1. A Love Story
How to Leverage Google Paid Search Data to
Influence Your SEO Keyword Strategy
2. Samuel Quincy Edwards
Chief Marketing Officer of SEO.co/
Entrepreneur
Public Speaker
Contributing Columnist
MLS Field Photographer &
Gameday Social Media
Google Ads Certified
Google Analytics Certified
Bing Ads Certified
Search Marketing Expo Speaker
4. Search
Marketing v.
Social Media
Marketing
When someone is searching for
something on Google they’re
actively looking for a solution to
something they want answered.
When someone is on Facebook or
Instagram and an ad is being shown
to them in the Newsfeed, their
interest in your product or service
could be zero. Because they’re not
actively wanting to see your offer,
this is intrusive marketing.
5. SEO/Organic - organic or “free” search listing
that appear in each position based on Google’s
200+ ranking factor algorithm. Can take months
(if not longer) to rank on page 1 depending on how
competitive and saturated the market you’re in is.
SEM/PPC - paid advertising placements that
are based on a keyword bidding model. Can
be set up and launched in less than a day.
6. How much do you think the average cost per click for the
keyword “mesothelioma” is?
7.
8. A. 50 Thousand Searches / Month
B. 500 Thousand Searches / Month
C. 1 Million Searches / Month
D. Over 2 Million Searches / Month
9. Avg. / Month = 2.24 Million Searches
A. 50 Thousand Searches / Month
B. 500 Thousand Searches / Month
C. 1 Million Searches / Month
D. Over 2 Million Searches / Month
10.
11. On average, “cute puppies” is
searched 135,000 times / month.
This is Banksy on the beach.
12. A Typical SEO Keyword Strategy
Look for low hanging fruit i.e. keywords with high search
volume and low organic search competition.
18. Great! My organic keyword list is ready. Now I
can apply these terms into the SEO elements
that matter (title tags, H1 tags, image alt tags,
URL strings, etc.) on my site and start seeing
conversions come in once I’m ranking on page 1
for those keywords, right?
19.
20. Problemo
Monthly search volume and keyword difficulty data in
itself is not indicative of conversion performance. You
can be ranking in position 1 on page 1 of Google for a
keyword, but that doesn’t mean users are going to take
the action you want them to take once they click
through to your website.
21. Sam’s Word of Wisdom
Data is a lot like a bathing suit. What it reveals is suggestive,
but what it conceals is vital.
At first glance, keywords with a lot of traffic may appear to be
the best terms to target, but if you don’t vet them properly
you’re going to waste a lot of time and money.
22. And this is where the search love begins<3
Before you start the process of optimizing your website for SEO, you should
really consider running a paid search marketing campaign in order to make
better informed decisions based on what terms are driving conversions to your
website, not just traffic for the sake of traffic.
It’s nice to get a lot of traffic to a site, but at the end of the day, traffic doesn’t
pay your mortgage, car payment or retirement fund.*
*Unless the site relies on ad revenue based on traffic.
24. 4 Keyword Match Type Options
FUN FACT: This is a real search query that once triggered an ad for a topical pain relief cream intended for burning feet pain caused
by neuropathy. And if you’re curious, on average 50 people / month are searching for kim kardashians sexy feet...so there’s that.
Match
Type
Symbols Matches to: Example Keyword Matches to:
25. For the vast majority of marketers, I do NOT recommend
running ad campaigns using broad match keywords.
By default, they will generate fewer qualified leads, drive
irrelevant traffic, spend wastefully and recklessly and
then leave you wondering why your campaigns didn’t
perform well.
26. PAY CLOSE
ATTENTION
NOTE: Search Keywords are the terms that you select to run in
your campaign. If you’re looking at only Search Keywords
and running any match type except for Exact match, you’re
doing yourself and your business a disservice by not knowing
the full story regarding terms that are driving conversions.
27. Click on Search Terms
Click on Search Terms and you’ll see the ACTUAL terms that
are driving clicks and conversions to your site. It’ll also allow
you to find inefficiencies.
Example: Venture X was running a broad match keyword for the
word Corporate. As a result, budget was wasted on terms like the
ones you see here.
28. PROTIP: Always be testing.
User intent is crucial when formulating a keyword strategy. The more
general the terms, the less likely users are to convert. The more specific the
term, the more likely the user will take the action you want them to take
(e.g. purchase product or service).
Consider testing purchase-intent words to your campaigns. Instead of “air
jordan shoes” as a target keyword, try “buy air jordans online” or “order air
jordans.” By adding the purchase-intent term, you’ve already established
that the searcher has passed the research phase in the purchasing funnel
and is ready or almost ready to convert.
29. Our original target cost per
acquisition was set at $300.
These terms are converting far
under the target (woohoo!) and
are performing extremely well.
Analyze the Data
31. A/B Test Ad Creative
By A/B testing multiple titles and
descriptions in a paid campaign,
you can leverage the data sets and
optimize your organic Title tags
and Meta Descriptions to be
reflective of the text you already
know converts and drives high
click through rates.
34. Organic “FREE” Traffic/Conversions After Implementation
16 paid conversions at $300 / conversion would have cost us $4,800. Instead, these ones cost us
nothing more than the time it took to optimize the landing page based on the paid conversion data.
35. Key Takeaways
1. Paid Search should be used to complement an Organic Search strategy
2. 4 keyword match types; don’t use broad match.
3. Always be testing. Don’t “set it and forget it” or you’ll spend inefficiently.
4. Use the paid keyword and ad data to inform the Organic Search strategy,
and then implement.
5. Get qualified traffic that drives conversions, not just visits.
6. Make money, endorse me on LinkedIn later. :)
