Dynamic Keyword Insertion The Right Way
Dynamic Keyword Insertion is supposed to be a way to help your Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads convert better. This is a feature provided by Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft AdCenter. But why is it that we, when searching, often see our search phrases attached to ads that appear to have no relevance to what we need?
Are the big advertisers really doing it wrong? Are the PPC consultants not utilizing the feature correctly? Or do they simply use it as an easy way out?
A friend of mine suffered from an eye infection recently and I wanted to read more about her condition on the Internet. I did manage to learn more about it in the Organic section of the Search Engine. But what really caught my eyes (sorry) were the ads placed in the Sponsored areas.
These are sample screenshots from the Yahoo side. There were similar embarassments on the Google Adwords ads too.
So what is happening here? Personally, from scanning all these ads, I’m deriving that most of these companies are saying that “I have a wide range of eye products, et cetera.” and have pretty much left it to the search engines to plug all these search keywords into the ads almost indiscreetly and dynamically.
Some of the companies are more prudent, as you can see them making the effort in the ad text wording to support either a service they provide or a product they sell. But still the bad keyword mix appears.
In both these situations, the advertiser loses on CTR due to the lack of relevance. Over time, this would eventually lead to a higher CPC and overall paid search costs.
Most are not aware that there are two things at work here.
1. Dynamic Keyword Insertion is for keyword bolding.
When the keywords are bolded in the ad text, they catch the searcher’s eyes. And simply that. It should not be deployed as a miscellaneous function to catch every unplanned variant of the keyword. Which leads to the next point.
2. Broad Match Keywords are not fully controllable.
The nature of broad matches are to widen your advertising net, whether you had intended for those extra keywords or not. When you do keyword research in your target search engine, you will see a lot of suggested keywords in addition to direct variations to your entered keywords. All these suggested keywords are potentially part of your broad match pool of your keyword ad spend.
Yes, it’s rather scary how some of these are not even relevant to your original intent. Yes, that’s what the Negative keywords are for. No, you will not fully exhaust the negative list because the suggested keywords can change month to month.
I believe that the best, most manageable, most cost effective method for deploying Dynamic Keyword Insertion is this:
- List all the possible products that you offer, grouping by product line or theme. Include possible variants of naming them.
- Start a new adgroup for each theme
- Buy only the EXACT keyword matches for these keywords
- Write your DKI-enabled ads around these product clusters or theme.
You control exactly which keywords will be bolded in your dynamic ad.
It will feel tedious initially, but it will be the clearest way to manage your keyword list. And it is forward moving - you only add to these when you discover a new keyword variant (perhaps through your Analytics) or have a new product offering.
You would, of course, still have your other ad groups that focused on other marketing aspects; like branding or name-squeeze actions. But these tend to have more generic or broad keywords. I cannot recommend using DKI methods for them.
External Reading
- How do I use keyword insertion? - AdWords Help
- Google AdWords Dynamic Keyword Insertion | SEO Book.com
- Dynamic Keyword Insertion Tips
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