Negative Keywords Produce Positive Returns

Online search traffic continues to grow exponentially. With more traffic comes a wider range of search terms as well.

For a PPC marketer, this is a blessing and a curse. I like having more customers to advertise to, but I can’t read the minds of search engine users. Some searchers use the most odd-ball keyword phrases and still click on my ads. Maybe I’m just that alluring.

I can’t express how important it is to utilize negative keywords in a PPC campaign. For those unfamiliar with negative keywords, these are special keywords used to eliminate searches that a PPC advertiser doesn’t want their ad to show up on.

A wonderful example of negative keywords in use is the word “free” when used with B2C sites. B2C companies aren’t usually in the business to give things away. If a user were to search using the keyword phrase “free bicycles,” hopefully none of the ads served would be companies selling bikes.

By choosing the negative keyword “free,” the advertiser would be able to focus their audience down to the users that want to purchase bicycles, thus improving their conversion rate and ROI.

Negative keywords may be one of those features that separate the professionals from amateurs. Reaching out to as many interested people as possible seems to be the initial thought in a PPC campaign. Time and experience will show that with greater focus comes a greater return. Use the negative to produce the positive.

To the advertisers not using negative keywords yet, try it out and you’ll see the difference.