will implement Maximize Click.  Enhanced CPC (eCPC) eCPC is a “hybrid” type of Google Ads

Wondering how much you should budget for your Google Ads campaigns? Your Google Ads budget can dictate your success. Spend too little and your ads may never generate any clicks or impressions. However, on the flip side, many advertisers are concerned with overspending on campaigns. In this article, we’ll go over the ins and outs of Google Ads budgeting and how to forecast your budget. How Budgeting Works in Google Ads In Google Ads, you cannot set a maximum spend for the month. How much you spend is determined by your average daily budget, which can be changed at any time. If you are not looking at your account closely, you can easily go over your predetermined budget and Google can end up spending up to 2X your daily budget on any particular day. This also means you won’t be spending the exact same amount every day. It’s important to have some wiggle room in your budget and to not “set it and forget it” when it comes to your ads campaign. You’ll need to have a proper budget pacing strategy to make sure you make up for days where there isn’t as much demand vs days where there’s lots of it. It’s all a balancing act when it comes to budget pacing. Big Picture Answer: Spend Enough to Collect Data Since Google Ads is an auction-based platform, the cost will depend on the keywords you plan to bid on. This can ultimately be impacted by industry, trends, and how well your ads are structured. Remember, you need to spend enough to gather data and get eyeballs on your campaign. Penny-pinching and being too conservative can result in slow data collection and slow results. This does not mean your campaigns are doomed, but it will just take a long time to get to your destination because you are limiting your ad budget. Don’t waste your time on ads unless you can supply a sufficient monthly ad budget to test and learn. A general rule of thumb for a local business targeting at least 10-15 miles radius around its location, expect to budget no less than $2,000 per month. Some businesses may be able to get away with a smaller budget due to less competition, but that will depend on your average cost per click which is mostly determined by competition.  Consider the Industry and Location You Are In The cost-per-click (CPC) for keywords will vary by industry. Some industries will be more competitive than others. For example, keywords related to bankruptcy law are highly competitive and come with a high CPC. A few other industries with high CPC (range of $20+ per click) are: Insurance Home improvement Medical spas and aesthetics Financial services Research industry benchmarks and average conversion rates to gain a better understanding of what to expect, so you can set realistic budget expectations. In addition to industry, your location has a huge impact on CPC. Many metropolitan areas often have higher CPC than rural areas which typically have less competition. What a dentist will spend on Google Ads in Los Angeles is going to look a lot different than a dentist in rural Iowa. Using CPC to Figure Out How Much to Do for Daily Budget This is a great starting point if you are brand new to Google Ads or need to revise your budget plans. Look at the estimated CPC for the keywords you want to target. How much is the average CPC? Let’s say your average CPC for the geography you want to target is $10 per click. You should aim for at least 5-10 clicks per day (at the minimum) to collect enough data to make lead generation worthwhile. Low-end estimate: If you spend $50 per day x 30 days so that would be a total of $1,500 ad budget per month. High-end estimate: If you spend $100 per day x 30 days so that would be a total of $3,000 per month. To see 5-10 clicks per day and gather enough data, you need to budget $1,500 to $3,000 per month in ad spend. Budget Maintenance for Established Campaigns Are your campaigns running and performing at a high level but you are unsure of what to do next? Established campaigns need a flexible budget. You still want to allocate 70-80% of your budget to your campaigns and strategies that have consistently generated results. Think of these campaigns as your “cash cows”. The rest of the budget should be used to test new keywords, opportunities, and strategies that expand your reach and help you stay ahead of the competition. Again, consider the CPC and bid prices when you start experimenting so you can set the appropriate daily budget. Does Google Ads Make Sense for Your Business? If you are new to Google Ads, you should consider investing right out of the gate instead of slowly increasing a small budget. Many small businesses will start with a few hundred dollars and if the campaign does well, they will invest more. However, this approach essentially shoots you in the foot because you aren’t spending enough to be competitive and to collect data to make the best decisions about your business. Think of this like driving a car on a nearly empty tank thinking that if it can take you far enough, you will be able to refill. You won’t be able to go far on an empty tank. However, if you cannot even consider a $2,000 monthly ad spend, then Google Ads is not the right channel to invest in. You also need to factor in your customer lifetime value (CLV). Low CLV results in a return-on-investment loss. A Final Word on Google Ads Budgets Your Google Ads budget will depend on your targeted keywords, competition, and geographic area. But you need to spend enough to collect data and account for the fluctuations in daily spend. This means starting with a budget of around $2,000 and being flexible with that number. Michelle KopMichelle Kop

