{"id":3491,"date":"2016-10-25T12:11:21","date_gmt":"2016-10-25T06:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.karooya.com\/blog\/?p=3491"},"modified":"2020-04-20T15:48:04","modified_gmt":"2020-04-20T10:18:04","slug":"transcript-paid-search-podcast-find-negative-keywords","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.karooya.com\/blog\/transcript-paid-search-podcast-find-negative-keywords\/","title":{"rendered":"[Transcript] Paid Search Podcast – How To Find Negative Keywords"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the latest Paid Search Podcast session\u00a0Chris Schaeffer<\/a>\u00a0and Jason Rothman<\/a>\u00a0discuss about Negative Keywords, which are those terms that are irrelevant to your business and are resulting in wasted ad spend<\/a>. Their primary focus in this discussion is to help advertisers with the sources through which these negative keywords can be identified.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

You can listen to the podcast here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here is the transcript of the audio, for your reference.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Transcript<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Yes! Hey everybody. Welcome back to Episode Number 27 of the Paid Search Podcast with your buddies Jason and Chris, where we talk about Google AdWords, Google AdWords and Google AdWords. Chris, how\u2019s it going?<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Good.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Good.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: I was trying to come up with something different. Every time I say I\u2019m doing well, you know, I thought, \u201cI\u2019m going to say something different this time,\u201d and then, I failed.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: You\u2019re always doing good, so we always start off the show with a joke.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Yeah.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: And one time I put you on the spot, and you came up with a big fat zero.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Yeah.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: So then you said the next week you\u2019re always going to have a joke chamber.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: I got one. I\u2019m ready.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Right, let\u2019s hear it.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: All right guys. So, why don\u2019t bears wear socks?<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Why?<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Because they have \u2018bare\u2019 feet!<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Thanks Chris.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Naughty creature. My daughter tells that one…That\u2019s my daughter\u2019s joke and she is four and its very funny.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Oh, I\u2019m sure it is. Good stuff, hey, bare feet. But, do you get it…? Like…?<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Oh no, I don\u2019t understand the joke at all.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: I had another joke that\u2019s probably not podcast say\u2026 It\u2019s about a certain kind of woman…<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Oh yeah\u2026.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: …who tends to walk bare foot in Las Vegas. So, on today\u2019s episode, Chris, we\u2019re going to talk about Negative Keywords<\/strong>. I mean, this is something we talk about very often but it\u2019s because it\u2019s extremely and very important. So we always talk about them, where to add them, why you should add them, if you don\u2019t know that by now….<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: [Laughter]<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: …it was never meant to be.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Get out [Laughter].<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Yeah, if you don\u2019t know a bee by now, you\u2019ll never know. But yeah, so you should know now why you need to add negative keywords, but on this episode, we\u2019re going to talk about how you actually find those, Chris. So Chris, I think in the first place, we\u2019re going talk about where we find those actual negative keywords, is on the Search Terms Report.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Absolutely.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: So why don\u2019t you tell us how that works?<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Alright. So, brief vocabulary lesson: Search Terms, Search Queries \u2013 synonyms, same thing, okay? So we may use those terms interchangeably. The current terminology is Search Term; Search Query is the old terminology. So Search Term, Search Query is what the person actually types into Google right before they click one of your ads. So you can find Search Terms on the \u201cKeywords\u201d tab. There are three sub-tabs under the \u201cKeywords\u201d tab, and the sub-tab on the right is labelled \u201cSearch Terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

These are all of the terms that are associated with whatever campaign or ad group you\u2019re looking at<\/strong> at that moment. Very powerful. Jason and I talked about this a lot, because quality of traffic is determined by the intent of the person coming to your website at that moment.<\/p>\n

