Keyword gold mines you might have missed
We’ve all been there. Account growth has been incrementally growing (hooray!) but the client has made the bold step to say “Let’s drop the ROAS and push revenue a bit harder” – Great! So you set about keyword mining (the process of searching for a list of new keywords or phrases that are relevant for a specific business), but suddenly hit a brick wall on new ideas.
Well fear not! This article is designed to help PPC’ers of all levels find untapped keywords (away from just Search Term Reports), trends and topics to help make new keyword mining a breeze!
1. Google Search Console
Long under used by PPC’ers the world over, Google Search Console (or GSC for the purposes of saving me typing!) is undoubtedly a hotbed of direct user queries associated with your account.
Provided GSC has been set up correctly, advertisers can gather information on pre-click data such as organic search queries and clicks – The ‘other side’ of the paid media marketing coin! The section I’ll be focusing on in particular is ‘Queries’.
By visiting the ‘Performance’ section of GSC (found in the left hand toolbar)
And ensuring that you’re clicking ‘queries’ (as covered below), paid advertisers can gain a direct insight into a treasure trove of organic user query data, not necessarily covered with Google Ads search query reports.
What we can also see from the above is the levels of organic traffic that certain queries have driven. This can be particularly useful when considering lower funnel keywords, more likely to convert.
2. Google Trends
Google Trends is more than just a ‘seasonality checker’ (not a technical term, don’t quote me on that!) – It’s a great place to clear that creative block and find not only suitable keywords but also relevant topics.
Once you’ve carried out your search around a ‘core keyword’, users can see information on related topics and queries by scrolling to the bottom of the page.
Not only does the queries section give you direct keyword ideas but by reviewing the topic section, advertisers may be able to delve deeper into relevant topics they had previously not noticed.
There’s more too! Through clicking the dropdown within the relevant category, users can sort between ‘rising’ or ‘top’ topics/queries, helping to keep ahead of search trends.
3. Tik Tok
It’s very much the ‘in’ thing at the moment for marketers to use tiktok for their individual niches (to varying levels of success) but Tikok can actually be useful for finding new keywords and trends on specific subjects.
As you can see with the below, it’s probably better to think of this as more of a ‘query finding’ tool, rather than a direct keyword tool, but nonetheless offers insights based on user searches.
Moreover through reviewing the ‘hashtags’ section, advertisers can gain an insight into relevant hashtags which will not only give you brownie points with social media managers client or agency side, but also helps to get a gist of what’s trending at that point in time via the ‘views’ column.
4. YouTube comments section
Now I should start this paragraph with *PROCEED WITH CAUTION* – It’s common knowledge that comment sections are often toxic rabbit holes and YouTube is no different (my opinion). That being said, they can be useful to gauge specific questions that consumers may have, which can help you rethink your keyword approach and get your creative juices flowing!
Take the below for example:
By considering this direct question, you may be able to go away and see what search volumes are for similar queries and/or keywords e.g performance max optimisation, optimisation by channel for performance max.
Again I reiterate, whilst you should always proceed with caution by taking this step, it could just prove helpful in changing your perspective on your keyword research approach.
5. Bonus (but a bit of a cheat), DSA's
Now whilst this isn’t a keyword research approach as such, Dynamic Search Ads are a good way of ensuring relevant reach through keywords you aren’t actively bidding on. Through ensuring that you’ve added in keywords you ARE actively bidding on as negative keywords within these campaigns, Google will look for relevant searches that aren’t covered by these terms, helping to ensure wider coverage (at very little effort!).
So whilst everybody gets creative block from time to time, hopefully these helpful tips will help to get you firing on all keyword cylinders again (keyword cylinders believe it or not is a term I have just invented)!
- Keyword gold mines you might have missed - January 29, 2023