Composing Ad Copy: Keywords and Longtail Keywords

Keywords are the foundation to any copy, ad copy, or text you have on the internet. Since that is the case, it is important to know exactly what keywords are and the function they perform. What's the big deal, aren't they just words? Well yes and no. Keywords are the specific words you expand the rest of your copy around so that when people are searching for a specific subject they are presented with results related to what they are searching for.

Sounds easy enough, but the truth is certain words are very profitable and as a result very competitive. This can deter the inexperienced from entering the game all together. Some incredibly competitive categories are 'making money online', 'weight loss', 'auto insurance', 'home loans', 'lawyer', and 'mesothelioma'. Meso what? That is or has been the number one and most competitive keyword for some time now based on the million dollar court settlements related to this disease. Huge law firms compete for top ranking for this word. Certain words and phrases are competitive for a reason. Money.

It's important to grasp this concept early on in your internet marketing journey to avoid much wasted time and money. There are experts who do nothing but target these top profitable keywords making it seem impossible for the novice to carve out their position. You can do one of two things. You can learn the strategies and become an expert yourself or you can find ways to attract the overflow of people who are searching for related topics but just not the exact keywords.

What I am referring to is "long tail keywords". There are tools that allow you to create these long tail keywords that have many people searching for them but little competition. That is the key and I'll repeat it. Heavily searched words and phrases with little competition. Say you're offering vitamins and natural supplements on your website or you have an affiliate link to such a site; you might be ready to promote it. When composing your page copy or ad; find ways to use the lesser used word combination. For example, the word "vitamins" is very competitive, as well as the word "health", so find a phrase like "new homeopathic remedies" or "family health solution", or "discount vitamins in Atlanta, Georgia".

Finding the right combination won't happen instantly but once you find it - run with it. This is what the top internet earners do. It takes experimentation and split testing, but the results of the extra time spent is very rewarding. Well written ads will bring in more traffic and well written copy will call the reader to action. It is also more likely that good copy will be crawled and appear in the results and rank higher naturally or organically when people are searching for that phrase.

This strategy relates to any copy, but can especially be used in your pay-per-click campaigns. When composing an ad for a pay per click campaign, make sure your keywords appear in your ad title and somewhere in your two-line description. Google will bold the keyword wherever it appears, so the more often you include it in your ad, the more your ad stands out. Google will also consider your ad more relevant to the keyword which can translate into a lower cost per click for you. Plus, your ad will appear more relevant to the person who typed in that keyword, so they’ll be more likely to click on your ad.

Another important tip regarding Google Adwords, which is the main pay per click service, is to set a daily budget and to use the adwords tool to set your bid for those words. Bidding of course determines how often your ad will appear in the results. This is why it's best to look for those combinations that only cost around .05 versus $15 or $20 on up per click. Set your budget options to the standard delivery method so your ads show evenly over time. Then set the ad serving option to “rotate” so your ads are displayed more evenly. These settings will give you the best variety of searchers. Also, "uncheck" the content network box as this will have your adds showing on other sites and not so much on the search results pages.

Keep all of this information in mind when composing video titles, article headlines, page copy or other ad campaigns, as well. It will make the difference in how far your ad dollar goes. It will also make the difference in being organically ranked which is better than paid traffic to begin with. Just remember to use long tail keywords instead of the competive expensive words and to try a variety of combinations.

If you thought this was helpful drop by my blog by clicking HERE or see what else I'm up to HERE or visit my page right here on Sta.rtUp.Biz. I hope this was helpful.



Copyright 2008 James Broadfoot