Every person may have a potential of purchasing whatever it is that you\u2019re selling, but if they\u2019re not actually interested in purchasing whatever it is that you\u2019re selling, and they\u2019re doing a different type of search, the likelihood of that conversion goes way down. So that is why Search Terms are important, because we want to know exactly what their intent is.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Right.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: And okay\u2026. and there you go. Segway to Jason.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Right so, you want to know what their intent is, and in that Search Terms Report, you find what they search for, and then you can cherry pick out their negative keywords.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Right.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: So if you are advertising for a dentist, and you want people to find his website, call his practice, become a patient, and you see that your ad showed up on the word \u201cDental School,\u201d or \u201cDental School, Cleveland,\u201d if you\u2019re in Cleveland, then the word \u201cSchool,\u201d and the words \u201cDental School\u201d or \u201cUniversity\u201d \u2013 those sure will be negative keywords you add based on finding that data in the Search Queries Report.<\/p>\n

Chris, one example I have is a painter down in Florida. And we started off advertising on a lot of geo keywords, but also just the regulars \u201cPainters\u201d phrase match. And it turns out, \u201cPainters\u201d phrase match brings in like, way way way too, kind of, broad Search Queries, and we get all this stuff about \u201cPicasso\u201d and \u201cParty paint night\u201d and \u201cPaint in place\u201d kind of stuff, and weird things like \u201cThe 1913 painting of a girl,\u201d or whatever.<\/p>\n

So we were shown up on a lot of weird stuff. And what I\u2019ve noticed is that a lot of times in the accounts that I manage, one or two keywords is usually bringing in all those negative, all the poor Search Terms that you see on the Search Terms Report that you want to add as negatives. So you\u2019ve got an interesting thing that you\u2019ve taught me, where you can look at the Search Terms at the keyword level, and isolate one keyword at a time.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Right. And this isn\u2019t immediately obvious. What you have to do, and I\u2019m actually going to pull up a AdWords as I do this so I can guide through it. So if you\u2019re looking at AdWords right now, you go to the \u201cKeywords\u201d tab, and you have a list of keywords<\/strong>, okay? Click the checkbox just to the left of one of those keywords, and you\u2019ll notice when you click that checkbox, a couple of things will turn on. Or, previously, when there was nothing checked, they were de-emphasized; when you check the box, they become emphasized, for lack of a better term. They\u2019re now clickable.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So you can then choose \u201cSearch Terms\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 now there are two areas on your page right now that say Search Terms, I\u2019m just specifically referring to the one towards the lower half of your screen, the one that\u2019s right above the keywords. This is a button that you can actually click. So once you have the \u201cKeyword\u201d checked, you click the \u201cSearch Terms\u201d button \u2013 not the tab, the button \u2013 and you hit \u201cNow,\u201d can review all the Search Terms associated with that one keyword.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is great because like Jason said, if you have \u201cPainters,\u2019 or you know, broad-match terms and you\u2019re really concerned, you know, you think this one is really contributing, you know, \u201cWhy is this one keyword contributing 80% of the traffic and nothing else?\u201d the answer will be to look at those Search Queries and say, \u201cWow! It turns out I\u2019m getting a tonne of really bad Search Queries simply because of this one keyword.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

So that\u2019s where you go in, you add some negative keywords in, or you may decide, \u201cYou know what? I need to change this from broad to modified broad, or broad to phrase or exact, or something like that<\/strong>, or just pause it completely<\/strong>.\u201d ‘<\/p>\n

I highly recommend, you know, dissecting some of your, at least some of your top clicked keywords. I would not recommend this for keywords that have just a couple of clicks; it\u2019s not really that useful. But for ones that are driving the majority of your traffic, I think this is a great way to diagnose, you know, how a keyword in particular is performing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Right. Now, the next phase, Chris, that I find negative keywords from is the actual, probably the most valuable tool in the world that doesn\u2019t cost any money, and that\u2019s Google Search, google.com. Chris and I are in AdWords all the time, but when we\u2019re managing our accounts, we are also, in building them, we\u2019re also, we go outside of AdWords, and we go to Google Search, and you can pick up a lot of stuff, Chris, from just typing in a few of your keywords in Google and seeing what comes up.<\/p>\n

