Don’t waste money on Keywords that don’t Convert

The keyword ‘cayman islands,’ gets about 2 million searches per year.  Its easy to assume these searches are made by folks who are coming arriving via Cruise ships since the Cayman Islands also gets around 2 million visitors per year.  Obviously though there is a margin of error and we can’t generalize all the searches and their intents.  This is a broad generalization but nevertheless, based on my experience doing Pay Per Click (PPC) Campaigns in the Cayman Islands, its has merits.

Irrelevant Keywords = Low Conversion Rates

While doing keyword research, I chanced upon seeing these Sponsored Ads on Google for the Keyword, ‘cayman islands’  — this Adwords module was located on the 2nd page of the Search Results.   I was shaking my head when I saw it because the three Companies, which are all in the Accommodation Industry are vying for a Major Keyword and wasting their budgets.

Here are the reasons they are wasting money

1. Their Ads are on the second page of Google, not even on the first page because the first page costs much more and will exceed their daily budget. If 20% of Users click through to the 2nd page thats a cost per view of 400,000 Users.  Those are Users who are probably looking for information about the Cayman Islands (as Cruise Ship passengers) and not Stay Over Visitors.
2. They should be targeting industry specific keyword such as the following:
   • grand cayman condos for rent, 110 searches /mo
   • condos for rent cayman islands, 70 searches /mo
   • condos for rent in grand cayman, 30 searches /mo
   • grand cayman condo rentals, 210 searches /mo
   • grand cayman house rentals, 210 searches /mo
   • condo rental grand cayman, 70 searches /mo
   • cayman condo rentals, 70 searches /mo

   If they targeted industry-specific keywords, their conversion rates would be so much higher since these are folks who are specifically looking for their service as opposed to folks who are searching for ‘cayman islands’ whose intent we can only guess

3. The landing pages of their Ads all go to their homepage, the content of the landing page doesn’t even contain the keywords they are bidding for, which will make their bids higher.  Google prices bids lower when content is relevant.  When your content is optimized for the keyword, then final bids are much lower on Adwords.

Conclusion on PPC / Adwords Campaigns

Please make sure you take a course on Adwords before running a PPC (pay per click) campaign.  It might seem easy at first but the entry level of is much higher than, say Facebook.  Adwords is a little more technical and requires alot more experience.  For example on Adwords, if you don’t turn off “display ads”  your Ad will automatically show up for partner networks, and your budget will not be effective.  I say this because you can set your budget at $10 per day, which won’t break the bank, but won’t reap the benefits of an optimized PPC Campaign either.