PPC keyword selection is very different from organic SEO selection. In the latter, you have to be realistic and prepare for the long haul. You have to target long tail keywords first and look at the competition’s pages and the like. This is because you can’t do anything to influence your rankings on good search engines and ranking takes time.

However, in PPC campaigns, the overriding concern is based on just two factors. The most important factor is – “Will this keyword be used by people who want to purchase/sign up/view a particular page?”. In PPC you pay by the click. So it’s not just visitors you want, but those visitors who will do what you want them to once they’re on your site.

For example, suppose you’re selling computer hard drives. You’re not interested in people who merely want information and want to learn about hard drives. That’s what the organic results are for. No, when someone clicks on your PPC ads, you want to be damn sure they want to buy a hard disk! So you need to target keywords that such people will use – perhaps “hard disk dealers”, “xyz brand hard disks” or the like. Such keywords indicate that the searcher wants to purchase your product.

You need to refine your selection as much as possible to focus on your particular products. For example, if you’re a physical shop without an ecommerce store, then your keyword should be “hard disk dealers in xyz location”. The more certain you are that that particular keyword will be used by your potential customers, the better the keyword is.

The second parameter is the price you pay for each click. It goes without saying that highly competitive keywords cost more. It is precisely due to this reason that the first step of selection is so important. You can lose a lot of money everyday by simply choosing keywords that will not be used by your customers.

Depending on your budget, you need to select a mix of cost effective and relevant keywords, but the latter is more important than the first. I’m assuming that the final goal of your website would be at least a hundred times over and above the cost per click of a given keyword.

These are the basics of choosing PPC keywords. In the coming sections, we take a look at the next stage – preparing your website, bidding, pruning your keyword list and tracking.

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