So one of the ways you can see, find negative keywords is just type your word in Google and let the Autosuggest Bar come up, and see what they have for you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now when I was out of it earlier and not responding, what I was doing is I was searching \u201cDentist\u201d in Google, and if you search \u201cDentist,\u2019 one of the auto suggestions that comes up is \u201cDentist Career,\u201d and then \u201cDentist Games.\u201d So when you\u2019re building out an account, if you\u2019re a dentist, you want to use this information and add the word \u201cCareer\u201d and \u201cGames\u201d as negative keywords.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>, another place I look is the bottom of the Search Results where they have those searches<\/strong> related to dentists.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Related, yeah, I know.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Yeah, down there we\u2019ve got \u201cDentist Games,\u201d \u201cDentist Job Description,\u201d \u201cHow to become a Dentist,\u201d so then you can take all of this and add \u201cDescription,\u201d \u201cHow to,\u201d \u201cHow to become,\u201d \u201cBecome,\u201d \u201cCareer,\u201d \u201cGames\u201d… There is a \u201cCosmetic Dentist\u201d; if they don\u2019t do \u2018Cosmetic Dentistry\u2019, you can add \u201cCosmetic\u201d as a negative. So those are all great, Chris, for finding negative keywords. And then the last place, Chris, why don\u2019t you talk about the\u2026using it to find competitor names.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Yeah.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Because a lot of these competitors get searched for actually, way more than the actual keywords themselves.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Yeah, absolutely. Now-a-days, when you have your phone and you need a phone number, you quickly search for that company\u2019s name, right? And if you\u2019re in a rush, you might click the very first thing that shows up in your Search Results. And it very often could be a paid ad. So if that\u2019s the case, you could potentially waste a lot of money if you\u2019re showing up for competitor listings<\/strong>. So, one does a search, they have absolutely no intention of purchasing your services \u2013 they just want the phone number because they want to find out where their carpet cleaner is, you know?<\/p>\n

The carpet cleaner is 30 minutes late, they\u2019ve already purchased the service and they want to call the office and say, \u201cHey, you guys just said you\u2019ll be here at 3.\u201d They click on your ad, they call… maybe they click on the \u201cClick to Call\u201d button, they have just spent your money on something that will absolutely never provide a turnaround for you; there will never be any conversion for that. And it was a complete waste, simply because you are driving clicks from competitor search terms.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Right.<\/p>\n

And just because\u2026.again, you don\u2019t target competitors\u2019 names, if you\u2019re using broad-match and even a little bit of broad match modifier of phrase, you can leave yourself eligible to showing up on lots of searches for competitors\u2019 names.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So going to Google, typing in your keyword, like \u201cDentist\u201d or \u201cDentist, Cleveland,\u201d and seeing what those top ten competitors are, and then adding those names as negative keywords right off the bat can save you a lot of money, and it can save you a lot of conversations where your secretary, whoever picks up the phone, just goes, \u201cOh, you\u2019ve got the wrong number.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Yeah.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: And then, they go, \u201cOkay, thanks,\u201d and then the secretary goes, \u201cOkay, thank you. Well, have a good day,\u2019 and just like that, 20 bucks out the\u2026.just like that.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Yeah.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: It\u2019s a 20 [inaudible 11:34] \u2026.up the door.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Yeah. I mean, I\u2019ve specifically asked a lot of clients, you know, that I noticed that this was happening. I noticed that they were getting a lot of searches for other types of business names. This was specifically a bill bond company, they were getting a lot of searches for other bill bonds,. And I noticed, Jason, as you\u2019ve taught me, that I can look at the call details in the \u201cDimensions\u201d tab, and see how long those phone calls lasted. I noticed they were lasting all of 30 seconds, you know, one minute, something like that?<\/p>\n

