For those looking to make money online, one of the big challenges is finding the right keywords. The combination of a low competition keyword that has real money-making potential can be elusive. But these keywords do exist, and there are several ways to find them (trial-and-error being high on the list).
The method I’m going to show you today has proven to be highly successful. It involves spying on PPC advertisers to find out which keywords they are bidding on and which keywords have proven to be the most profitable for them. Before we get to how we are going to do this, let’s first explain why.
When an advertiser pays for traffic through Google’s Adwords or other PPC programs, we can assume they put a lot of research and testing into the keywords they bid on. And the research and testing they perform is not just focused on traffic volume, but also conversions. In short, through research and lots of experience, PPC advertisers figure out the most profitable keywords. All we need to do is take advantage of their hard work.
So how are we going to do that? It’s actually quite easy if you have the right tool. There are several keyword tools available that can get the job done, but one of the best is KeywordSpy. I won’t go into everything that KeywordSpy offers (it’s just too much to cover here), but one great feature is information about PPC campaigns at a keyword level.
To best understand how this works, let’s take a look at an example. Let’s assume you want keywords related to programmable thermostats. You can of course run this keyword through any number of free keyword tools, which you should do as part of your research. These tools will give you estimates of search traffic and with Google’s Adwords keyword tool, you can even get CPC estimates (which are helpful in assessing the value of a keyword). But with a tool like KeywordSpy, we can take our research to the next level.
Searching for the keyword “programmable thermostat” in KeywordSpy provides a wealth of information:
You’ll notice the tabs running across the middle of the image. The tap we want to focus on first is labeled, “Ads.” There are 76 current Google Adwords ads the include the keyword “programmable thermostats.” Clicking on the ads tab reveals the following information that’s important for our purposes:
- The text of the ads
- The ROI (return on investment) as calculated by KeywordSpy
- A link to see the keywords associated with each ad
Let’s start with ROI. KeywordSpy has developed an ingenious way to determine the value of a PPC ad. Based on how long the ad has been running and how long it’s been since the advertiser last ran the ad, KeywordSpy calulates an ROI. The higher the ROI the better. The idea is that an advertiser wouldn’t keep running the add if it weren’t profitable. While ROI is not fool-proof, it’s perfect our purposes.
With the concept of ROI in mind, we can now spy on the keywords each listed ad is targeting. Here’s what the keyword list looks like for one of the ads listed under the keyword, “programmable thermostats:”
There are several things to notice here. First, you will undoubtedly find keywords you hadn’t thought of before. Second, rather than just a list of keywords, the ROI tells you which one have been profitable for the advertiser. While you may target keywords in an organic campaign that have a low ROI rating, this listing my help prioritize your work. As an example, you see that the keyword “rth7500D” has been profitable for this advertiser. Chances are you have no idea what this keyword refers to, but a quick Google search reveals that it is the model number for a popular Honeywell programmable thermostat.
Looking at all of the ads listed under programmable thermostat and the associated keywords should give you a wealth of keyword ideas. And if this tutorial was a bit hard to follow, check out this video demonstration: