Which Terms to Bid On?

By Scott Crumpton of INNtelligent.com Q: I am just starting a Google Adword account and wonder which terms and ad copy will bring me the optimum number of visitors to my web site. Any advice? A: I love the Overture Inventory tool which can be found at: http://inventory.overture.com Quite simply you put in broad terms such as "Napa Bed and Breakfast" and it gives you back specific terms ranked by how many people searched on them last month. This is a great way to research "popular" terms. That said, it’s you who has to decide the relevance of these terms. So the term above would work great for a Napa B&B while the term "Napa Valley Wineries" might be more popular but not very relevant. So when you’re trying to consider the "optimum" terms be sure to choose those which are most relevant, even if they’re not altogether popular. I like to use a lot of different terms with low bid amounts which put me in 2nd - 6th position. This way I can spread out my listings without it costing me a fortune. Lastly, GoogleAdWords has a great little report which shows you the CTR (click-through-rate) for each of your listings. Try out a bunch of different ones and throw out those which have to low of a CTR (popularity). This will leave you with the better terms and after that it’s just a matter of trying to keep the cost down while remaining effective.