One of the most important aspects of a Google Ads campaign is the keywords you bid on.

This determines the likelihood that your ad will pop on when people are searching for relevant terms like "house cleaners near me" or "commercial cleaning company in the area."

If getting your keywords launched only takes you 15 seconds, then you are leaving some serious cash on the table.

So let's discuss how to maximize your opportunities in the easiest way, possible!

Search Keywords

These are the keywords you bid specific dollar amounts on to have your ad appear in search results.

Within search keywords, there are three classifications of keywords:

• Broad Match. ex. house cleaning
• Phrase Match. ex. "house cleaning"
• Exact Match. ex. [house cleaning]

Broad match is the most common form of keyword people bid on. It is simply the search term without any special characters.

Broad match keywords have the ability to appear on what google deems as related. Let's say you are bidding on the keyword "cleaning." Your ad could potentially pop up when people are searching for terms like "how to clean shoes" or "computer cleaning."

This is not the most wise use your budget which is why I never recommend people use broad match keywords.

With phrase match, keywords are placed within quotations. Your ad will only appear for searches of these terms in the order you present these keywords.

For example, if your keyword is "house cleaning," your ad may appear for "best house cleaning" or "house cleaning service near me" since 'house cleaning' is in the phrase.

What your keyword would not appear in is searches like is "tips for cleaning a house." Even though 'cleaning' and 'house' are present, they are not in the correct order.

Lastly, you have exact match keywords. These keywords are distinguished by brackets.

Exact match keywords only translate to searches where the search term is exactly matches what you're bidding on.

Going back to the "house cleaning" example, your ad would only appear if someone was searching for 'house cleaning.' If they were to search for "best house cleaning," your ad would not appear for this search.

Exact match is a lot more strict. You are less likely to appear in searches, however are more likely to get cheaper search results/clicks because of them.

What do I recommend?

I believe everyone should be using a combination of "Phrase match" and [Exact match] keywords.

You'll want to create separate ad groups with both families of keywords for testing purposes. Once you find a winning ad group, you can kill the inferior ad group and scale the winner.

Sample search keyword chart for cleaning services with various combinations.

Negative Keywords

Just as you want your ad to appear for specific search queries, you also don't want your ad to appear for certain search queries! Negative keywords allow for protection against this.

The way I like to design my negative keyword list is by columns in a spreadsheet. Each column represents a certain category of keyword, such as cleaning products, competitors, DIY phrases and more.

Every now and then a term that does not belong will find its way to your campaign, and thus your negative keyword list. That's why it's important to track your search terms on a weekly basis as a bare minimum.

Most advertisers are spending thousands of dollars on unqualified clicks and don't even realize it!

A list of all the keywords we don't want our ads to appear for!

Build As You Go

Launch now, refine later.

Creating a search keyword list and negative keyword list for your Google Ads campaign is not a one-and-done process. Over time, you will cultivate search terms that may or may not apply to your service, and you can optimize your campaign as needed.

Take me as an example. I manage multiple ad accounts and am constantly learning what types of terms audience members search for.

By keeping an eye on the search terms of my clients' accounts, occasionally a new search term will appear. I simply add it to my master keyword list when this happens. You guys should do the same.

To get started, don't feel like you need a list of 1,000 keywords. You can start with let's say 20-30 core search keywords, a solid list of negative keywords (terms you don't want to appear for), and you'll be set.

Analyze your search terms and you will see how relevant your ads are to the locals.