Turning Up (or Down) the Volume

How much traffic do you really want, and can your budget afford it?

Before iPods enabled teens to retreat into their music at any volume they like without disrupting the rest of the household, parents employed a three-word mantra that both parties quickly grew tired of: “Turn it down!” It’s a generational power struggle that probably echoed the world over.

As adults, our musical tastes may have changed, but at least we now get to decide just how high or low to set the volume—and not just for our favorite tunes. Within your Yahoo! Sponsored Search account, your account specifications can influence the volume of traffic you receive on your keywords.

But here, “cranking it up” is not always the best idea. High-volume keywords are often expensive, but low-volume “tail” keywords may not provide the results you seek. Most advertisers seem to prefer a mixture of the two. To take full advantage of their benefits, it’s important to know when and why to use both types.

Should You “Turn it up to 11″?
High-volume keywords have the advantage of being heavily searched on by users, and that can potentially drive a lot of traffic to your site. Of course, since they’re so popular, the competition for these keywords can be fierce, resulting in a very competitive marketplace and higher prices. If you’re not careful, a handful of clicks on a high-volume keyword can deplete your budget—without resulting in any actual orders from your site.

Low-volume keywords often can provide a lot more “bang for the buck.” They can not only stretch your budget, they potentially enable you to better represent the breadth of your product offerings. For example, if you sell appliances, a keyword like “appliances” may be highly sought after and fairly pricey. On the other hand, keywords based on the type of appliances you sell are likely to be less expensive and far more descriptive, which should get you more targeted traffic. Additionally, while a keyword like “appliances” may be so costly that it eats up a good portion of your budget, lower-volume, less-expensive keywords can drive more targeted traffic to your site at a lower cost.

Monitor Performance on Both Types
Of course this doesn’t mean that you should never include high-volume keywords in your account, but rather that you should keep a close eye on those keywords to make sure they’re working for you, rather than against you:

• Determine how much clicks are actually worth to you, by carefully gauging your ROI for those keywords.
• Monitor your bids for those keywords, so that they don’t eat through your budget too quickly.
• If you find that your high-volume keywords are costing too much or aren’t generating enough quality traffic for you, try lowering your bids.

Consider separating high- and low-volume keywords into their own (thematically relevant) ad groups. Since higher-volume keywords generally have a bigger impact on your ad quality, mixing them in with your lower-volume keywords may bring down the overall performance of the ad groups they share.

Additionally, with high-volume keywords in their own ad groups, it’s easier to create more targeted titles and descriptions that will be highly relevant to the keywords. Conversely, grouping lower-volume keywords in their own ad groups makes it easier to create “catch all” titles and descriptions that use keyword insertion and alt text to make each creative specific to the keyword. Finally, separating high- and low-volume keywords into their own specific, thematically relevant ad groups will make it easier to tell which ads and keywords are performing well, and which aren’t.

Remember, there’s no “wrong” type of keyword for any given account. Rather, it’s all about how you manage your account. Keep a close eye on your high- and low-volume keywords, make adjustments when necessary, and you should get the traffic you need and results you want. You have the freedom to adjust your keywords as you see fit, and this time around Mom and Dad have no say whatsoever.

— Noah Belson, Content Quality Analyst