Mastering Keywords Research: Uncover Hidden Opportunities for Google Ads

The effectiveness of your PPC (pay per click) or CPC (cost per click) ads relies on their keywords. That’s true whether they’re ads on Google, Meta, or TikTok. Keywords or phrases determine, when, how frequently, and to whom they’ll appear. Depending on your terms, they’ll also affect cost. As a result, the right keywords are critical to a high ROAS (return on ad spend). We’ll explain some of the essentials of PPC ads before explaining how you can research to become a keyword master.

The Right Words are Key

Keywords or phrases are terms that various ad platforms, especially Google, use to determine in which feeds and what searches your ads should appear. Meta and TikTok also relate these to similar terms that define target audience interests, e.g. a woman who likes skiing. That means you need to assign the right keywords and targets to ensure your ads appear to the relevant audience.

These keywords and targets also determine the cost of your ads. For Google, keywords with more competition have a higher cost per click. Meta uses an auction system where quality, the expectation of an action/conversion, and the bid placed determine when it will appear to its audience. TikTok uses a similar bidding system for their own ads. More competitive or broader targets will need higher bids to appear. For smaller businesses, it isn’t financially feasible to try and outbid much larger businesses who tend to focus their ads on broad sweeps. Instead, small businesses need to pick their keywords and targets carefully and cleverly, so they can optimize their ads for a high ROAS.

Keyword Research

The right keywords/phrases and target audience are all critical for a small business to effectively budget and optimize their ads and see an impressive ROAS. Finding those right keywords takes some research, but it’s worth the effort. Plus, knowledge of appropriate keywords and phrases has other applications as well. They’re also extremely useful for improving your website’s SEO and improving its appearance in regular internet searches. For example, you can use these tools to determine blog topics and tailor their content to attract more searches. That means you need to find the right ones.

Google, Meta, TikTok, and other ad platforms provide tools to help you determine appropriate keywords. For example, Google provides a Keyword Planner that provides insightful data about the keywords, their relevance, competition, and cost. Meta provides their Ads Manager and so does TikTok which both provide similar insights while letting you manage your ads. Google also provides a similar tool, Google Trends, which tracks the search rates of topics by region. This can also be useful to gauge general or even seasonal interest in certain keywords or terms.

Picking the Right Ones: Specificity is Strength

As we already mentioned, picking keywords that are too broad will mean competing with much larger companies controlling those terms. For example, a very broad keyword like “BBQ” will mean competing with the many larger companies that sell those as well as the major brands. Instead, keyword research will help you uncover hidden opportunities in more specific terms and audiences to stand out and fully optimize those ads. As you research terms and discover more specific keywords with less competition, consider what your small business’ niche is within your industry. What particular services or kinds of products set you apart that your audience would be seeking out and be interested in? Similarly, specify audiences to the regions and demographics that fit your target group. If your customers are primarily local, your ads shouldn’t target across the country.

The Key to Successful Ads

Keywords and your audience targets are at the basis of how online ads function. To compete, smaller businesses need to research more specific and specialized terms to optimize their ads. Understanding this and using these researching tools mentioned above, small businesses can create ads that reach customers and effectively convert for a fantastic ROAS. It may not be why they’re called keywords, but it is why they’re key to your ads’ success. If you want help perfecting your digital ads or want help perfecting your keywords, be sure to contact Rosewood for our Google Ads and our social media marketing services.