Beware of Overly Broad Keywords – Addendum

I did a post a few days ago on my AdWordsMadScientist blog, titled Beware of Overly Broad Keywords

Well I wanted to emphasize, for people looking to do pay-per-click (AdWords or otherwise) how this is probably the most deadly trap.

It’s a pattern that people fall into (and I’ve done it too) where they get fixated on the keyword that they think is “the one”.

It’s usually a broad (for the given audience) keyword that gets a lot of traffic (relatively).

Here’s an example that cost me about $1,000:

I was advertising digital cameras for Amazon, as an affiliate.

I found a page that featured deals on the top-selling digital cameras.

Then created an Adwords adgroup. The main keywords were “digital camera” and “digital cameras”.

I set that up and ran it overnight.

Big mistake!

Those keywords got a ton of traffic. And I was paying about 25 cents per click.

Didn’t get many sales.

The thing was, those keywords were for people mainly searching around … not buying.

As opposed to keywords reflecting people digging deeper. For certain features, or different models.

The reason I’m belaboring this point is that it’s why a lot of people give up on pay-per-click. Especially Adwords and Facebook.

They’re going for these broad keywords, without realizing how broad (and un-targeted) they really are.

It will really hit your pocketbook hard … so avoid it like the plague!