Hi, I was just checking by adwords campaign for my forum and doing some keyword research. This might sound ike a dumb question, but what keywords do you focus on for marketing your forums? OK, if it is a soccer related forum, there will be loads of keywords about soccer. If it is woodworking forum, there wil be loads of keywords about woodworking. But what about generic forum type keywords? What are the high volume keywords do you think? Are there longer tail keywords worth trying. To take the Soccer Forum example. Your key words might be: Soccer Forum Soccer Chat Soccer Discussion Soccer Community But what are those other words, following soccer, that you have found useful? Words that could apply to any forum with the appropriate (specific) forum related words added in. Soccer Tips Talk about Soccer Chat about Soccer Soccer Tragics Nuts about Soccer Let's talk Soccer Get the idea? What have you found that works?
Try using a thesaurus to search for synonyms for each keyword and then juggle the phrasing. Eg, if you had soccer tips, your other keywordsmight be football hints, soccer hints, tips on soccer etc etc...Also, once you have set up your campaigns, use the opportunities tab to help you find more keywords.
I use a thesaurus all the time. Using football in this case may not get what you want. Most of the non-American world uses football instead of soccer. But to Americans, football is a different sport. Maybe split your campaign by region to minimize unwanted impressions and clicks. Try using team names such as "manchester united forums/chat/discussion". If you are not already, have sections for each team on your site.
I would assume, since your forum seems well established, that you would have plenty of organic traffic coming in...I would start from your referrer logs and expand from there. I'm sure this is something you're already doing, but it's where I would start. Just curious, is it difficult to show an ROI for forum advertising?
another thing to think about is what categories your forum is made up of. so like if you have a "soccer highlights" category you might target soccer videos, soccer player names, soccer stadiums, etc.. make sense? - lucas
Have you tried using any of the available keyword research tools? Test the most relevant results with AdWords (for example) and go for the best long tails.