MindValley Labs Internet Marketing Blog

The goal of every Google AdWords advertiser is to get winning results with Google AdWords. So, today, I am going to share one mistake that I see almost all new Google AdWords advertisers make. If you make this mistake, this is a sure fire way to guarantee that you will not get winning results with Google AdWords.

What is the mistake?

Not using all of the keyword matching options intelligently in Google AdWords. In other words, I see far too many advertisers that initially buy ‘broad phrase’ keywords without having build a solid list of negative keywords. The results of this will always be far worse than what they could be.

Why do so many new Google AdWords advertisers make this mistake?

There are primarily two reasons

1. Not thinking broad enough
2. A lack of understanding and experience

Every Google AdWords advertisers gets excited by the search volume that they see for general keyword phrases. While it is true that this is where the bulk of the searches are there is a big problem with using a ‘broad phrase’ match.

Let me give you a real world example of a business we just consulted in the real estate category. Our client runs a very successful company that offers a leading tool for real estate agents and one of the keywords the client was bidding on was ‘real estate.’ Our client was bidding on this keyword without having build a list of negative keywords.

This is a sure way to get killed in Google AdWords and it will be impossible to get winning results with this system.

Why?

There are a milliion different people that look for real estate on Google. Obviously, our client only wants to reach his target audience (real estate agents). So, bidding on such a general keyword phrase, will mean that his ads gets served when lots of people that are not real estate agents type in “real estate” in Google.

Far worse, our client was not thinking of all the other combinations of keyword phrases that contain the words ‘real estate’ that his company has nothing to do with. For example:

- Real estate investing
- Real estate taxes
- Real estate mortgages
- Real estate construction
- Real estate builders
- Real estate finance
- Real estate litigation

The list of negative keywords goes on and on and on. By just including a broad match ‘real estate’ and NOT building a very comprehensive negative keyword list, our clients ads would have surfaced for tons of unrelated searches on Google. Worse, our client was bidding up to $1.00 per click.

Bidding on broad keyword phrases such as ‘real estate’ can be a great way to get winning results with Google AdWords but only under one condition. The keyword phrase has to be relevant for your target audience and you have to build a bullet proof negative keyword list.

The fastest and best way to build both positive and negative keyword lists rapidly is WordTracker.

Recent posts by Mike

• What Does Your Order Button Say?
• Will Knol Rule The Search Engines? First Analysis Indicates...It Just Might
• Are small businesses dropping out of AdWords?
• How I Got on The First Page of Google With My Last 4 Blog Posts in a Row
• AdWords Conversion Tracking - The Ultimate Guide

About the Author

Prior to MindValley Media, Mike was the Head of New Ventures Strategy at eBay where he conceived of the strategies that led to the investment in Craigslist, the launch of Kijiji.com and the acquisition of Skype. Mike has an MBA from Stanford and previously worked for the Boston Consulting Group. He is also a certified Google AdWords Professional.

Check out other posts by Mike

If you want to see what's in the private lab...

Ask yourself... which part of your business would you most like to improve?

I can send you 7 tactics related to your specific needs, if you like.

You don't have to buy anything, just take it as a backstage pass into our private course.

Will it give you the solution you've been waiting for?

There's only one way to find out.