And, you know, I ask them, you know, \u201cAre you guys getting a lot of calls?\u201d And they said, \u201cYeah, we do get a lot of calls, people thinking we\u2019re this other company.\u201d And that was specifically due to competitor searches, and I was able to exclude all the different names that I saw coming in, and suddenly, the important terms were able to take the place of those competitor terms.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Right. I just experienced that about a month ago with a divorce lawyer here in Oklahoma City. And he came to me, and I went out and met with him after we set up a meeting and he was telling me that… And he likes to use colorful language that we are not going to use on the podcast, but he was going on and on about how f…king frustrated \u2013 I said F, then the word \u201cking\u201d \u2013 f…king frustrated he is when his secretary picks up the phone and they\u2019re asking for a different lawyer. And they\u2019re thinking, \u201cWe\u2019re not that law firm. Why do people keep calling us?\u201d And we solved that problem by adding those competitor names. And now he\u2019s a very happy lawyer. So…<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Happy lawyer, huh?<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Well, I was going to say happy as lawyers get, so…<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: [Laughter]<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: So yeah, so that\u2019s where Chris and I get a lot of negative keyword ideas, through the Google Search. So, the next place, Chris, is, if you don\u2019t know where you came from, you don\u2019t know where you\u2019re going.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Oh, wonderfully said.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Well, wow for me, wow for me. So, we\u2019re talking about the previous history; we\u2019re talking about the agency that managed the account before; we\u2019re talking about a business owner taking over an account and cleaning it up; we\u2019re talking about a new employee coming in for an employee who quit. There\u2019s a ton of data, Chris, in the Search Terms Report.<\/p>\n

Well, the biggest mistake people make is they don\u2019t look far back enough.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Yeah, even if you\u2019re starting a new campaign… Let\u2019s say you\u2019re saying you know, this other one was not successful. You know, they had really, you know, it was completely the wrong kind of stuff that we wanted. There is still data that is worth hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, depending on how much you\u2019ve spent. That data in there is incredibly valuable. And there will be Search Queries that will be real gold nuggets, and little [inaudible 14:27] and as well that are negative terms.<\/p>\n

