Pubcon Vegas 2006 - Keyword Research and Analysis

This was a really interesting presentation topic that is still crucial to internet marketers, whether you do SEO or paid internet advertising.

Gregory Markel - The Holistic Keyword Strategy

Gregory Markel is one of the best CPC gurus in the world. He has done a lot of work for major entertainment campaigns, including Lord of the Rings, Mazda, etc. Basically, he’s incredibly sharp and dynamic. Therefore, I really was interested in what he had to say.

1. Be clear about what your goals are. Know exactly what you want from the campaign. Pick a governing metric.
2. Understand your legal limitations for brands.
3. Use competitive analysis. What works for your competitors?
4. Mine your log data. It’s a valuable source for keywords that users are actually searching for.
5. Use the tools that are available, both public as well as proprietary tools.
6. Make sure when you launch you campaign that you’ve used existing data. That will help you to get a quick launch with positive ROI.
7. Not all keywords perform the same way on all engines. Find out what works where, and try that on other engines, abandon what doesn’t work.
8. Pay attention to any offline advertising and marketing that might affect what people are searching for.

Adam Jewell - Keyword Selections For PPC

Adam has a ton of affiliate experience, and apparently has been extremely successful with PPC channels, making him an extremely valuable presenter. He had some fantastic tips about what to do with your keywords once you get them.

1. Be careful bidding on brands. You’ll have a ton of competition.
2. Make sure you’re adding words to your keyword phrases that indicate someone who is ready to buy.
3. Use matching types. Exact match? Bid high on exact terms. Manufacturer part numbers are great for this. Phrase match? Use specific keywords and bid lower. Broad match is where you try to target people using “ready to buy” phrases.
4. Buy tons of keywords on a specific keyword and bid highly on that.
5. Buy tons of bottom feeder keywords and bid really low.
6. Link as close to the source as possible, hopefully the product page.
7. Buy every mispelling and typo available.
8. Use tons of exact match in Google.
9. Group keywords by length and use Google’s dynamic keyword on the short ad group.