Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is an essential tool for businesses to drive traffic to their websites and generate leads and sales. To run a successful PPC campaign, you need to choose the right keywords and maintain them regularly. In this article, we’ll go through a PPC keyword maintenance checklist that can help you optimise your campaigns for 2023.

Conduct Keyword Research

The first step in PPC keyword maintenance is conducting keyword research. Keyword research is the process of finding the right keywords that your target audience is searching for. You can use tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz Keyword Explorer to identify relevant keywords.

When conducting keyword research, make sure to consider the following factors:

Relevance: Are the keywords relevant to your business, products, or services?
Search Volume: How many people are searching for these keywords?
Competition: How many other businesses are bidding on these keywords?
Cost per Click (CPC): How much does it cost to bid on these keywords?
Intent: What is the search intent behind these keywords? Are they informational, navigational, or transactional?

Organise Keywords into Groups

Once you have a list of keywords, it’s essential to organise them into groups. Grouping your keywords helps you create more targeted ad campaigns and ad groups, leading to better performance.

To organise your keywords, consider the following factors:

Similarity: Group keywords that are similar in meaning or intent.
Search Volume: Group keywords with similar search volumes to optimise bidding strategies.
Campaign Goals: Group keywords based on the specific goals of your campaign, such as increasing sales or brand awareness.

Refine Keyword Lists

After grouping your keywords, it’s time to refine your keyword lists. Refining your keyword lists involves removing irrelevant or low-performing keywords and adding new ones based on your research.

When refining your keyword lists, consider the following factors:

Click-through rate (CTR): Remove keywords with low CTRs, as they may not be relevant or engaging to your target audience.
Conversion Rate: Remove keywords that have low conversion rates or high bounce rates.
Cost per Acquisition (CPA): Remove keywords with high CPAs that are not generating a positive return on investment (ROI).
Negative Keywords: Add negative keywords to exclude irrelevant searches that waste your ad spend.

Review Match Types

PPC campaigns offer different match types that determine how closely a search query must match your keyword to trigger your ad. There are three match types: broad match, phrase match, and exact match.

Reviewing your match types helps you control the relevance and precision of your ad targeting. To review your match types, consider the following factors:

Search Term Report: Use the search term report to identify search terms triggering your ads and adjust match types accordingly.
Keyword Match Types: Ensure that your keywords match types align with your campaign goals and budget.
Negative Keywords: Use negative keywords to exclude irrelevant searches that don’t match your match types.

Monitor Bids and Budget

Finally, it’s crucial to monitor your bids and budget regularly. PPC advertising is a dynamic environment, and bids and budgets need to be adjusted based on performance.

When monitoring bids and budgets, consider the following factors:

Bid Adjustments: Monitor bids for top-performing keywords and adjust them up to stay competitive and down for low-performing keywords.
Budget Allocation: Monitor your campaign’s performance and adjust your budget allocation based on the cost per acquisition, cost per click, and conversion rates.
Seasonal Trends: Monitor trends and adjust your bids and budgets during peak periods or off-seasons to maximise performance.

Conclusion

Maintaining your PPC keywords is crucial to the success of your campaigns. Conducting keyword research, organising keywords into groups, refining keyword lists, reviewing match types, and monitoring bids and budgets are all essential steps in PPC keyword maintenance. By following this checklist, you can ensure that your campaigns are optimised for success in 2023.

Remember, PPC advertising is not a set-it-and-forget-it strategy. Continual keyword maintenance is essential to achieve the best results. By staying on top of your keyword research, organisation, and refinement, you can maximise your ROI and achieve your PPC campaign goals.