So you want to look for those gold nuggets and those little [inaudible 14:34] and figure out which ones you should add and block in your new campaigns. So yeah, previous history I think is very important, because, you know, it can really make a difference. Even if you didn\u2019t get what you wanted out of it, you can still avoid making those same mistakes.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Right, and just speaking about the previous history, Chris, I took over like, a home foundation company this week from another agency, and they only do business in one state.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Oh-oh.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: And they had spent, like, I think like 5000 dollars from other states because they didn\u2019t have that Advance Location things set on. .<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Goodness.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: So you can find a lot of stuff in the history.<\/strong> And even the campaigns that are turned off and… There\u2019s just a ton of stuff in there. So the next place, Chris, is our home away from home \u2013 the Keyword Planner, unless you\u2019ve been on the fast…<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: \u2026home away from home.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Unless you\u2019re doing the \u201cFastest way to build an AdWords Campaign,\u201d which we were talking about last episode, we don\u2019t even need…<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Episode 26<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Yeah, Episode 26, where you don\u2019t even need the Keyword Planner. But if you go into the keyword planner and do a keyword research, Chris, it is a fantastic resource to not only get keywords but to get negative keyword ideas<\/strong>. And so I want you to walk us through our example here of our non… Oh, if anyone\u2019s disappointed here, let me just thumb up for Chris that I wanted to a moving company example.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: [Laughter]<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: I wanted to talk about moving…<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Oh gosh [Laughter]!<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: … for the 6000th time.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: We get it, we get it! You\u2019re the \u201cMoving\u201c AdWords professional, we get it.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: I might have used this phrase every day, Chris; I might have taught a mover that there\u2019s not a person breathing on this earth that knows more about moving company business and AdWords than I.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Yeah, __.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: I might have said that. But we\u2019re sick of the \u2018Moving\u2019 example. So Chris asked me to do a new one, and the first thing that came to mind was a big hunky guy doing our personal training. So I typed in \u201cPersonal Trainer,\u201d and Chris, we were set on Los Angeles here, and we were both looking at it. Why don\u2019t you just go through some of the examples here of, like, horrible words you would never want to waste budget on if you\u2019re trying to advertise your personal training business?<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Yeah, personal training business… This is a local gym that you\u2019ve set up in, right? This is a local business. So first, \u201cCertified Trainer,\u201d that\u2019s a possibility, but quickly, you know, right below that, we see things like \u201cCertifications,\u201d right? \u201cCertification to Become a Personal Trainer\u201d Immediately a negative keyword – bad idea. \u201cOnline Personal Training\u201d \u2013 nope, you know, you don\u2019t provide that. This is a local gym; immediately the word \u201cOnline\u201d is something that you would want to avoid.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Right.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: \u201cEquipment,\u201d right? So, one looking to may be start off their own business or you know, just buy the equipment themselves, \u201cPersonal Training Equipment\u201d \u2013 nope, not interested in that; you\u2019re interested in them coming to your gym, right? I mean, these are things that they may not specifically say it, but based on these extra little terms inside their keyword, you know that they are not in the right purchasing mind to actually purchase a personal training session at your location.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Yeah, it\u2019s not what they\u2019re interested in and you\u2018ve got to think like a Search user<\/strong>. Chris, I went to page three now, or page two, and I\u2019m seeing some more. \u201cIn-Home Personal Training\u201d \u2013 if you don\u2019t do in \u201cHome Personal Training\u201d, you would want to add the word \u201cHome\u201d or \u201cIn-Home\u201d as a negative keyword. \u201cTrain to be a Personal Trainer\u2019 – that\u2019s a confusing one because it\u2019s got \u201cTrain\u201d in there twice, but if you\u2019re training to be a personal trainer, you\u2019re not wanting to hire a personal trainer; so you want to block that out. Just looking for a few more here…<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: And one thing I see is, \u201cBoot camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Yeah, I was just looking at that, yeah.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Yeah, you know, \u201cBoot camp\u201d… I mean, while it may be someone who would be interested in personal training, I can tell you that boot camp price point is going to be a whole lot less than a personal trainer. Personal trainers will cost a lot of money; hundreds and hundreds of dollars for, you know, a bunch of sessions.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Right.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Boot camp is designed for a big group of people to come and meet and it\u2019s a whole lot more less expensive because you share your personal trainer across, you know, 15 different people.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Right.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: So I would contest that \u201cBoot camp\u201d is probably a bad idea, because this is someone that\u2019s looking for a lot lower price point simply from the fact that they\u2019re searching for a boot camp.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: I\u2019d agree with that, Chris, and you know, one of the most common negative keywords I add that I don\u2019t see a lot of other people adding, are the words \u201ccheap\u201d and \u201caffordable\u201d because if you have a thousand dollars to spend, and you can spend a thousand of it on people not including the word \u201ccheap\u201d or \u201caffordable,\u201d why show your ads to people who\u2019re going to be very price sensitive? So I see one here called \u201cPersonal Training Packages\u201d \u2013 so maybe that\u2019s people looking for deals.<\/p>\n

