Hot Viral Tactics & PPC Keyword Leverage

Happy Independence Eve! With the central summer celebration about to start, I thought I would search out summer-themed keywords that PPC marketers are bidding on. And what summer-specific keyword is more appropriate to start with than ‘hot dog’?

This search should produce some simple results. One would hope that several large hot dog companies would be advertising on Google with ads leading to viral landing pages and engaging content.

Turn off the grill – this is definitely not the case.

Only one of the four paid search results actually talks about hot dogs and it’s about a steak dog, not even a real hot dog! The remaining ads are for an insurance company, a local mall, and a large chain store.

With all of the negative rumors about how eating hot dogs will mutate your child into a mountain lion-goat beast, you would think that this would be a hot search term and that some companies would be defending the hot dog industry. Additionally, there are only four Google ads running on this keyword (two of which are geo-targeted) so the costs can’t be that extensive.

In this case, ‘hot dog’ is a very general keyword though; it would also be wise to provide a memorable experience to the user. Wacky images/videos, grilling games, hot dog statistics and trivia, etc. are all viral-ready content creations that a company could provide to the user so they will remember (and share) #1 Hot Dog Company, Inc.

Look at your own company, think of the simple keywords that describe what you do or sell, and provide a memorable user experience. But, for tomorrow, just enjoy the summer.