Anvil Media | Portland, OR - Integrated Marketing Agency
  • Services
    • Paid Media
    • SEO
    • Social Media
    • Email Marketing
    • Content Marketing
    • Customer Journey
    • Web Analytics
    • Website Development
  • Outcomes
    • Clients
    • Portfolio
    • Case Studies
    • Testimonials
    • Awards
    • Industry Expertise
  • Insights
    • Blog
    • White Papers
    • Webinars On-Demand
    • Articles
    • Marketing Cheat Sheets
    • eBooks
  • About
    • Our Philosophy
    • Our Culture
    • Executive Team
    • News & Events
    • Careers
  • Contact
    • Contact Us
    • Anvil Newsletter
» Home » Blog » Finding the Customers You Don’t Want
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Linked in
  • Google

Finding the Customers You Don’t Want

by Kent Lewis on December 4, 2009Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

Finding the Customers You Don’t Want

by Kent Lewis on December 4, 2009Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

Negative Keyword Targeting

Avoiding the Masses

Most marketers push to reach as many people as possible.  Generally, the greater the reach of an ad, viral video, or word of mouth marketing campaign, the more the campaign will sell.  This is why Super Bowl commercials cost so darn much and why Google can charge a premium over Yahoo or Bing.  Reach looks great on the revenue sheet.  Gap, Coca Cola, and Colgate are big Reach proponents, but it is rarely the right approach for the smaller players (realistically, if you are reading this, you fall in this category).  For us, limiting our advertisements’ reach can be our best strategy.

Negative keyword targeting in paid search is the most well known example.  This is a great, commonly used practice.  If I am selling pants, but I don’t carry Nike sweats or Diesel jeans, I am going to want to negatively target these brands in my pants campaigns.  Simple, straightforward, and hopefully, every paid search marketer is doing it.  That’s kids’ stuff (if you happen to be on the tot level of paid search advertising, no fears Anvil’s Beginner PPC white paper is here).

Limiting reach goes beyond simply cutting out a few keywords.  Paid search gives users multiple options when it comes to choosing exactly who you want to (or want not to) target: geo-targeting, day parting, and keyword match are all good examples.

Negative targeting should be used to sculpt each paid search Campaign to target a very specific audience.  For example, if I am running a Campaign for Jiffy Lube and I have branches throughout the country, I am going to want to treat queries for “oregon oil change” differently than “portland, oregon oil change”.

Serving state-related ad text to city-related searches (or vice versa) is a recipe for low CTR and conversion.  Unfortunately, negatively targeting “oregon” in the Portland Campaign is not an option.  Rather I am going to have to negatively target all exact match state-related keywords.

Keyword overlap (targeting in one Campaign and negatively targeting in others) should be commonplace in most paid search accounts.  If you are targeting “Toshiba laptops” and “laptop bookbags”, you are going to want to determine how to handle a “laptop bookbags for Toshiba computers” query.  Do you want all bookbag-related queries to go to the bookbag ad group or do you want all Toshiba-related queries to go to the Toshiba ad group?  This needs to be your decision and not the search engines.

