Advanced Negative Strategies For Improved Paid Search Performance: Part II

by David Fishman


As discussed last month, negative keywords are an extremely important part of any top performing paid search program. Negative keywords help marketers both avoid non-converting impressions as well as shape traffic for better converting results.

Implementing “Match Type Silos”

Before I delve into new tips, I got a number of questions in response to last month’s suggestion to create “match type silos,” so I want to provide a bit more detail on how to implement this approach.

Creating match type “silos” by using a different AdGroup for each match type enables advertisers to force Google to trigger the correct keyword match type combination that triggered the user’s raw query.

Using this approach, if there is a keyword in the account matches the raw search term exactly the exact version (and related creative and landing page) will be triggered and, if a keyword in your account contains the phrase searched, the phrase version of that keyword will get the impression and finally, broader searches will trigger the broad keyword AdGroup.

While re-organizing AdGroups, and managing multiple instances of the same term might seem daunting, this approach isn’t very difficult to deploy. We suggest using copy-and-paste in Excel to build bulk sheet, or for larger scale campaigns, creating a quick Excel Macro to create the iterations for you.

Once you have created these lists in Excel, you can quickly create match-type gropus with a bulk upload.

The real challenge with this approach is maintaining this structure as you add and pause keywords by editing all three groups each time. In order to make the match type silo structure manageable after creation, I suggest using it solely for your highest volume ad groups.

Use Negatives To Shape Traffic & Avoid The Broad Match Trap

“Traffic shaping” is an advanced negative strategy used to ensure that the most relevant keyword is shown when groups represent different levels of detail or themes.

For example, consider a campaign that has two keywords in separate group. One keyword is ‘pet supplies’ and the other keyword is ‘San Jose pet supplies’.  The generic keyword ‘pet supplies’ is in a group with generic ad copy and directs traffic to a generic landing page.

The other keyword, ‘San Jose pet supplies’ is in a group with location specific ad copy and benefits from a geo-specific landing page with a unique local message to appeal to the residents of San Jose.

A typical search query might be ‘best pet supplies store in San Jose’. With this search, the advertisers risks Google serving the generic keyword with the generic ad, which doesn’t best match the user intent and could deliver poor results. However, if the query triggers the ad for ‘San Jose pet supplies’ chances are the user will be more likely to click and convert.

Broad and phrase match keywords can help Google match searches to the most relevant ad. For example, adding the negative keyword ‘San Jose’ to the generic group will ensure that the San Jose themed ads will appear over the generic ad when a search could have otherwise matched either group. Read More...