Selecting the right keywords is crucial for the success of your Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns. You can reach your desired audience and generate valuable leads by targeting the appropriate keywords. However, it can be an intimidating part of the PPC campaign setup process. In this article, we will discuss the importance of keyword selection and share tips on how to choose the most effective keywords. Before You Get Started with Selecting Keywords… It’s critical that you do your homework before jumping into keyword selection. Do you understand your business goals and ideal customer profile? This information will anchor your entire PPC campaign. You also need to understand what you are trying to achieve through your campaign. Keywords for brand awareness will differ from keywords geared for lead generation. Are you looking to get your brand out to the masses? Or are you looking to attract customers who are looking for a specific service that you offer? If you understand who you are trying to reach and your end goal, it will make the keyword selection process less complicated and overall less overwhelming. What Makes a Good Keyword? There are hundreds upon hundreds of keywords you can choose from. But you’ll want to consider a few criteria before adding these keywords to your campaign. Decent search volume: if no one is searching for your keyword, then your ad will not be served. That’s why it’s critical to choose keywords with at least a minimum of 50 searches per month. Anything less will yield you low volume and minimal results. Appropriate keyword intent: Depending on your campaign goals, you’ll want to select keywords with the right intent that aligns with what your audience is looking for. For example, keywords like residential roofing contractor near me indicate that the searcher is ready for an estimate and consultation for their property. Shorter keywords like roofer or home roofing may be too broad and may attract people still researching (still not quite ready to buy). Competition level: Highly competitive keywords will cost you more money. It’s important to balance the level of competition with search volume and intent to find the right keywords for your budget. If highly competitive keywords are the most relevant to your campaign, then you’ll need to take another look at your budget and see if it’s enough. How to Select Keywords for PPC Once you establish your business goals and ideal customer profile, it’s time to select your keywords. There are a few different strategies and tools that you can use, some have more advantages than others. Ask Your Potential Customers Directly Not sure what search queries people are using to find your business? Ask your customers directly! This is especially easy if you have a brick-and-mortar business or are a service-based business like a residential roofing or locksmith company. For customers that found you via search, ask what they typed in. The answers might surprise you! If you are a business that is 100% online, it’s worthwhile to send out a survey to previous customers to learn more about their purchasing behavior. Tools like SurveyMonkey can help you quickly gather and analyze the data. Google Keyword Planner This is one of the most popular keyword research tools out there. It comes with the Google Ads platform and it’s 100% free! There are no usage limits or expensive upgrades. Google Keyword Planners provides search volume data and additional keyword ideas and suggestions. It also gives you the ability to forecast the performance based on keywords you have chosen. Be aware that thehe search volume provided isn’t always 100% accurate and it’s based purely on Google’s search engine. If you are looking to do Microsoft Bing ads, then it’s best to use their keyword research tool. 3rd Party Alternatives to Select PPC Keywords If you want a more robust alternative to Google Keyword Planner, then you can check out Semrush, Spyfu, or Ahrefs. These are more advanced alternatives and can be used for both PPC and SEO. For example, Semrush can share what keywords trigger competitor products to show up in Google Shopping results. It can also share organic ranking results. With Spyfu, it can provide more information on every keyword your competitor has bought on Google Ads along with every organic rank and ad variation. However, these 3rd party alternatives can be a lot more expensive depending on what features you need. You also need to keep in mind that the information may not be 100% accurate. Google Auto Suggest Google Auto Suggest is a great tool for showing popular variations of a keyword. And the best part? It’s another free tool! All you need to do is type in the keyword you’d like variations for in Google’s search bar. Google will then show you variations and other keyword ideas based on what both users and Google finds relevant. This can be helpful when you first start your campaign or if you are looking to expand your reach and improve performance with an established campaign. Look at Competitor Websites (that have good SEO) This is more of an advanced strategy, but there is a lot that you can unlock by scoping out a competitor’s website that has good SEO rankings You’ll be able to see the keyword themes they may be ranking for to give you ideas of what keywords you may want to bid on within PPC. You could be missing out on keywords you didn’t think of. Additionally, you can view their page source and see what keywords they’re trying to rank for as well. Just make sure any new keywords you select align with your campaign goals and ideal customer profile. Selecting PPC Keywords Doesn’t Have to Be Intimidating Remember, you don’t have to start out with over 50 keywords. Selecting keywords should be based on your PPC goals and fit within your monthly budget. You also don’t need to worry about keyword misspellings either because Google catches them in with their close variants. Also, you aren’t

