Managing the Tail IS Worth the Effort!

Yesterday on Search Engine Land, George Michie wrote an excellent piece describing why the long tail of PPC is most definitely worth managing. I agree wholeheartedly and just wanted to chip in my $0.02.

Message Match & Intent

The first point that George debunks is the idea that you don’t need to worry about all those tail terms because your broad-matched head terms are picking them up anyway. While this may be true, the more accurate messaging (both in the ad and the landing page) will produce a more qualified lead or more sales. Face-to-face salespeople are always customizing the message based on what the customer lets them know. You know what the person searched, so do something with that information!

Tools

For the inexperienced PPC manager, the time requirement for maintaining a good tail strategy is often the biggest hurdle. While experience will help, properly leveraging certain tools is vital to your success. Here are a couple to start out with:

  • Search Query Reports – The new AdWords interface made this super easy. Go to the Keywords tab and then select the drop-down box labeled “See search terms…” Click the “All” option and Voila! You have a keyword report of the actual terms triggering your ads. Find top-performers that you don’t already have in your keyword lists and then give them a little extra TLC.
  • Excel – This is the benchmark by which all PPC tools are mentioned. You don’t have to be a wizard, but the basic functionality of Excel will allow you to digest a lot of information much more easily.
  • Keyword Tools – Google has a couple flavors (the search-based keyword tool and the old keyword tool), Wordtracker has one and there are plenty more. Use these to help you find new keywords that you might have missed otherwise.

What tools do you use and how do you use them?

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 9:33 am and is filed under PPC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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4 Responses to “Managing the Tail IS Worth the Effort!”

  1. Amelia Says:
    January 19th, 2010 at 10:18 am

    Hi,

    I also really rate long tail PPC terms. I am, however, really frustrated that a high amount of long tail terms with low volume quickly become labeled with “Low Search Volume” and effectively become deactivated. Surely Google should want to monetise any and all available keywords?

    It also takes a really high amount of search volume for these “inactive” keywords to become active – which is unlikely for many terms.

    I thought this was something that was going to be ironed out with the updated quality score (first page bid estimates) – but it is just as much a problem now.

    I have had to remove a number of inactive, long string keywords from campaigns over worries that they are negatively impacting the account’s quality score.

    Amelia

  2. Eloi Says:
    January 19th, 2010 at 10:38 am

    I whole hartedly agree with Amelia on this one,

    Adwords completely killed the long tail of search in favour of expanded broad match, which is just a way for Google to artificially increase bids by having many more advertisers enter the same auction.

    Eloi

  3. Robert Says:
    January 19th, 2010 at 10:53 am

    You’re both right. Google makes their money on AdWords, so sometimes they sacrifice advertisers on the altar of profit.

  4. Amelia Says:
    January 19th, 2010 at 11:13 am

    I am wondering how “sacrificing advertisers on the alter of profit” (yes i do have a mental image of this) fits in with their Do No Evil motto?

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