Module 8 · Lesson 1
Building a Keyword Strategy
What you’ll learn
- The four keyword types every account should separate
- Why organising by intent beats one big keyword list
- How to classify keywords as profitable, promising or waste
- How to structure campaigns around the tiers
Module 3 taught you the match types. This lesson is about strategy — not just which keywords to bid on, but how to organise them by intent so each type gets the bid and budget it deserves. Well-run accounts don’t throw every keyword into one pile; they tier.
The four keyword types
Almost every keyword you’ll target falls into one of four buckets, and each behaves differently:
Generic / category
Broad category terms (“running shoes”). High volume, high competition, lower intent. Your discovery and reach layer.
Brand (your own)
Your brand name. Cheap, high-converting, and worth defending so competitors don’t intercept shoppers already looking for you.
Competitor
Rival brand terms (via Brand Term Targeting). Conquesting demand — use when you have a real edge.
Product-specific / long-tail
Precise, high-intent phrases (“waterproof trail running shoes men”). Lower volume, but your best converters.
Why separate them?
Each type needs a different bid and target. Brand terms convert cheaply and deserve a low, efficient bid; competitor terms cost more and need watching; product-specific terms justify aggressive bids. Mixed together in one campaign, you can’t control any of them. Advertisers structuring by tier report meaningfully better overall results.
Structure campaigns around intent
A clean, proven manual structure separates keywords by intent level so you can manage each cleanly:
- Exact-match high-intent — your product-specific winners, tightly controlled.
- Phrase-match category — broader category terms for reach.
- Brand defense — your own brand name in exact match, protecting your traffic.
Layer competitor targeting in as a separate, watched campaign once the rest is working (Module 3, Lesson 4).
Classify every keyword
Once data comes in, sort your keywords into three groups from your performance reports — this classification drives every optimisation decision you’ll make:
- Profitable — winning, relevant keywords converting at or below your target. Scale these.
- Promising — some sales, potential to improve. Refine and watch.
- Waste — high spend, few or no conversions. Cut or reduce.
Build from your Keyword Planner
Remember the two axes from Module 3: relevance (Item Keyword Frequency) and demand (Traffic Keyword Frequency). Prioritise high-relevance, high-demand terms; for high-demand but low-relevance terms, fix your listing before bidding hard.
Quick recap
- Separate keywords into four types: generic, your brand, competitor and product-specific.
- Each type needs its own bid and target — tiering by intent beats one mixed list.
- Structure manual campaigns by intent: exact high-intent, phrase category, brand defense.
- Classify keywords as profitable, promising or waste to drive every optimisation.