Another one, Chris, and you really… as an advertiser using AdWords, you have to retrain your brain and you have to think outside the box,<\/strong> and I\u2019ll give you an example, Chris. Let\u2019s say we\u2019re back to the creepy, single Jason days before I had my beautiful girlfriend that I have now. And let\u2019s say I\u2019m going online and I\u2019ve got bad intentions of wanting to get a personal trainer and may be turn her into a lover one day, because I\u2019m, creepy, single Jason. I see…<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: [Laughter] Right, okay. You\u2019re painting a very good picture for us.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Well, we\u2019re talking fiction here, you know, it\u2019s like thinking outside the box; I would never do this. So someone, maybe creepy, single Jason, might search \u201cFemale Personal Trainer,\u201d because I\u2019m seeing that here in the Keyword Planner. So, if I\u2019m a male personal trainer, I don\u2019t want to show up on any personal trainer searches that include the word \u201cfemale\u201d where someone is looking for exclusively female personal trainers…<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Right.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>…because they\u2019re never going to hire me because I\u2019m a male. So you really have to think outside the box and I can guarantee you, Chris, if someone\u2019s a personal trainer, and they\u2019ve never used AdWords before, they\u2019re not going to be thinking about blocking the word \u201cfemale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: And they\u2019re not going to be thinking about blocking things like \u201cvideo,\u201d \u201cpicture,\u201d \u201cpics,\u201d \u201cslogans\u201d or, you know, \u201cquotes\u201d or things like that. There\u2019s a lot of things that people just search for…<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Taxes, taxes…<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Yeah, I mean, a lot of things like that, because what you\u2019re probably going to end up choosing is you\u2019re going to choose \u201cpersonal trainer\u201d as a phrase-match keyword, right? So that means you can get the word \u201cpicture,\u201d you can get the word \u201cvideo,\u201d you can get the word, you know, \u201ctax,\u201d \u201ctax provider,\u201d something like that, you know, that\u2019s very possible.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Right, so you\u2019re not going to come up with these negative keyword ideas especially if you\u2019re new to AdWords unless you use the Keyword Planner and really dig in. And not only use it for finding keywords but really, actually using it to try to find negative keywords. So another thing, Chris, one more thing about the Keyword Planner is you can sort… What I like to do is I like to, when I\u2019m all done, with the last step, I like to do is, sort by volume, and look at the highest volume terms just to make sure I catch any high volume words that I would want to add as negative keywords that I didn\u2019t catch throughout the process sorting by relevancy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Mm, okay.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Moving on to our next topic or way of finding negative keywords.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Yes.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: You can bank them. You can come with a list of negative keywords that you go to over and over on every account; words like \u201cvideo,\u201d \u201cYouTube,\u201d \u201cfree,\u201d \u201csalary,\u201d \u201cpricing,\u201d you can save those..<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: These are often reused across…<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Right, they\u2019re apply to almost every single campaign. The word \u2018software\u2019 is another one. So Chris, you have a great resource that we\u2019re going to put in our show notes paidsearchpodcast.com\/27 and I want you to tell people about that list and how you use it.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Yeah, so there is a shared Google Doc spreadsheet that has\u2026400\u2026 last time I looked, 400 to 500 keywords on there that are across many different topics; so there\u2019s a general category, and then there\u2019s sub-categories going into tech and real estate and health care and retail, all these about\u2026<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: They have one about sex too.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Yeah, I was going to skip that one, but thanks for bringing that up [Laughter], creepy Jason. But, you know, that\u2019s\u2026 I use this all the time\u2026 [Laughter] Jason\u2019s making eyes at me, so I completely lost my concentration at that point.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: You use it all the time\u2026?<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Yeah, I use it all the time. This is something I\u2026 I don\u2019t necessarily use all, you know, one thousand keywords that they have suggested here, I\u2019ll be a little more careful because that\u2019s one thing we have not talked about yet is, Jason, you can wreck your campaign and basically destroy potential qualified clicks by having too many negative keywords<\/strong>. So you know, I want to say don\u2019t just grab everything that we\u2019re talking about here, you know, this massive list, because there\u2019s a lot.<\/p>\n

You need to be careful about what you\u2019re choosing. A lot of these are really good, but do scan these words and make sure they don\u2019t explicitly exclude some things that might be valuable to you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, we\u2019ll tell you something that has not always been available and that now is, is Google will actually tell you that certain negative keywords are blocking your\u2026 for lack of a better term, positive keywords, your matching keywords. That\u2019s not always been something that Google has alluded to to before, so that\u2019s a nice little feature, so if you do end up making a mistake, Google will tell you, \u201cHey, the keyword\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: [Inaudible 24:38]<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Yeah, you\u2019ll have the word \u201cCar,\u201d but maybe you have a keyword that\u2019s \u201cCar Sales.\u201d Google will say, \u201cHey, the word \u2018Car\u2019 is blocking \u2018Car Sales,\u2019\u201d and you can remove that keyword automatically by just clicking a button, so, great stuff. But this list is compiled by someone else, it was not compiled by us; it\u2019s just a free resource that\u2019s out there that someone has generously shared with the world.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: And now we\u2019re sharing it with all you seeking \u2026. We\u2019ll link to that on the show notes, so you guys can check it out. Now the next way, Chris, is something that nerds don\u2019t like to do, but it\u2019s about talk \u2013 getting out there, talking to people, living your life\u2026<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Social.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Being social, talking , being interested in other people, small talk, conversing, water cooler talk, that Chris does not do.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: It\u2019s exhausting me just hearing all this.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Yeah, so it\u2019s not for everyone, but when you\u2019re out there, living your life, in real life, have that negative keyword radar up. And so, if you\u2019ve got a plumber out to your house, and you happen to manage plumbing campaigns, if he\u2019s talking about his business and he mentions some weird word for a tool\u2026 Just think, may be there\u2019s something called the skirt or something that people search for. Then you can show up on other things when someone\u2019s searching for that plumbing tool or whatever.<\/p>\n