Great, you’ve launched your campaign – so what’s next? If you don’t have a list of maintenance activities then your PPC campaign will fall by the wayside. Many advertisers make the mistake of setting up their campaign and forgetting about it. Maintenance is just as a big part of your success as the setup when it comes to PPC. You never want to take your “foot off the gas” for your PPC campaign. In this blog, we will discuss exactly why maintenance is important and go over six things that you need to add to your PPC maintenance checklist. Why is PPC Maintenance Important? Routine PPC tasks help you stay in tune with what is going on in your account. Remember, your account isn’t static. Keywords trends are always changing, Google is always making updates to its ads platform, and competitors are continuously adjusting their ads. New competitors will often enter the picture weeks or months after you started your campaign! Maintenance is part of the ongoing optimization process to improve your performance. It shouldn’t be time-consuming either. But you have to know what you need to look for and have your checklist handy. 6 PPC Maintenance Tasks for Success #1 Check for underperforming keywords Some keywords that have been active since the first day of your campaign may not be performing well now. Look out for keywords that are driving up your budget and are not producing any quality conversions. You can pause those keywords and use that money on higher-performing keywords or shift the budget to an entirely different ad group. You don’t want to make these changes blindly. Look at the data. Is the cost-per-click CPC up? Are the clicks low? Some metrics that you want to check are the CPC, overall clicks, impressions, or cost. If these changed over time, is it due to seasonality? Or is the landscape changing? #2 Conduct additional keyword research Many people overlook ongoing research and only focus on that at the beginning of the campaign. Seasonality and trend changes can affect your campaign – there may be better or new keywords that you can test out! This is a task that can be completed on a quarterly basis. Use tools such as SEMrush, Google Trends,  or Google’s keyword planner to view trend changes. It can also be helpful to survey your customers to better understand how they search. They may be using terms that are not currently covered by your current campaign. #3 Continue to build out your negative keyword list Noticing that your ads are showing up for irrelevant keywords and it’s costing you a big chunk of your budget? Then it’s time to start building up your negative keyword list and continue maintaining it. Since Google’s keyword match type updates, it’s becoming more important to keep an eye out for new negative keywords you can add. Phrase match tends to act more like a broad match modifier of the day’s past. And now exact match isn’t quite as exact as it used to be. To build out your list, your search terms reports will be your best friend. It will show exactly which of your ads are showing up for which search terms. You should look at the report on a weekly or biweekly basis.  This doesn’t mean you’ll always have a negative keyword to add, but it’s good to get into the habit of looking. If months have gone by, you probably already spent too much money on irrelevant clicks.  Building this list can also help you increase your ad quality scores which saves money in the long run. #4 Review the lead quality and conversion data If you are pouring time and money into PPC ads, then you want to make sure these are high-quality conversions. A common complaint from inexperienced PPC advertisers is that they aren’t seeing leads. This is often due to poor conversion tracking or they aren’t thoroughly looking at the leads that are coming in. For example, let’s say you haven’t seen any quality calls coming through even though your PPC account indicates that you have gotten 5 calls in the last week. It’s time to look at your call tracking data. Are these genuine calls that are coming in? Or is your staff dropping the ball on converting these calls into actual leads? Are people confused about what they are calling about? If you are tracking form submissions, then you want to ensure these prospects are inquiring about the right services. Are they ready to buy? Or are they price-shopping? Gathering this info can help you adjust your strategy. This can be bidding on more affluent searchers, adjusting your geographic area, or even making edits to your ad copy! Checking your lead quality gives you greater insight into if there’s any friction in the customer purchasing journey. #5 Review your key performance metrics By reviewing your data on a daily or weekly basis, you can see what is working and what needs to be optimized. Some common metrics to review are the number of clicks, click-through-rate (CTR) percentage, CPC, and conversion data. However, the metrics that are important will depend on your PPC goals. Metrics for a brand awareness campaign will be a lot different than one focused on generating phone calls. If you are A/B testing (or first launching your campaign), give your ad enough time to collect the data and then compare the changes. #6 Keep track of your daily budget Budgets are not fixed, so you can easily go over your budget if you aren’t careful. Google can spend up to 2X your daily budget if you don’t watch it! These tasks should be completed on a weekly basis. Look at metrics by day and device to see if you should be allocating your budget elsewhere. For example, your ads are generating more traffic on certain days, then shift your budget to those days. Or if you see that cost is increasing on tablet devices and there

