Understanding Adwords

The purpose of your website is to attract potential buyers and convert them into paying customers. Using relevant keywords will allow you to fulfill this primary objective. The right keywords can attract targeted users that want to buy the products you have to offer. The more relevant keywords that you rank well for, the more business you will do. So by constantly optimizing your Google AdWords campaigns and expanding your keyword lists, you also expand the potential market for your website.

• Long tail keywords that give you depth and allow you to dominate a particular market – so, moving from ‘omega 3’ to ‘omega 3 supplements’ to ‘omega 3 supplement benefits’.
• Related keywords that allow you to broaden the range of market sectors that you can target. So if, you’re selling omega 3 products, you may find opportunities in related keywords such as ‘lower cholesterol’, ‘fish oil’ or ‘fatty acids’. Related keywords can make you aware of markets that you might now have considered.

When you select a keyword to use, you can specify various keyword matching options that will determine how and when the ad appears.

Broad Match: Surprisingly this is the default setting for keywords. Google tries very hard to provide relevant results to searches so one would think they would want to force the advertiser to be more focused on the keywords they choose. If you use "Broad Match" with your keyword your ad will be associated with other keywords or key phrases that include your keyword or key phrase but not necessarily in the same order. In other words, if your keywords are Georgia Aquarium your ad could appear when someone searches for Georgia Aquarium, or Aquarium Georgia, Aquarium Stores in Georgia, Cheap Aquarium Repair Georgia. 

The Broad Match method saves time because you don't need to find and type in a lot of different keywords for your ad campaign. However, your ads might be displayed to an audience that has little need of your product. Worse yet, the user might click on your ad anyway, resulting in a click fee but no sale. You need to convert people who arrive at your website into paying customers. If you don’t do that, then it doesn’t matter how many visitors you have to your website.

Match Exact Phrase: By entering the keyword enclosed in quotation marks, your ad will be shown when a user searches for the phrase in the exact order. Now, if you use quotation ,marks for "Georgia Aquarium" your ad would appear only when someone searches for Georgia Aquarium, or Tickets for Georgia Aquarium , Georgia Aquarium Open Times. The words must be in the same order as in your keyword or key phrase.

This option gives you a more targeted campaign and will help improve your conversion rates as long as the user enters the words in the order you expect.

Match Exact Term Only: If you surround your keywords or key phrase with square brackets, your AdWords ad is only displayed if the user searches for the words in the keyword and in the order you have them listed. The user can not enter any other words in the search and trigger your ad. If your keyword is [Georgia Aquarium] the your ad only appears if someone types in Georgia Aquarium and not with searches of Tickets for Georgia Aquarium , Georgia Aquarium Open Times.
  
The use of Match Exact Term further limits many searches and narrows down your target audience. It is the most target of all the options and generally only displays your ad to those users you would want to visit your site. The down side to this is that it might only receive a few searches, especially if your budget is low.

Negative Keyword: The use of negative keywords is perhaps the most difficult and unusual option in that it affects all other keywords in the campaign. If you enter a keyword preceded by a minus sign, then this keyword is considered a negative keyword and means that your AdWord ad will not be shown if the search query contains that word. If your keyword list contains the keyword Georgia Aquarium  and the negative keyword -open times then if someone searches for Georgia Aquarium Open Times or Georgia Open Times Aquarium your ad will not be shown.

The negative keyword tool allows you to exclude many searches that don't pertain to your website, further narrowing the audience you are targeting. You must be careful when using it though since it is easy to accidentally exclude words or phrases that might be included in a legitimate search for by potential customers. 

TIP:

If you are still unsure of which option to use, use all three in your keyword list.

Georgia Aquarium
"Georgia Aquarium"
[Georgia Aquarium]

Keep checking to see which of the three keywords have the best clickthrough rates and delete the ones that are not effective.