So there\u2019s just a whole lot you can learn by talking to people, reading through people\u2019s websites, learning about different industries. And not only that, but if you\u2019re advertising for yourself, talk to yourself, write down a list of things you don\u2019t want to show up on. Ask your secretary what kind of calls she gets that annoy her, that aren\u2019t people looking for the business\u2026<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Oh, good one. I like that.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: \u2026yeah, what\u2019s frustrating here and see if you can come up with ideas, because you\u2019re not going to get everything from the Keyword Planner or Google Searches initially. And Chris, you\u2019ve got another great way to kind of play defence before you even run a campaign, and that\u2019s with your ad copy<\/strong>\u2026<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Right.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>\u2026to kind of turn off people searching for different kinds of services or products or whatever.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: So negative keywords are designed to avoid people that do not qualify to see your product, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n

You know that they\u2019re probably not interested in it based on the way that they\u2019re searching. Another way to avoid unwanted clicks is to be upfront in your ad copy, okay?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you sell a service that is surprisingly high-priced, you know\u2026 Typically, a limo service might be, you know, let\u2019s say a hundred dollars for\u2026<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: High-priced for low class people.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Yes\u2026 Well, okay\u2026 Yeah, it might be a hundred dollars for one way, one evening trip. But your limo is, you know, on monster tyres\u2026<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: And a hummer.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: And it\u2019s got this just amazing, ridiculous paint job and it\u2019s just over the top, and yours is a thousand dollars a night, you know, it\u2019s in a minimum of this much. You need to put those points in your ad copy. I know you may think that, \u201cI want people to call me, I want people to click\u201d. No, you don\u2019t. No, you don\u2019t, because if they are shocked by a thousand dollar price point, they are then going to click your ad, call you on the phone, waste your time until you get to that price point and they are going to say, \u201cWhat? Are you crazy?\u201d, and then you\u2019ve lost time and money, right?<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Right.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: I mean, it\u2019s\u2026 I think it makes a lot of sense. I get a lot of push back from some of our clients who say, \u201cWe can\u2019t put our prices in the ad, you know. Are you crazy? Nobody does that.\u201d Well, I\u2019m just trying to be smart Joe, just trying to be smart. Joe is a fictional person. If I have any clients named Joe, I am not talking to you, Joe, okay?<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Right. I totally agree with you Chris, and one thing I will say is that men make plans and God less. Because sometimes\u2026<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Ah, grand.<\/p>\n

