The New Rules of Lead Generation

Choosing Your Keywords

You should know which keywords your target audience is most likely to use when searching for your types of products or services. Before creating your SEM ads, make a list of all the relevant search terms that you think your potential customer might use in a Web search.

The SEM ad platforms on Google and Bing provide keyword tools that suggest keywords and phrases, based on your initial inputs and on actual historical search results. In the campaign setup phase, when you start to enter keywords (e.g., “security cameras”), the keyword tools give you a list of additional popular search keywords and phrases that people use when searching for that type of product or service (e.g., “security systems,” “business security systems,” ...