When delving into Google Ads campaigns for your IT business, conducting targeted keyword research is paramount for success. In this specialized guide, we’ll walk you through a 5-step process tailored specifically for IT companies. Finding the right keywords is crucial to driving conversions and attracting leads interested in your IT products and services.
What is Google Ads Keyword Research for IT Companies?
Google Ads keyword research for IT companies involves identifying specific phrases that your target audience within the IT industry uses when searching on Google. Understanding what IT solutions you offer and pinpointing the relevant keywords that potential clients may use is the foundation for a successful campaign.
Why is Keyword Research Crucial for Google Ads in the IT Sector?
Keyword research plays a pivotal role in enhancing ad relevance for IT companies. Aligning searches with your offerings, simplifying bid decisions based on average cost per click, and uncovering new opportunities are essential for optimizing your ad’s performance and return on investment within the competitive IT landscape.
How to Conduct Google Ads Keyword Research for IT Companies: A 5-Step Process
Step 1 – Understand Google Ads Keyword Match Types for IT Companies
Like any other business, choosing the right keyword match type is crucial for IT companies. Considering the specific needs of the IT sector, we recommend starting with Broad Match keywords for your initial Google Ads campaign.
When selecting the initial match type for keywords, many advertisers choose “phrase match.” Phrase match is beneficial when you have provided Google with some data.
However, an IT company starting with a new account needs to train the algorithm first so that it can understand the target audience. Therefore, a broad match will help generate more data for the campaign.
Step 2 – List IT Landing Pages and Page Titles for Your Google Ads Campaign
Identify the landing pages relevant to your IT services and list focus keywords for each page. Leverage your landing page topics to discover the most relevant keywords for your IT business. Ensure that each landing page’s keywords align with the specific IT solutions you are promoting.
Step 3 – Use Google Keyword Planner for Bids, Search Volume, and New Keyword/Landing Page Ideas
Utilize the Google Keyword Planner to find service-specific keywords, monthly search volume, and bid ranges. Enter your own website or your competitors’ websites to discover relevant keywords based on IT services or landing pages. Tailor your campaign to target focused keywords, ensuring precision in your ad groups.
Step 4 – Use Google Ads Keyword Tool While Building IT Search Campaigns
Take advantage of the built-in keyword tool in Google Ads specifically tailored for IT campaigns. When creating IT-focused ad groups, choose keywords that resonate with IT professionals. Build out your ad groups with the best keywords that align with the landing pages relevant to IT services.
Step 5 – Use the Google Ads Search Terms Report for New IT Keyword Ideas and Negative Keywords
After launching your campaign, leverage the Google Ads search terms report to discover new keywords and identify irrelevant ones. Refine your keywords over time, optimizing your landing pages for relevant searches and adding negative keywords to eliminate irrelevant traffic.
7 IT-Specific Keyword Research Tips for Google Ads
Tip #1 – Perform Competitor Keyword Research for IT
Uncover keywords targeted by your IT competitors using tools like SEMrush and SpyFu. Analyze their ad spend, CPC data, and keywords to discover high-potential keywords for your IT campaigns.
Tip #2 – Group IT Keywords into Ad Groups
Organize your IT-service-focused keywords into ad groups within your Google Ads account. Create tightly themed ad groups for IT solutions, allowing you to customize ad text and landing pages for optimal relevance. For example, if you provide app and game development services, you can put app development keywords into one ad group and game development keywords into another.
Tip #3 – Monitor and Optimize IT Keyword Performance
Regularly review campaign metrics such as impressions, clicks, CTR, CPC, conversions, conversion rate, and cost per conversion. Optimize your keywords based on performance and conduct new keyword research every 4-6 weeks. Also, remove keywords that don’t convert, and add negative keywords to your campaign.
Tip #4 – Use Landing Page Focus Keywords for IT
Focus on finding the most relevant keywords for landing pages. Align your ads with the specific keywords on your landing pages for a cohesive user experience.
For example, if you send traffic to a landing page with startup app development, you want the keywords relevant to your landing page like ‘app development for startup’.
Tip #5 – Create IT-Specific Ads to Match Keywords
Craft ads that provide IT solutions when users search for relevant keywords. Ensure your IT ads are highly relevant to the queries IT professionals are making.
Say you have a keyword related to software development, and your ad copy primarily focuses on mobile app development. If people search for software developers or software development and see ads stating mobile app development or mobile app developers, the ad relevancy will be low.
Tip #6 – Understand Google Ads Keyword Match Types for IT
You should understand keyword match types in Google Ads and how they impact campaign performance. Most businesses prefer to use Phrase Match keywords to keep their campaign relevant. However from our experience what we have seen is broad match keywords dominate the impressions, and clicks turn into conversions. So to pick IT services keywords keep a ratio of broad, phrase, and exact matches 55:30:15.
In the competitive IT landscape, mastering Google Ads keyword research is a crucial step toward driving targeted traffic and conversions. Utilize the specialized techniques outlined in this guide to position your IT business at the forefront of Google Ads success. With precise keyword targeting and strategic campaign organization, you can elevate your IT business’s visibility and achieve optimal results from your Google Ads endeavors.
If you would like to discuss how Scroll Spike can generate high-ticket leads for your IT company, please request a free audit if you have existing ad campaigns or book a meeting with us. We will share our industry experience, having managed Google Ads campaigns for multiple IT & SaaS companies.