The Need For Negative Keywords When Using Google Adwords, MSN Adcenter and Yahoo
Some people may be wondering what are Negative Keywords? For those of you who don't know, here is a brief definition:
A Negative Keyword is a word or phrase, that when combined with one of your targeted "keywords" in a newly formed keyword phrase should, eliminate this newly combined phrase as undesired in your keyword advertising. A un-desired keyword, or keyword phrase is one that does not target the audience you are trying to market your product to, even though it contains some of your chosen keywords.
For example lets say your dealerships buys the keyword phrase "New Mercedes C-Class". (A highly targeted phrase) An excited 14 Year Old car enthusiast is searching for a the following phrase "New Mercedes C-Class Pics". Your ad would be served as a match to this search query. This is of no benefit to you. Although the likelyhood of it being clicked on may be low, it still counts as an impression.
High Impressions for Non Relevant Terms = Low CTR* which = Higher Cost & Poor Ad Placement.
*CTR (Definition) The average number of click-throughs per hundred ad impressions, expressed as a percentage.
So to stop this, and lower un-wanted impressions in this example, simply add the negative keyword "-Pics". By adding "Pics" as a negative keyword it stops your ads from being served when they match the searchers request with the word "Pic".
Negative Keywords apply to all your keywords. What does this mean? Simple, when you add the word "Pics", "Pic" or "Crash" (as examples) to your list of negative keywords it applies to all yor keywords. Meaning if you buy your dealerships manufacturer models as keywords, (We will use Mercedes for this example) Mercedes C-Class, Mercedes E-Class, Mercedes AMG, and etc... The negative keywords apply to them all. So someone searching "Mercedes AMG Crash" would not have your ad shown to them or "Mercedes E-class Pic" wouldn't trigger your ad when if there was no negative keyword, they would be triggered.
Negative Keywords Are A MUST in EVERY GOOGLE, YAHOO OR MSN CAMPAIGN regardless if you are in the Automotive business or not.
Here is a Free sample list of Negative Keywords (11 or So) out of the 42 we believe should be used in every Automotive Google Adwords campaign.
- free
- picture
- safety
- bodywork
- official
- crash
- part
- racing
- service
- crash test
- recall
Want the complete list? contact us to find out more Sales@AutoMediaCorp.Com or call us at
the office: 845-942-8123
Here is Google's Advice about Negative Keywords.
Here is Yahoo's Advice about Negative Keyords
And here is a pretty good blog entry from MSN AdcenterBlog about Negative Keywords
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I disagree with your decision to include 'Pics' as a negative word. Given the demographic that most Mercedes vehicles appeal to (men past the age of 35), it is far more likely that a potential C-Class purchaser will be searching for "New Mercedes C-Class Pics" than 'An excited 14 Year Old'. Because only one engine (MSN) is currently capable of targeting demographics by age (and only in an extremely limited way), but using negative match as a way to limit 14 year olds clicking on your ads, you are also stopping all those older male potential buyers from seeing your ads too. You need to consider the types of phrases that someone earlier in the buying funnel will be searching for. By the time they search for "Buy new Mercedes C-Class' or 'Buy new Audi' or 'buy new Lexus' ... they've already made up their mind. Searchers searching for less focused phrases allow you to reach potential buyers while they are still making a decision.
1st Thank you for your post….
The 14 Year Old Connotation was a narrow example which should apply broadly to more than just Mercedes. Most consumers go to the Manufacturer site long before they visit a dealership website for complete info about a particular car. As a result, Manufacturer Sites are the biggest provider of “converting leads” to their franchisee dealerships. But, putting that off to the side the most important reason Not To Use "Pics" or "Pictures" or any derivation there of, is quite simply they are terrible converting keywords for Auto Sales. Sales being emphasized. These keywords get a ton of impressions with minimal click thru rates, especially when a Dealerships Ad says something like this “Mercedes C-Class $379 Per Month”. In this instance, a dealers ad would show in the results for “pics” or “pictures” of a the C-Class Car being searched, but has a very low probability of being click on, and even lower probability of converting to a lead. Subsequently “impressions” are driven up, and “click thru rates” down which ultimately costs the dealership more money to run their ads.
Then there is the “images” icon on every search engine now, which if a dealer or their website provider optimized their site properly, they would have named the “alt tags” on the images which would drive traffic from Google, Yahoo and others at NO COST simply by having these images indexed.
In addition, there are the Edmunds.Com, and KBB’s of the world…. Who supplement Manufacturer Site’s. Most consumers go to these information based sites before going to actual Dealerships websites to do research on a prospective purchase, or value their trade from an independent source (outside of any dealership). These “information” driven sites give consumers items such as; “what their trade is worth”, the safety ratings of their prospective car, what other people say (CGI) about the car they intend to purchase, and LOTS OF PICTURES.
People go to Dealership websites to “Price Shop”, and get the best deal locally before leaving their home, NOT for pictures of a car. And if I were an owner of a dealership, I would gear my site towards transactional rather than informational. A Dealership cannot and should NOT compete with the Edmund’s and the KBB’s of the world, but rather leverage them to do allot of the heavy lifting for them along with the Manufacturer’s Site. Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing and MSN Adcenter are tools to sell cars for dealerships. Let the Manufacturer’s and the Edmunds of the web provide all the info required for consumers.
One more thought...The demographic for Mercedes being 35 and over is definitely something they (Mercedes) are trying to change, and expand upon. Thus, the styling of the new Mercedes C-Class. I am sure that this car was NOT targeted specifically at the 35 and over crowd but rather successful young professionals.
I totally agree with Linda and disagree with the author. Buying a car is an emotional solution sell, with emphasis on the emotional.
We are talking about a Mercedes here - the 'pic' is THE SELL/look/click feature online and should not be used as a negative word when it can drive traffic and inquiries upfront. Since the dealers then look after farming the sales and information inquiries to the local dealership -it is THE prime word to have to start the funnel.
A strong campaign would then have different compelling (maybe new affordable price targeted to professionals as one?) landing pages to convert the 'picture lookers' to inquiries/leads for follow up engagement by the dealers.
It is a process to a sale that is <.30/click and not at all a waste of money. The waste is in missing the proverbial boat/car at all.
Well....We are willing to put our money where our mouth is. We will run a campaign with Pics, Pic, Picture, Pictures and will re-imburse our client for every click for these terms if the "CTR" (Click Through Rate) DROPS Which it will :(
We will duplicate an existing Adwords Campaign, under a different domain, adding those words to the "keywords". We will run this campaign for 1-Month, and are willing to bet that those keywords (Pic, Picture, pics, & Pictures) dont work out very well. In fact, we predict that the impressions will be high, and clicks low, driving down all campaigns...
We will post the results once per week with complete screenshots to prove the point.
ALL THINGS WILL BE THE SAME EXCEPT THE REMOVAL OF THOSE SPECIFIC NEGATIVE KEYWORDS AND THE ADDITION OF THEM TO THE KEYWORD LIST
Will this convince the neighsayers? Feel free to post