Jason:<\/strong> \u2026because sometimes you put that kind of defensive stuff in your ad copy and these lunatics just search and click, search and click, search and click, and you get the calls anyway, so\u2026<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Yeah, that\u2019s true.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: But you probably get less if you play defence like this. So Chris, as we close off the show here, we can go through a couple of our\u2026 just our favourite examples that always stick with us, that we think about from time to time, and we can show you just how weird some of the searches are in terms of what you can show up on, and how you, on a regular basis, need to be reviewing that Search Terms Report to catch things like this. So Chris, what is this \u201chomework\u201d example with this company?<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Yeah, so I had a client that was in the chemistry business; they sold chemicals of different types. So a lot of their keywords were very specific about different chemicals, and compounds, and stuff like that. So what was happening is, they would get what I called \u201chomework\u201d traffic. They would get people searching for this chemical name, and then a lot of different terms afterwards like, you know, \u201cstructure,\u201d or you know details about that certain chemical.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: I do math\u2026 how do I get off the\u2026<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Right. No, not exactly. But they would get ton of these clicks. So what I had to do was add every question term to their campaign. I\u2019ve never had to do this before, it was really interesting. It was a big risk and it ended up working out really well; they got a whole lot better traffic. I basically had to add keywords like \u201cWhat is,\u201d \u201cHow to,\u201d \u201cWhy,\u201d or you know, any type of question terminology I had to add as a negative keyword. Suddenly all the qualified clicks started coming to the top, I started seeing a whole lot better search queries, Click Through Rate improved and their total spend needed or their Search Impression Share improved dramatically, because now we got a whole lot less of the unwanted stuff showing up and the campaign improved.<\/p>\n

Jason: Was it phrase-match keywords triggering all that stuff?<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: No, they were modified broad. Some were modified broads, some were phrase. Definitely not, definitely not exact, it was not exact, but it was modified broad and phrase match.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Yeah, sometimes Chris, I manage a campaign, you know\u2026 For three months I\u2019ll just keep adding all these different \u201cHow to,\u201d \u201cWhat were,\u201d \u201cWhat does,\u201d or whatever, negative keywords with, like, little longer phrases and then eventually, I just throw my hands up and say, \u201cYou know what? We\u2019re done with the word \u2018Who\u2019!\u201d Or, \u201cWe are done with the word \u2018What\u2019 or \u2018How\u2019\u201d but I I\u2019m nervous always because like I don\u2019t want to block too much, but it\u2019s like, those words really, you can do a lot of good by just getting rid of them and just seeing what happens when your volume goes down but the quality goes way up.<\/p>\n

So my favourite example, Chris\u2026 It is from the moving business, but it\u2019s a funny one. A lot of people don\u2019t know this but I\u2019ve seen it on multiple moving campaigns. You will show up on weird searches like \u201cMoving on Lyrics,\u201d \u201cMoving on Quotes,\u201d and it\u2019s like, women or men who have been broken up with and they\u2019re trying to move on from that relationship.<\/p>\n

So why did someone searching that click on a moving company ad which says \u201cLocal Professional Moving\u201d? I don\u2019t know, but they do. It must be the tears in their eyes or the Cheeto puffs on their fingers making them click the wrong spot. But they\u2019re heartbroken, they\u2019re hungry, they\u2019re eating, they\u2019re crying, they\u2019re watching at the Hallmark Channel, and then they click on our ad and waste our money, so\u2026 You got to add those negatives.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: I think clicks like that tell me that the literacy rates in the United States is a lot lower than the percentages that the Government tells us. I think half the people, that they say can read, really can\u2019t, because I\u2026 We should not get clicks that we get, you know, it\u2019s a strange [inaudible 33:03]<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Probably a \u2026.Chris, is taking a Paid Search Podcast test budget for fun, and actually advertising on those words, but for like, totally different businesses. [Laughter] I\u2019m just seeing what kind of\u2026<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Yes. Yeah.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Cheeto puffed, heartbroken people, you can click on them.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Yeah, I\u2019ll let you fund that.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: I\u2019ve been known to burn money, so\u2026 By the way, everyone have a webcam now, so\u2026<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: He looks, he looks\u2026 I can see the pores in his white, pasty skin now. It\u2019s so much better; you guys are really missing out. So be sure and check out our next update on our YouTube channel coming up soon.<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Yeah, check me out on the webcam.<\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: You can see him in high-definition now. It\u2019s glorious!<\/p>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Yeah. So everyone thanks for listening, thanks for sharing. The show notes will be on paidsearchpodcast.com\/27 and you can access that large negative keywords list that that company saves out there. Thanks for listening.<\/p>\n

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