Keyword Insertion Tricks of the Trade

By Lina Nakata, Paid Search Supervisor, Advertising Solutions

Using keyword insertion is considered one best practice in sponsored search ad creation. This feature dynamically updates the ad text with the paid keyword that triggered the ad. It can make your ad more relevant to the consumer’s search intent. The keyword that triggered the ad will stand out by appearing in bold. The more relevant and bold copy tends to draw consumers to your ad, helping you increase the click-through rate (CTR) and drive efficiencies. A higher CTR should result in an increased quality score, potentially lowering CPCs and improving your ROI.

When setting up your ads with this feature there are a few items you should consider to make sure the ads make sense and the dynamically inserted copy properly represents your brand:

• Misspellings: You can and should bid for misspelled keywords, but you don’t want these to show on your ads. Keep these keywords in a separate ad group and do not use the keyword insertion in the ads.
• Trademark Terms: You can bid on trademark terms, but you might not (cannot) use them in your ad copy. Just like with the misspelled keywords, keep trademark terms you don’t want inserted in the ad copy on a separate ad group and don’t use the keyword insertion feature.
• Keyword Modifiers: There might be other type of keyword modifiers you might want to bid for, but don’t want associated with your brand ad copy. One example could be the word ‘cheap’. You might want to bid for that keyword, since consumers search for cheap products and services. However, you might not necessarily want to use the word ‘cheap’ on your ad copy. Keep these types of keywords in separate ad groups and choose a static ad title that is relevant to them. For instance for the word ‘cheap’, you can have a static title with the word ‘affordable’ or ‘economical’ instead.
• Keyword Word Order: Pay close attention to the word order. When using broad match type and concatenation tools, some keywords might be left in an odd order (e.g. ‘deals car rental’, instead of ‘car rental deals’). Skim through your keyword list and make sure all the keyword will read out correctly and make sense when inserted in the ad copy.

Use the keyword insertion feature with care. When used properly it can produce good results, if used poorly it can have a negative impact on your brand name and CTR. Hope you find these best practices useful. Share with us your experiences and/or other best practices when using keyword insertion.