How Many Keywords Would You Ad to One AdWords Campaign?

I'm building an AdWords campaign right now. I'm wondering how many keywords are too many to add? Or, here's another way to word this question: is it better to have one keyword in a large geographic area or several keywords in a smaller, more concentrated geographic area? What is your experience with this?

 

you are looking at this from a wrong perspective,
a particular keyword may not work the same in different geographic areas, so there is no rule for that, the only rule is: test keywords per geographic area and keep those that work well,
Victorious Marketing

 

Valid point.

Okay. So how many keywords per campaign then? How many is too many? Because, at some point, too many keywords is the equivalent to too large a geographic area for your budget. Focus is always more effective.

 

campaign can have as many keywords as you can imagine, you can group things in many ways : geo area, product group, ...
ad group on the other hand should have 5-25 keywords (recommended) but you can also have 1 keyword ad group for pin point targeting,
so in general follow some sort of logic and good practices, if you are new to AdWords pm me and I will send you a link to a course
Victorious Marketing

 

Okay, this is a little awkward ... I don't know how to PM you on here. ??? But if you can figure out a way to send me a link to this course, I'll take a look at it. Thank you in advance for doing that.

 

You shouldn't throw every keyword into one ad group and make it your campaign. You wouldn't have a very successful one if you did that. Ad groups exist to segment into logical themes and topics.

For instance, if you sold car parts (brakes, wipers, fuel filters...), you wouldn't have all keywords related to what you sell into one group and have one ad for all. You'd have separate groups for each of these. Even better, one for each car make and model (a brake group for Ford Taurus, another for VW Jetta) and have ads appropriate for each group and landing on appropriate page. That's how you make successful campaigns.

You can have as many keywords as you feel necessary that fits the group. For instance, some would call them brake pads, others brake shoes, although I find that most times it's best to split those in separate groups for best performance.

If you are asking about physical limits, there are some. There is a limit of 20,000 keywords per group, but there's no real reason to reach or get anywhere close to this. You can have up to 20,000 ad groups per campaign. The limit per account is 5 million keywords. It's unlikely most businesses will reach these limits but I have seen it a couple of times.

 

Okay, so focus is best in keywords. Agreed.

Now what about geographic territories? Is it more a matter of small budget = small territory and a larger budget can justify a larger territory?

Let me be specific with you. There are literally MILLIONS, maybe even billions of aspiring and already-published authors in this world. So, even if you use only one or two keywords such as "self-publishing" and "book publishing," you can really spread your budget thin if you choose a whole country or two to target. Which brings me back to: is it better to focus on a smaller territory so you get more bang for your buck? What is the "sweet spot" here in terms of how large an audience you want to reach with one ad campaign? 1,000,000 viewers? What's the magic number? Or is there one?

 

While creating an Adwords Campaign,you should keep in mind that there is limit of 20000 keywords per group but you can have 20000 ad groups per campaign but there is a limit of 5 million per adwords account.So keeping in mind the limit for each adwords account you can use about 10000 keywords for your ad groups in your campaign.

 

@Best Seller you have some experience in Facebook advertising and you try to copy that to AdWords. There is no universal sweetspot for audience size or geographical targeting.
You need to create tightly connected ad groups which resemble your website structure.
That way you are going to get higher quality score and lower CPC.
You are trying to get as many as possible publishing authors... If you want that, you would need to find long tail keywords with decent amount of monthly searches.
There is a lot more there, but those are some basic principles to follow.

 

The point of advertising is to reach all those who show an interest in what you have to offer. If you sell something that is good only to a certain region (say a plumber), you'd want to show your ads only to those within your city because no plumber is going to travel very far even for a job.

Since you have something that can be easily distributed (presumably a download or even a book that can be easily shipped), I'd target the whole country or countries you wish to advertise in. That is likely English-speaking countries in your case.

The thing is, you don't know where your next sale is going to come from. If you limit yourself to a few states, you are likely missing out on sales from those you would not be targeting. But you also don't seem to know how many people are searching on those keywords and making assumptions. Check the keyword tool to tell you. Then do some math and figure out what your budget should be.

 

Hi Best Seller.

You asked "Is it better to focus on a smaller territory so you get more bang for your buck?" That's a question I've bumped into quite often, especially if your business can sell to people anywhere in the world, rather than a very local business like a plumber.

If I understand it right, this is your first AdWords campaign? (Please forgive me if I'm mistaken.) If it is, you're probably better off keeping it as simple as possible while you're still learning. Every extra territory you target adds an extra dimension of complexity. Start with the country you're in. You already know the language nuances, the culture etc. Once you're comfortable that you're making money from Google then extrapolate to the next country. Rinse and repeat.

 

Fair enough. That's true ... I'm thinking in terms of how Facebook works.

 

I've only run one or two short campaigns in the past ... to test things. So, yes, I would say this is going to be my first official AdWords campaign. And I think you're right, your advice is right on the mark. I need to start small and test it until I'm comfortable with the results. That makes sense.

 

Typical answer is somewhere in the 20-25 keyword range, and definitely no more than 30 keywords per ad group.
30-keyword mark in each ad group; it is actually perfectly okay to have an ad group with less than 30 keywords. In fact, chances are, if your campaigns contain ad groups with less than 30 keywords, then you’ve organized your account efficiently and can create that all important relevant ad copy.

Hope it will help you amazingly.