How many keywords did you start with?

[ke111]

When you first started your PPC campaign, how many keywords did you use and what would you recommend for a newbie?

I see many people here who say they can use upto 10,000 keywords for some campaigns. Is this recommended if you are first starting out and still trying to learn PPC? or is it better to start with a few keywords first while you are still tryiing to learn the PPC ropes?

 

[FortunePlaza]

10,000 keywords? Those people need to get a life.

I start out with 500 at max. And within 2 weeks, it's down to about 30-40.

I go after short-tail keywords, not long-tail.

 

[makethatmoney]

10,000 keywords? Those people need to get a life.

lol don't know what that has anything to do with it. You can plug in a few short-tails into any software and generate lists much larger than that in minutes. Especially long-tail words if you want to bid lower.

Start with a few words and see what happens. Use short-tail and track what converts. If you have "baseball equipment" "football equip" "basketball equip" and notice that "football equip" is converting better, then start developing words based on that - "football cleats" "football helmet" "kids football equip" etc

At least that's what I do

 

[FortunePlaza]

lol don't know what that has anything to do with it. You can plug in a few short-tails into any software and generate lists much larger than that in minutes. Especially long-tail words if you want to bid lower.

Start with a few words and see what happens. Use short-tail and track what converts. If you have "baseball equipment" "football equip" "basketball equip" and notice that "football equip" is converting better, then start developing words based on that - "football cleats" "football helmet" "kids football equip" etc

At least that's what I do

Yes, but then you have to filter all of them. You'll have thousands of keywords that get no searches at all. Too much work.

Considering you will have to keep filtering them, and actually start tracking down each keyword, and know which keywords convert. You'll have to much to track if you put up 10,000 keywords.

 

[directresponse]

For most of my campaigns, I'll come up with 5-10 main keywords that are all related to each other, but use completely different words. Then for each of those main keywords, I'll generate about 500-1000 long tail keywords.

 

[ke111]

long tail vs. short tail

For most of my campaigns, I'll come up with 5-10 main keywords that are all related to each other, but use completely different words. Then for each of those main keywords, I'll generate about 500-1000 long tail keywords.

This seems like a more appropriate strategy. Devise a list of 10 short tail words and that will automatically give you ideas for their long tails.

Do you ever just copy and paste google's suggestion words?

 

[micker]

I just set a 86k key longtail campaign. its not about how many, its about what they are and what you're trying to sell.

 

[montydad5000]

I've recently heard that plugging in 10,000 KW at a time is overkill and a waste of time. I think on my next campaign, I will start with about 10. Then keep switching around until I find the ones that convert.