If you’re like me, you like to build as big a keyword list as possible with as many variations you can think up based on existing traffic and various other keyword building tactics. However, a lot of the time and energy it takes to build such a comprehensive list might be better applied to other aspects of your PPC campaign.

Evolution has occurred
Much like evolution has made man’s tail obsolete, the long tail that was touted to be the key to running a successful Pay Per Click campaign has gone by the wayside in favor of focusing one’s efforts on testing.

What is the long tail?
The long tail was used by PPC advertisers to direct highly targeted and cheap traffic to their site. The traffic was cheaper than normal because most competitors tended not to create a huge list of keywords initially. This long list of other keywords, when added together, could potentially drive a significant amount of cheaper traffic and leads/sales as well.

Don’t completely ignore the long tail!
While it is a best practice to create a large list of keywords at the beginning of a new campaign (cast a wide net), it’s more important to focus one’s efforts on testing out different positions, ad copy and most importantly landing page changes with the highly trafficked keywords.

Try landing page testing instead
Taking an hour to create a few variations of a landing page that can be tested with some high volume keywords is much more beneficial than taking an hour to create hundreds of variations of a particular keyword or phrase that is key to your business.

Benefits of testing over big keyword lists
With match types being what they are, the chances of stumbling upon a group of “undiscovered” keywords that end up shooting sales through the roof are slim. However, changing the shape/color of some buttons on your contact form or testing different images or messaging on your landing page can have a great impact on conversion rates. If after testing out various elements you end up moving from a 1% conversion rate to 2%…you’ve essentially doubled your actions/sales.

Time well spent.

-Brian Renner