Generic Keyword: How to Make Money with Your PPC Ads, 5 Ways (2024)

Do you know how much money using a generic keyword in your advertisem*nts could be costing you?

Whether you write PPC (Pay Per Click) Ads or any sales content, you need to avoid using a generic keyword.

By reading this guide, you will be able to write specific keywords that match users’ search intent so you can boost traffic and sales.

Read on, so you avoid using a generic keyword when you write your advertising copy and use specific long-tail keywords instead.

Discover Why Your PPC Ads Aren’t Making Your Business Any Money

In order to be successful in business, you need to have customers. After all, if no one purchases your product or service you won’t be able to cover your expenses and will have to fold.

In the modern digital world, the best way to reach potential customers is to connect with them via marketing. You can (and should) create content that highlights your expertise and builds you a reputation. This will attract customers.

But, you can also use PPC, that’s Pay Per Click advertising. This is usually faster as you’ll instantly get to the top of the results page online. However, if you get your PPC ads wrong, you’ll find they aren’t making you any money.

You need to know what you’re doing wrong and how to fix it.

The Wrong Keywords

When you start a PPC campaign, you need to choose keywords and phrases. When people search these keywords and phrases, your paid link will appear at the top of the results page. They click on it to go to your website and you pay a set amount to the search engine company.

Finding the right keywords is essential, that’s why you should enlist the services of a reputable paid search company. The more popular the keyword, the greater the amount of competition online. If you choose the wrong keyword, you’ll struggle to be at the top of the search results.

This reduces the number of people clicking through to your site. You may also find that those who do click through aren’t looking for what you have to offer.

The wrong keyword can be misleading, wasting your money. One way to avoid using the wrong keyword is to avoid using a generic keyword.

What is a Generic Keyword?

If your keyword is too broad, you have a generic keyword. In order to ensure the search engine knows if your web content matches the users’ search query, you need to use a less broad, less generic keyword.

Use a specific keyword instead of a generic keyword in your advertising copy, and you’ll boost your search engine traffic and sales.

This is where User Intent comes in. You need to make sure your keyword matches what people are searching for. Long-tail keywords, keyword phrases with four or more words, can help you match users’ search queries.

A long-tail keywords is specific while a generic keyword is vague.

Focus Keyword Examples

For example, let’s say your keyword is “athletic shoes,” and another website has a post about “how to find athletic shoes.” If a search engine user wants to know where they can find athletic shoes, Google will send them to the other website and not yours.

Unless your keyword is more specific, Google won’t know what search query your content meets.

Let’s look at an example involving this blog’s content:

Mostly Blogging published a post explaining how to get out of Facebook Jail. Many Facebook users wind up in Facebook Jail which means they are banned from the site and don’t know what to do, so they search for the solution at Google.

If I had merely made my keyword a more generic keyword like “Facebook Jail,” Google wouldn’t know whether to send the search engine user stuck in Facebook Jail to my post or to a post explaining how to avoid ending up in Facebook Jail in the first place.

Here you will find more information about long-tail keywords.

Whichever keyword you choose, make sure you research your chosen keyword before you start creating content.

When you use a keyword tool, you want to make sure there is interest in your topic. Keyword tools tell you how many people are searching monthly for your topic.

Once you know this data, check out the online competition for readership. If monthly searches are high but online competition for readership is low, go ahead and write your content.

Which keyword tools should you use?

Ubersuggest is a popular keyword tool, but there are plenty of Ubersuggest alternatives.

Not Reviewing

Choosing the right keywords is a great start. However, the market and other businesses are constantly changing and evolving.

You need to regularly review your chosen keywords and change them. It’s essential that they stay relevant.

That means they are something that people are likely to search on but not directly relevant to what you’re offering.

Let’s look at another example using Mostly Blogging’s content.

I published a review of the social media site MeWe. My keyword phrase was MeWe review. Since then I have discovered Google brings up my article when people type “MeWe review,” “MeWe vs Facebook,” and “What is MeWe?”

Therefore, I went back in after publication and added these keywords to my post.

What tools should you use to find relevant keywords?

I use Ahrefs, a paid tool. However, there are free tools which will give you this information. For example, SERPRobot gives you information about keyword rank changes.

Also, for WordPress bloggers, often in your dashboard, you’ll see which keywords brought up your blog post. Update your post with these keywords.

Bad Landing Page

When people click through from an ad they’ll be sent to your designated landing page.

This page needs to give them more information about whatever it is they are interested in. It needs to tell them you’re reputable, and it needs to give them the opportunity to buy your product or service.

Most importantly, it needs to do this as quickly and with as few words as possible. You need to capture your customer before they click away to a different site.

If your landing page isn’t designed properly you’ll be losing sales.

Don’t Sell Straight Away

The internet is massive and people can buy anything from multiple sources. You need to convince them that you’re offering the best deal.

That means capturing their email address on the landing page and giving them more information. You should provide a link to buy. But, by capturing their email address you’ll leave the door open for future contact. That builds relationships which creates sales.

Your Product Is Poor

If your product doesn’t appear to solve any issues, people are not going to see the worth in purchasing it. Granted, you should be thinking about this before you even start creating your product, but you’ll be surprised at how many people don’t. You need to find and define an existing issue and then present your product as the solution.

As soon as people realize they have an issue it makes sense for them to purchase your product. Without that realization, your PPC money is simply wasted.

Generic Keyword FAQ

Wrapping Up: How to Avoid Using a Generic Keyword in Your Ads

Important takeaways:

Your product needs to solve a problem.

Before creating content telling people about your problem, you need to do keyword research to ensure interest is high but competition is low.

Do not choose a generic keyword! Choose a specific, long-tail keyword.

After publication, go back into your content and add new, relevant keywords.

Readers, please share so bloggers and marketers discover how to stop using a generic keyword in their web content so they can start boosting their traffic and sales.

I look forward to your views in the comments section. Do you have suggestions for this guide about using a generic keyword vs a longtail keyword in your website content?

This post was contributed and made possible by the support of our readers.

Related Reading

This post gave information about writing Pay Per Click advertising copy. If you need information about how to write ads targeting college students, you will find it here.