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Ivan Petkov 

In my two previous articles I discussed the main components of online advertising and what constitutes an ad network, for example, we used the largest advertising network - that of Google. We saw that the Google advertising network consists mainly of two services: AdWords and AdSense. 

AdWords is the service in which advertisers create and manage their ads in the Google ad network. We looked through the structure of a text ad and explained what Pay Per Click (PPC) means. Today we will focus on how to target advertising in Google’s network, respectively, in AdWords, which provides the tools for that. 

What are keywords 
Keywords are used to target your ads to potential customers. By creating highly relevant keywords, your ads can appear only to the most interested users, thereby improving efficiency and keeping low costs. Keywords are single words or phrases with which potential customers will be looking for your product or service. Keywords allow you to target your desired audience or in other words – targeted advertising. 

How do keywords work
If your company sells T-shirts with various signs on them, you can use, “buy a T-shirt", “T-shirt with print", "unique T-shirt” as keywords in your AdWords campaign. When a user enters “buy a  T-shirt" in the Google search bar, your ad may appear next to the search results. Your ad can also appear on websites and products in the Google network, related to the keyword. By creating highly relevant keywords, your ads may appear only to the most interested users. This will improve your ad performance and help to maintain low cost-per-click (CPC). 

Choosing the right keywords 
It is important to choose the most accurately descriptive keywords for your product.

Here are the three most important tips for improving the quality of your keywords: 

Choose your keywords carefully. Make sure they are specific and directly related to the theme of your ad and the website you target your customers. Usually the most effective are those keywords that consist of two or three words. 

Include relevant variations of your best keywords, as well as singular and plural versions. 

Be specific. Keywords that are too broad or general will not reach users as effectively as targeted keywords. 

Negative Keywords 
There is another type of keywords that act differently. Negative keywords ensure that your ad will not appear in searches that include this search term. They work together with your regular keywords to precisely target your ads to your desired audience. For example, add 'free' as a negative keyword if you want your ad not to be displayed to people seeking free product. Negative keywords contain a hyphen in front of the word -free. 

Tips for good keywords 

1. Create an initial list 
Check your website to determine phrases and terms that describe the main categories of your business. Write down every relevant keyword under each category that you have chosen. Expand the list by including all your names, brands and products, as well as plurals and synonyms for each word or phrase from the original list. Do not worry about capitalization, our system register of the letters does not matter. 

2. Group similar keywords 
Group your keywords into themes on the base of your products or services or other categories. Keywords can be grouped by product, as well as descriptive terms. For example, if you sell electronics, you can separate keywords for different products like cameras and TVs, and also you can separate the keywords using various search terms, such as those with a word search, “video” and those with “camcorder”. 

3. Refine and add negative keywords 
Keywords that are too general, can reduce your effectiveness by generating more ad impressions but fewer clicks. To avoid this, delete general keywords from your list that are associated with a wide range of products or services. Also, delete those that are too broad, irrelevant or incomprehensible.