How to Find the Best Long-tail Keywords to Drive Google Ads Conversions

As Google Ads bids become increasingly expensive, Google advertisers are trying to find tricks to advertise at a lower price. Short-tail, broad keywords are highly competitive and getting more and more expensive over time, so many advertisers are searching for long-tail keywords to improve conversions. In other words, they’re looking for longer keywords that are less competitive and, therefore, cheaper.

But it’s not only about money. Long-tail keywords are usually used by searchers when they are closer to purchasing a product.

For example, if you sell summer clothing, bidding for the keyword “clothes” will be very expensive as there will be a lot of competition. Plus, people searching for “clothes” are likely in the early stages of their purchase decision and not close to buying.

If you are a small business, you likely won’t have the same budget as large companies like Zara that have a huge marketing budget. As a small company that sells summer clothing, you’ll want to find more specific and lower-cost keywords like “slim-fit short sleeve,” which also show searcher intent to buy soon.

A smart implementation of a long-tail keyword strategy leads to a lower traffic acquisition cost and higher-quality traffic, which means a higher conversion rate and, therefore, a higher ROI. You’ll attract the audience that’s searching for the exact same products you’re selling at a lower cost per click.

The top of page bid for “clothes” is more than double the bid for “slim fit short sleeve”

There are several ways of finding long-tail keywords that fit your products and services. However, the question is, how do you make sure those keywords are going to bring you enough traffic, and, more importantly, high-quality traffic that converts? Here are some tips:

1. Go to Google.com and search for terms related to your business.

Using Google’s autocomplete in the search box is the easiest way to find long-tail keywords, but not many people do it. It will show you some suggestions for searches starting with the word or words you used. These suggestions correspond with what people search for online. They are not necessarily the most searched keywords, but you should target them, as they will definitely be high-quality keywords.

Example of Google search box auto-populating results

2. Go to your Google Ads account and check the keyword tool.

The Google Ads keyword tool might seem complicated at first, but it’s actually a very easy and resourceful feature to use. Let’s take a look at how to use it:

Once you are on your Google Ads account, go to Tools > Keyword Planner and click on Find New Keywords. Then you can suggest some keywords related to your business and the kind of long-tail keywords you want to find. If you don’t have any keywords you want to choose from, you can also insert your URL and Google will suggest keywords based on the content of your site.

Example of suggesting keywords in  Google keywords tool

You can make the search more sophisticated by excluding the terms you don’t want in your long-tail keywords. And that’s it! Google will suggest plenty of long-tail keywords you can select that could be relevant to your business. Not all of them will be, but it will give you tons of ideas.

Not only will it give you ideas for keywords, but also their number of monthly searches, trends, competition, and bidding estimations. This information is very useful when it comes to making decisions on which keywords are best for you, taking your budget, products and objectives into account.

Example of keyword search results summary

A useful trick that you can perform on your Keyword Research Tool is entering your competitors’ URL and checking the terms that appear as relevant for them. You can find good ideas here that you might not have thought about. However, it is possible that the keywords that appear here could have a higher cost per click than usual.

3. Check which terms people are using to find your site.

You can do this directly from your query report on your Google Ads account. Here, you’ll probably find keywords you have already targeted, but you can always make important discoveries by checking it once in a while.

Where can you find your query report? Just enter the keywords section of one of your campaigns or ad groups and go to Search Terms. You will be given the option to add and exclude keywords directly from there. Excluding the keywords you don’t want to appear will result in saving money that is essential for you to spend on keywords that are actually relevant to your products.

Example of Google query report

With the extra information it provides you (interactions, cost per conversion, conversion rates, etc.), you can make very informed decisions that will help you optimize your Google Ads campaigns correctly.

4. How is organic traffic coming to your website?

SEO and SEM strategies are quite different, but you can use them in collaboration to get the best traffic to your online store. Checking the organic terms you rank for and the terms people use to get to your site can be useful when it comes to thinking of new keywords for your ads. You can make a list of them and create variations, add them to the Google Ads keyword tool to generate more ideas, etc. Once you have the final list, include them in your Google Ads campaigns.

Note that this method only looks at the terms you currently rank for in Google search results. That’s a result of your SEO and will depend on your eCommmerce content, backlinks, and many other factors. Talking to your SEO team might help you reveal other search terms you’re not currently ranking for (but want to), as well as search terms your competitors are ranking for.

You can make a list of them and create variations, add them to the Google Ads keyword tool to generate more ideas, etc. Once you have the final list, include them in your Google Ads campaigns.

You can find this information in your Google Search Console or Google Analytics account. Just enter your Google Analytics account, go to the Acquisition section, then click on Keywords > Organic, and a list of the organic keywords you are ranking for will appear.

Example of Google Analytics interface

ALSO – How is your eCommerce copy performing?

Keywords are one of the most important, if not the most important, parts of any Google Ads account. Your keywords are the key your clients use to enter your online store. By researching long-tail keywords, you will improve and optimize your account and “generate more keys” that more customers can use to access and enter your site. Try all these strategies to get more qualified traffic and a higher ROI.


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This article is brought to you by Laura, Marketing Product Manager at Clever eCommerce. Laura is a frequent blogger at Clever eCommerce blog, where she talks about eCommerce tips & advice, SEO & SEM strategies, and other related topics.

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