Long-tail keywords are essential for cost-effective, high-converting Google Ad campaigns. Let’s explore what they are, how they work, and how making them part of a search strategy significantly benefits marketing teams.
What are long-tail keywords?
Long-tail keywords are phrases of three words or more that shoppers use when searching for products. These search terms are highly targeted terms that typically correlate with user intent.
You can split search terms into three different categories:
- Head keywords: e.g., “food recipes,” “shoes,” and “laptops.”
- Medium-tail keywords: e.g., “Indian food recipes,” “running shoes,” and “gaming laptops.”
- Long-tail keywords: “vegan Indian food recipes,” “blue Nike running shoes,” “best gaming laptops under €500.”
Long-tail keywords are more effective than broad search terms. This phenomenon was discovered in the early days of Amazon when marketing teams found that while general search terms like “laptops” had higher volume, there were more long-tail keywords when you combine different searches like “gaming laptops under €500.”, “business laptops with 15” screen,” “apple macbook pro with i7 processor”, and so on.
Let’s do a keyword comparison for laptop-related search terms in the United Kingdom using Google Keyword Planner. It will help you instantly get your head around the concept.
As you can see, “laptops” gets more searches. But that keyword is more expensive. While “best gaming laptops under £500” is lower volume, the keywords:
- Cost less
- Let you target a very precise searcher
The other thing you need to consider is the buyer’s journey. Someone who enters the term “laptops” might be shopping. However, they’re more likely at the early stage of their journey, evaluating many different products and brands.
A user who enters the phrase “best gaming laptops under £500” knows:
- What they’re looking for
- What they need it for
- What their budget is
In other words, they are closer to making a decision, which means they’re closer to buying. Those are exactly the type of prospects you want to attract.
Why you need long-tail keywords for your Google Ad campaigns
Long-tail keywords are perfect for competitive markets. If everyone is targeting one or two keywords, it drives the costs of ad words up. In some spaces, that can make your marketing less cost-effective or, in the worst scenarios, unprofitable.
The thing is, long-tail keywords make up the lion’s share of searches. Some statistics suggest long-tail keywords make up around 70% to 80% of online searches. Individually, they are not the highest-volume keywords. However, combining many of them gives you access to the volume you need.
Instead of chasing broad, general keywords that don’t capture your product or service, get specific to find the audience that needs your product. This Google Ad campaigns search strategy will give your more targeted traffic at a lower cost per keyword. It’s a win-win.
Benefits of long-tail keywords
Let’s look at the benefits of using long-tail keywords in more detail.
1. They have higher conversion rates
Long-tail keywords are about leveraging intent. When someone enters a long-tail keyword, they are more likely to be further down the sales funnel and ready to buy.
Short-tail keywords are good for awareness. But the problem is that many of these searchers are in the research and evaluation stage.
Research suggests that long-tail keywords have 2.5X conversion rates compared to broad or short-tail search terms.
Adopting them for your search strategy on Google Ads can improve your ROAS and ROI.
2. Less competition
Short-tail keywords have high volumes. As a result, almost everyone targets them. This situation means more competition and higher ad costs.
On the other hand, long-tail keywords have lower search volumes. Fewer people are using them, which means you have a higher chance of connecting with prospective shoppers who enter the phrase.
3. Quicker and easier ranking
Ranking for broad search terms is hard. It can take years of an ongoing content marketing strategy to outwork your rivals for a phrase like “shoes,” “coffee machine,” or “lawyer.”
However, if you drill down and start targeting long-tail keywords that refer to your service, you can begin to rank easier and quicker. For example, let’s say you sell shoes. If you sell many different styles, you might think you should aggressively target the word shoes. However, you’re better off going for more specific terms.
Things like “back to school shoes” or “smart brown laced shoes” have lower volumes, but you’re competing with fewer businesses. As a result, your link is more likely to appear at the top of the search results or be served as an ad on Google.
4. Optimize for voice search
Another benefit of long-tail keywords is that they more closely resemble how people use voice search. Capitalizing on this ever-growing way that people search is essential now that statistics show around 50% of people use voice search each day.
5. More targeted content
As we mentioned earlier, long-tail keywords are about intent. Someone looking for a “gaming laptop under €500” most likely has a much better idea of what they want than someone just searching the term “laptop.”
Whether you’re looking for keywords to use with your Google Ad campaigns or to connect with website content or landing pages, long-tail keywords allow you to fine-tune your content toward specific users.
To continue our example, the search terms “best gaming laptop” and “best gaming laptop under €500″ are looking for distinctly different types of content. Awareness of long-tail keywords helps you serve relevant content, which means happier visitors, higher page rankings, and more conversions.
6. Drive even more value from Amanda AI
We built Amanda AI to help you drive down the cost of your Google Ad campaigns. Using long-tail keywords helps our advertising robot connect you with high-intent customers.
When paired with our sophisticated ad bidding and placement algorithms, we can get your long-tail keywords in front of motivated buyers at the lowest cost possible.
Final thoughts
Long-tail keywords should be part of your Google Ads campaigns search strategy. They help you get targeted traffic with more intent, which improves your conversion rates. If you’re not using them already, it’s time to start.
