Here’s a quick tip that comes in handy when you are marketing a brand of products that has a similar name to other products or services on the web.

If you want to advertise Apple, Inc. products but are having a hard time coming up with a comprehensive list of keywords, this may work for you. Add the keyword Apple as a Broad Match term with an exact negative of [Apple]. At the same time add negative terms for anything that comes up on a Google search for the term Apple that you are not advertising. For example you may add these as Negative Keywords:

• tablet
• tv
• new york city
• bank
• trailers
• rumors
• store

This accomplishes the same as building out a huge list of Phrase Match terms but with much less work. Google will look at the Broad Match terms you have listed and show ad for all of them after cross checking and excluding all your Negative keywords. Keep in mind that this may cost slightly more than running a long list of Phrase Match terms. Best thing to do is run your campaign this way for 2-4 weeks and then look at the keyword list that Google actually showed your ads for — now you can just check off the good ones and add to your campaign for a lower CPC.

Image Courtesy: zenera

Search Query Performance Report

In the new Google AdWords interface this is relatively simple. When you are in the keyword tab select a few broad match keywords or select all, and click the ‘See Search Terms…” button and select show all. This will pop open a new window with a list of the terms that trigger your ad. From this list you can check of specific keywords and select exclude. You have the ability to exclude terms on the campaign level or ad group level. These keywords will be added as negatives to you campaign or ad group depending on what you selected.

Bottom Line

Best practice is to run this every two weeks or so, especially if you are constantly making changes to your campaigns. You will find that you are shaving off significant chunks of your spend which you can reallocate to better performing keywords.