Are your ads appearing for irrelevant search terms? If so, you might not be using the right keyword match types. By using the right keyword match types, you can increase the likelihood of your ads reaching the right customers who are actively seeking your services. Keyword match types can be confusing to new advertisers. And Google has made many changes to it since first launching its ads platform. In this article, we will discuss the different keyword match types, examples, and why it’s critical to understand how to use each in your campaign. Why Should You Care About Keyword Match Types? Understanding the different keyword match types is essential to your PPC advertising success. Keyword match types give you greater control over your campaign. It also helps you save money, so your precious ad budget isn’t spent on irrelevant clicks. In addition, making sure your ads are more relevant to the right keywords results in a higher Quality Score. More relevant ads usually lead to a lower cost-per-click. This means you need to use the right combination of match types across your ad groups and campaigns in order to avoid your keywords competing against each other. What Are Keyword Match Types? As of 2023, there are three match types that you can choose in Google Ads: broad, phrase, and exact match. Broad Match This is the default match type in the ad platform. Theoretically, you can reach the widest audience with this match type since your ad will be eligible to appear whenever the user’s search term contains any word in your keyword, in any order, and any other words relating to your keyword (typically synonyms). For example, let’s say you apply broad match to bankruptcy lawyer. Your ad could be eligible for search queries such as bankruptcy law books, pro bono bankruptcy attorney, student loan lawyers, and creditor lawyer. This isn’t a favored keyword match type by Google Ads experts for a reason. Broad match can get your ads lots of clicks, but likely won’t be the right ones and it’ll cause your budget to be quickly wasted.  In order to combat this, you can create a negative keyword list to eliminate irrelevant searches. However, other match types can get the job done with a smaller negative keyword list. Phrase Match With phrase match, your ads will show search queries that contain your keyword phrase. This could be the exact phrase, synonyms, plurals, or similar variants. In the Google Ads platform, it’s denoted by using quotation marks. Let’s continue with the “bankruptcy lawyer” keyword as an example. If phrase match is applied, then your ad can appear for search queries like bankruptcy lawyer near me, bankruptcy attorney in los angeles, the best bankruptcy lawyer, bankruptcy law practices. This match type allows you to be a bit more specific and filter out some of those extremely irrelevant terms that broad match can trigger. It’ll also catch those queries that you may not have thought of, but your ideal customer still uses. If you notice that your ads are still appearing for irrelevant search queries, you can build out a negative keyword list to avoid additional wasted spend. Exact Match This is the specific and restrictive match type and is denoted with the usage of brackets. When Google originally started their platform, exact match keyword types would only show up if the search query exactly matched the keyword. For example, if you applied exact match to the term [bankruptcy lawyer], then your ad would show up for that term only. However, exact match isn’t as “exact” as it used to be! In 2023, Google made updates to exact match type keywords. Now your ad would show up if there are slight variations such as misspellings, singular forms, plural forms, or abbreviations. Let’s take another look at the keyword bankruptcy lawyer if it were used as an exact keyword match type. It would show up for terms such as lawyers for bankruptcy, bankruptcy lawyers, and banruptkcy lawyer. Exact match is a great option if your cost-per-click (CPC) is high and you are in an extremely competitive location or industry. Greater control means your ad budget is spent on clicks that matter.  However, you may not get as many impressions due the restrictive nature of exact match. Keywords with low search volume are the most affected by this. Closing Thoughts on Keyword Match Types As you determine what match types to use in your campaign, you will need to consider the CPC for keywords, the number of competitors you have, and your account structure. Some advertisers like to start out with exact keyword match types and slowly use phrase match types as they continue to monitor the performance. Everyone’s goals are different, so selecting a cookie-cutter approach won’t work. Review your data weekly. Then, make adjustments over time to find success with your Google Ads lead generation campaign. Michelle KopMichelle Kop is a marketing consultant and award-winning pay-per-click marketing strategist. She has over 8 years of professional paid advertising experience in Google and Microsoft Ads, with a specialization in lead generation for B2B and B2C companies. After working in corporate marketing with Fortune Global 500 Brands like Toyota and BP, Michelle founded Level 28 Media, a lead generation micro-agency for small to medium businesses. www.level28media.com

