Long tail keywords are an important part of any successful AdWords campaign. I previously discussed why you should add long tail keywords to your AdWords account in separate Ad Groups. However, simply adding them to the account would not ensure that ads are always triggered by long tail keywords and not by short tail keywords. Let’s look at the following example.
Account structure
For sake of simplicity, let’s consider we have 2 ad groups with 1 keyword each. One short tail keyword London hotel & another long tail keyword London hotel rates. (I know i am cheating here by calling London hotel rates as a long tail keyword. This is for explaining the example easily). Let’s also assume that these keywords are in phrase match.
| Keyword | Ad Group | Match Type |
|---|---|---|
| London hotel | London_hotel_phrase | phrase |
| London hotel rates | London_hotel_rates_phrase | phrase |
Problem
Let’s assume that the bid for a short tail keyword is 10 and for a longtail keyword is 5. This should be calculated by looking at historical conversion ratios of these keywords.
In this case, the bid of short tail keyword will overpower the bid of long tail keyword and enter the auction and will get clicks at a higher cost than what is desirable.
In this particular example, the clicks for the long tail keywords will be triggered by the short tail keyword at a higher cost.
This has to be avoided to have a well optimized AdWords campaign. We hence need a structure which will not allow short tail keywords to enter the auction of long tail keywords
Solution
The solution for this problem lies in the clever implementation of negative keywords. In this particular example, A negative phrase keyword London hotel rates are added to the short tail keyword ad group to prevent it from entering the auction for long tail keywords. The resulting structure will be as follows.
| Keyword | Ad Group | Match Type |
|---|---|---|
| London hotel | London_hotel_phrase | phrase |
| London hotel rates | London_hotel_rates_phrase | phrase |
| London hotel rates | London_hotel_phrase | negative phrase |
The above structure will prevent competition between long tail and short tail keywords
Learn the Analysis of Long Tail Keywords in Google AdWords for Different Industries