  • Search
  • Recent Posts
    • Better Together: Why Your Brand Needs Both PPC and SEOApril 18, 2018
    • Boost SEO Content with Featured Snippets and Customer InsightsApril 11, 2018
    • A New Take on Big Brother: How Google is Creating a Secure Ecosystem for Digital AdvertisingApril 4, 2018
    • Happy Belated Birthday TwitterMarch 28, 2018
  • Categories
  • archives
    • 2018
      • Apr 2018
      • Mar 2018
      • Feb 2018
      • Jan 2018
    • 2017
      • Dec 2017
      • Nov 2017
      • Oct 2017
      • Sep 2017
      • Aug 2017
      • Jul 2017
      • Jun 2017
      • May 2017
      • Apr 2017
      • Mar 2017
      • Feb 2017
      • Jan 2017
    • 2016
      • Dec 2016
      • Nov 2016
      • Oct 2016
      • Sep 2016
      • Aug 2016
      • Jul 2016
      • Jun 2016
      • May 2016
      • Apr 2016
      • Mar 2016
      • Feb 2016
      • Jan 2016
    • 2015
      • Dec 2015
      • Sep 2015
      • Aug 2015
      • Jul 2015
      • Jun 2015
      • May 2015
      • Apr 2015
      • Mar 2015
      • Feb 2015
      • Jan 2015
    • 2014
      • Dec 2014
      • Nov 2014
      • Oct 2014
      • Sep 2014
      • Aug 2014
      • Jul 2014
      • Jun 2014
      • May 2014
      • Apr 2014
      • Mar 2014
      • Feb 2014
      • Jan 2014
    • 2013
      • Dec 2013
      • Oct 2013
      • Sep 2013
      • Jul 2013
      • Jun 2013
      • May 2013
      • Apr 2013
      • Mar 2013
      • Feb 2013
      • Jan 2013
    • 2012
      • Dec 2012
      • Nov 2012
      • Oct 2012
      • Sep 2012
      • Aug 2012
      • Jul 2012
      • Jun 2012
      • May 2012
      • Apr 2012
      • Mar 2012
      • Feb 2012
      • Jan 2012
    • 2011
      • Dec 2011
      • Nov 2011
      • Oct 2011
      • Sep 2011
      • Aug 2011
      • Jul 2011
      • Jun 2011
      • May 2011
      • Apr 2011
      • Mar 2011
      • Feb 2011
      • Jan 2011
    • 2010
      • Dec 2010
      • Nov 2010
      • Oct 2010
      • Sep 2010
      • Aug 2010
      • Jul 2010
      • Jun 2010
      • May 2010
      • Apr 2010
      • Mar 2010
      • Feb 2010
      • Jan 2010
    • 2009
      • Dec 2009
      • Nov 2009
      • Oct 2009
      • Sep 2009
      • Aug 2009
      • Jul 2009
      • Jun 2009
      • May 2009
      • Apr 2009
      • Mar 2009
      • Feb 2009
      • Jan 2009
    • 2008
      • Dec 2008
      • Nov 2008
      • Oct 2008
      • Sep 2008
      • Aug 2008
      • Jul 2008
      • May 2008
      • Apr 2008
      • Mar 2008
      • Feb 2008
      • Jan 2008
    • 2007
      • Dec 2007
      • Nov 2007
      • Oct 2007
      • Sep 2007
      • Aug 2007
      • Jul 2007
      • Jun 2007
      • May 2007
      • Apr 2007
      • Mar 2007
      • Feb 2007
    • 2006
      • Dec 2006
      • Nov 2006
      • Oct 2006
      • Sep 2006
      • Aug 2006
      • Jul 2006
      • Jun 2006
      • May 2006
      • Apr 2006
      • Mar 2006
      • Feb 2006
      • Jan 2006
    • 2005
      • Dec 2005
      • Nov 2005
      • Oct 2005
      • Sep 2005
      • Aug 2005
      • Jul 2005
      • Jun 2005
      • May 2005
      • Apr 2005
      • Mar 2005
      • Feb 2005
      • Jan 2005
    • 2004
      • Dec 2004
      • Nov 2004
      • Oct 2004
      • Sep 2004
      • Jul 2004
      • Jun 2004
      • May 2004
Ready to get started?

Take the next step toward growing your business. Tell us a little more about your goals and schedule an appointment.

Talk to Us

Blog

  • Better Together: Why Your Brand Needs Both PPC and SEO by Brett Myers on April 18, 2018
  • Boost SEO Content with Featured Snippets and Customer Insights by Nic Jolin on April 11, 2018

Twitter

Anvil Media, Inc. @anvilmedia

Looking to grow your #SaaS offerings? Take a look at 4 ways that #PPC can help generate leads: https://t.co/jmtMUJDr7V

ReplyRetweetFavorite

Testimonials

The work Anvil did for Aeromach was a real eye-opener. As a small company, we don’t have the resources and ...Aeromach

©Anvil Media, Inc. 2018
310 NE Failing St. Portland, OR 97212

  • About
  • Services
  • Outcomes
  • Contact
  • Legal
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Linked in
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • RSS