Whether you’re a novice or seasoned PPC marketer, a pivotal part of your paid search campaigns will lie in keyword selection. Casting a wide, yet well-targeted net to attract the right audience is a bit of an exercise in guess-and-check, but there are certainly best practices to explore.

Keep the following tips in mind when expanding upon your current list as they may help to improve and refine your target customers:

Focus on the high performers

• Charles Thrasher recently posted about optimizing keyword sets for adCenter in Different Engines, Different Tactics. More specifically, he states that broad, 'head' terms are a great way to maximize performance in the Microsoft engine. You’ll find the opportunity to bid more aggressively on these seemingly broader terms than you may on other engines.
• Search your keyword library for high-performing keywords (high volume/strong CTR) and look to expand on these with strong call-to-action qualifiers. Add plurals and even misspellings if you haven't done so already.
  

'Tis the season

• Take advantage of those Hallmark holidays! Seasonal events can lead to great conversions, especially if you utilize holiday or event-specific keyword choices.
• You don’t have to rely solely on traditional holidays. Things like back-to-school sales, tax season, or even upcoming, professional sporting events can give you opportunities to better target your audience. Get creative, and start marking your calendars!
  

• You can expect your brand terms to perform well through adCenter, but don’t stop there. Well-versed shoppers and searchers could be looking for product ID’s and codes for particular items, so make sure you include these.
  

• Want some help with expanding your Microsoft keyword inventory? Have you tried the adCenter Add-in Beta for Excel 2007? This is a fantastic tool for optimizing specifically to high-performing adCenter terms, and all from within Excel. You can refer to additional posts for more detailed explanations, but some of the highlights include:
• Keyword Expansion utilizing both contained and campaign-associated terms
• Keyword extraction from landing pages
• Monetization data for keyword sets across match types and ad position
• Monthly and Daily traffic data
• You’ll need to run the plug-in through Excel 2007. You can find download information on the Microsoft Advertising web site.

 
If you'd like more information, check out the Choosing Keywords Flash tutorial on the adExcellence site, as well as adCenter Labs for ideas. Questions or comments? Let us know in the forum.