A Winston-Salem accountant launched his first AdWords campaign last quarter with 1,200 keywords. He thought more was better. We pulled the report after 30 days. Of those 1,200 keywords, 18 had produced clicks. Of those 18, four had produced phone calls. The other 1,196 were noise that consumed mental energy and made the account impossible to manage. The lesson: start small, with the right 20 keywords, not the most.
The Three Categories Your First 20 Should Cover
- →High-intent service + city keywords (10 of the 20). "personal injury attorney greensboro," "winston salem hvac repair," "high point family dentist." These are people ready to call.
- →Emergency or urgency keywords (5 of the 20). "emergency plumber greensboro," "same day ac repair winston salem," "24 hour locksmith high point." High-converting and willing to pay a premium for speed.
- →Specific procedure or service keywords (5 of the 20). "invisalign greensboro," "tankless water heater installation winston salem," "estate planning attorney high point." Lower volume but extremely qualified searchers.
Where to Find Real Keyword Data
- →Google Keyword Tool (free inside AdWords). Type in your service and your city. Google returns real monthly search volume and competition for variations.
- →Your existing customers. Ask the front desk: "What did you Google when you were looking for us?" The actual phrases real customers use are usually different from the jargon owners think.
- →Google's autocomplete. Start typing "greensboro chiropractor" into Google and the dropdown reveals what real people commonly search next.
- →Your Google Analytics search query report. If your site already gets some organic traffic, the keywords already producing visits are usually a goldmine for AdWords.
Match Types: The 2009 Setup That Works
- →Phrase match around the keyword. "greensboro family dentist" in quotes. Triggers the ad for searches containing that phrase but not unrelated combinations.
- →Exact match for top performers. [winston salem hvac repair] in brackets. Only triggers for that exact search. Highest control, lowest waste.
- →Avoid pure broad match for the first 90 days. Broad match shows your ad for anything Google's algorithm decides is "related," which in practice burns budget.
The Negative Keywords You Need on Day One
- →Free, cheap, discount, coupon for premium service businesses. These attract the wrong economic buyer.
- →Jobs, careers, hiring, salary to filter out job seekers searching for your role.
- →DIY, how to, school, training to filter out researchers who do not intend to hire.
- →Competitor brand names unless you specifically want to bid on them, which is its own decision.
After we rebuilt the Winston-Salem accountant's account around 22 carefully chosen keywords with phrase and exact match plus a strong negative-keyword list, monthly cost per lead dropped 71 percent and total leads roughly tripled.
Read the companion pieces on how AdWords actually works and writing AdWords copy that gets clicks, or have our digital marketing agency research and structure your first AdWords campaign properly.