While many businesses focus on keywords they want to target within their Google Ads campaigns, it’s equally important to think about what keywords you don’t want your ads to appear for. These are called negative keywords. Having a running list of negative keywords is key to helping you save money, increase your click-through rates, and best of all improve leads and lead quality! In this blog, you will learn what negative keywords are and how you can use them to improve your Google Ads campaign performance. What Are Negative Keywords? Negative keywords are keywords that you can exclude from your Google Ads campaign. These are terms that you don’t want your ads to appear for. For example, if you are a commercial roofer serving only businesses, then you’d want to exclude terms like “residential roofing” because you don’t want to attract prospects you cannot service. Without negative keywords on your campaign, this could result in more irrelevant clicks that you have to pay for which will ultimately drain your budget! Similar to how you select your targeted keywords, negative keywords can either be broad, phrase, or exact match. Additionally, negative keywords can be applied at the account level, campaign level, or ad group level.  Importance of Using Negative Keywords in a PPC Campaign Implementing a negative keyword list can help your campaigns generate a higher click-through rate (CTR) and better quality leads. The more targeted your ads are, the higher chance that someone will click through to convert into a qualified lead.  In addition, more clicks and impressions from the wrong searchers can cost you a lot of money! If you are in an industry that has a high cost per click (for example: legal or healthcare), useless clicks will drain your budget quickly. You don’t want a poor ROI, right? With greater control over your campaign’s visibility to targeted searchers, you can increase conversion rates and get a better return on your ad budget investment! What Are the Different Types of Negative Keywords? Negative broad match – If you use negative broad match, then your ad will not show for any of the terms that are in the search term. This includes the words being in a completely different order. However, if a search term contains some of the terms in your negative keyword, then it can still possibly show. For example, let’s look at scenarios if you were to use jobs as a negative broad match term for your bankruptcy lawyer ad campaign. Negative phrase match – This is a case where your ad won’t show if the search contains the exact keyword terms in the specified order. If there are extra words around the term, your ad can still show. In this example, let’s assume you use the term family lawyer as a negative phrase match keyword. Negative exact match – You would use this type of negative keyword if you do not want your ad to show for the exact keyword terms, in the specified order, and without extra words. This is the most strict and specific way to use a negative keyword. This is a good way to eliminate clicks and impressions for people who aren’t ready to buy or conducting general research. However, you have to be careful as you can potentially eliminate too many searches. Let’s take a look if your negative exact match keyword is bankruptcy lawyer How to Build a Negative Keyword List As mentioned before, building the right negative keyword list can save you money and improve your campaign performance. However, going overboard with your selection can reduce your ad reach! This means fewer eyeballs on your ads. This is fine as long as your goal is not just reach but leads. You want to get the most targeted searches as possible! Think Carefully About Your Terms You don’t want to wait for your ad to appear for irrelevant terms and then have to add those keywords to your negative keyword list. Ideally, you’ll want to be proactive in building the list. Start by thinking about the search terms that you do not want your ads to show up for. For example, if you are a high-end architecture firm then you will want to add keywords such as cheap and affordable to your negative keyword list. You do not want to be serving search ads to people who do not represent your ideal customer profile. You also want to think about whether these terms should be account level or campaign level. Adding cheap and affordable architecture firm to an account level will make sense for you if you never want to appear for those terms across your account. If you specialize in different styles of architecture, then it will make more sense to add those styles on a campaign level so your ads are not competing against each other. Look At What People Are Searching for to Find Your Ads As part of your campaign upkeep and optimization process, you should be actively looking at the search terms that people are using to find your ads on a regular basis. You can check this by going to Keywords and then clicking on Search Terms. If you see a term associated with high CTR, low conversion rates, and the term is irrelevant, it’s time to add the keyword to your negative keyword list! For example, this could be a person searching for government-sponsored in-home care services and your ad shows up. If your in-home care business does not take insurance and is cash-based, then you are spending money on irrelevant clicks. Negative keyword selection doesn’t have to be intimidating if you understand your business goals and have a clearly defined ideal customer profile. This will drive your negative keyword strategy along with your entire PPC strategy. Closing Thoughts Negative keywords are often an afterthought, but they should never be. Remember, the point of PPC is to put your company in front of the right searchers at the right time. The