Keyword Advertising

Keyword advertising is a form of internet advertising that is linked to specific words, phrases etc. The idea is to deliver advertising content to people who are interested and hence likely to respond. While banner advertising is about flashing banner ads on different websites as part of a campaign, keyword advertising is more focused and hence could result in higher CTRs. For example, therefore, if I am looking for a holiday in Italy and I enter this search string in google, I’ll be directed to landing pages of a chain of Italian hotels for example. The likelihood of a click thru’ is higher in this situation because of an interest in a stay in Italy.

Keyword advertising is often run along with banner advertising to get maximum results. One the one hand you have a banner ad campaign that directs the ‘clicker’ to a landing page, a simultaneous keyword campaign also achieves the same result. The CTR on a keyword campaign is likely to be higher because of a real interest in the product/service.

The most popular keyword advertising is ‘google’ keyword advertising. Google being the most visited search engine globally is, for obvious reasons, very popular with keyword advertisers.

In keyword advertising, the advertiser buys ‘keywords’. Thereafter as and when a netsurfer types in a keyword, he / she would be directed to the advertiser landing page or the advertiser website.

Keywords can, like other forms of advertising, suffer from the ‘latency’ factor. Different advertisers bidding for the same keyword/s, could result in many advertisers vying for the attention of the netsurfer. Keywords in their infancy get more hits and hence CTRs. But as more and more advertisers jump on a ‘keyword’ bandwagon, number of hits / CTRs could gradually decline.

The advertiser has to periodically come up with a new set keywords in an attempt to maintain campaign efficacy. Choosing a keyword can be challenging. Generic keywords may not be quite effective. For example a basic word like motorcycle is too general. The company might think about what differentiates its products and the types of markets it wishes to attract. A company that specializes in bikes that are suitable for competitive riding, for example, might come up with a suitably unique set of keywords.