What is Keywords?
Keywords about the process of setting up how much you are willing to pay to achieve a specific goal with your search ads.
This goal could be related to driving visibility, conversions or clicks.
Let’s say you are promoting your yoga mats and will drive traffic to a destination page on your site. Your bid would be the amount you are willing to pay for each click on your ad if it appears in results like these:
Optimizing your bids can improve your chances of showing up and also keeps costs under control.
How does the key word bid process work?
The keyword’s bidding process involves advertisers who bid through an auction, which helps determine which ads appear when someone is looking for a relevant expression.
Here are the most important steps:
- You choose keywords that are relevant to your ads and landing pages
- You set your bid – either at keyword level, ad group level or use automated strategies
- When a user performs a search, an auction occurs
- Google displays ads based on bids and a number of other auction factors
- You can pay per. Click, Impression or Conversion – Deposing Your Bid Strategy
Note that your ad’s position depends on more than just your bid amount.
Google is considering several factors during the auction including:
- The context of the search (such as device, location and time of day)
- The quality and relevance of your ad and destination page
- Ad ranked threshold – the minimal score needed for your ad is eligible to display
This system rewards advertisers who create useful, relevant ads. Not only those who are willing to spend the most.
What are the most important keyword offering strategies?
Google offers two main types of keyword quotation strategies: manual and automated.
Manual bidding allows you to choose how much you are willing to pay.
Automated bid uses Google AI to handle bids for you based on your goals.
Here’s a quick manual versus automatic comparison of bids:
|
Manual bid |
Automated bid |
|
|
Bids set |
You |
Google ads |
|
Time obligation |
High |
Low |
|
Best for |
Tight control |
Scaling and saving time |
Based on your campaign goal you can choose between these automated strategies:
- Maximize click: Get the most possible clicks within your budget
- Maximizing conversions: Get as many conversions as possible within your budget. Optional you can set a target CPA to guide performance.
- Maximize the conversion value: Get the most total conversion value from your budget
- Measure costs per Action (CPA): Get as many conversions as possible on the average CPA you’ve set
- Target returns on ad -consumption (ROAS): Get as much conversion value as possible by the return you want from every dollar used
- Target impression part: Set Auto Bid to display your ad at the top of the page or in a particular position in search results based on your visibility target
You may also encounter the term “smart bid” – a subgroup of automated bids that focuses on optimizing conversions or conversion value.
How to Start Keywords Buddy
To start bidding on key words, you need a Google Ads account.
You can quickly create one from the Google Ads website. Check Google’s installation instructions for more details.
When your account is ready, follow these basic steps:
1. Choose the correct keywords
Choosing keywords that are both popular among your target audience and relevant to what you are promoting gives your campaign the best chance of success.
You can access keywords in Google ads to discover new keywords.
Go to Key Word Planner and enter terms related to your campaign to view key words and measurements such as:
- Avg. Monthly searches: Shows how often the key word is searched on Google each month
- Competition: Telling you how competitive the key word is in Google ads based on how many advertisers offer that
- At the top of the page bid (low and high interval): Estimates of how much you have to pay for each click to appear at the top of the search results for that keyword
For more accurate search volume data and other useful insights, use Semrush’s keywords magical tools.
Open the tool, enter a broad term related to your campaign, select a place and click “Search. “
You will see a list of keyword ideas and measurements such as:
- Search volume: The average number of searches The key word becomes per. Month
- Cost per Click (CPC): The average amount that advertisers pay for a click of an advertisement triggered by that keyword
- Competitive density (com.): A score from 0 to 1.00 showing how competitive a key word is in paid search
- Intention: Reveals what the searcher is trying to achieve, likes to learn something, compare products, make a purchase or visit a specific place
Consider the following when deciding which terms to choose:
- Match your campaign: Choose keywords that closely relate to what you are promoting and the ads you are running
- Look for commercial and transaction intention: Select terms showing someone actively investigating options or ready to intervene (eg “best vegan protein powder” and “buy vegan protein powder”)
- Balance volume vs. competition: Keywords with high volume can reach more people but are often more competitive and expensive
- Use CPC as a guide not a rule: A high CPC means others offer aggressively – an indication that an expression is valuable. But you can always start lower and adjust later.
To learn more, check out our step-by-step guide on how to do PPC keyword surveys for your ad campaigns.
2. Create your campaign in Google ads
When you are ready to create a campaign, start by selecting an objective and campaign type (“Search” in this case). And it determines what bid strategies you want to see during the setup.
Follow the requests to complete these initial setup steps.
Then when you the bid section where you choose what you want to focus on. Such as conversions, clicks or impressions.
Here’s what Google recommends:
- If you want site trafficUse maximized clicks
- If you want more conversions (sales or leads)Use maximized conversions or targets CPA
- If you want to have sales of higher valueUse maximize conversion value or target roas
- If your target is visibility in search resultsUse target impression part
Let’s say you choose “Conversions“
You can automatically let Google maximize conversions. Or you can manually set a target CPA.
Next, add keywords and create your ads.
Once done, you move on to set your average daily budget, which checks how much you are willing to spend every day.
Once you have filled in all the most important campaign information, you are ready to review and launch.
3. Launch and monitor your campaign
When your campaign is live, you need to monitor your ad performance.
Which measurements you track to measure performance depends on your campaign type and goals. Here are a few common scenarios to look at:
- If you run main generation ads and get lots of clicks but get conversions: Pause Underpresting Keywords and Consider Testing Stronger Landing Sites or more relevant ad copy
- If your target is place traffic but your ads don’t get impression: Consider raising your bids or choosing more relevant keywords to increase visibility
- If your campaign is running conversions but your budget runs out quickly: Focus on improving your AD Quality and Landing side experience to increase efficiency. So you can continue to target high -performance keywords without too much pay
- If a specific key word converts well but doesn’t get many impressions: It may be worth increasing your bid slightly to increase visibility
There is no approach to one size to suit everyone. But monitoring the benefit helps you optimize your bids and improve the results over time.
Improve performance by studying your competitors
Once you’ve run a few campaigns and feel comfortable with keyword bids, see what you can do to get better results.
Start by analyzing your competitors using Semrush’s advertising research tool to see:
- How much your competitors use on ads
- Which keywords they offer
- What each key word costs
Use these insights to set more efficient initial bids and prioritize keywords that deliver the best return.
Try advertising research today.