To create a list of keywords, I always start by listing the products or services that I offer, along with any regional terms if I am looking at a company that only operates in one area.

After that, it depends on what type of business I am looking at. I’ve given an example of how I would build a keyword list for a technology retailer.

For somebody that sold clothing (for example) my approach would be a bit different, as I would list other words that meant roughly the same as what I sold. For example, if I sold t-shirts, I would also want to bid on tops, polo shirts, vests etc.

Then I would combine these terms with brand names, and generate a list of keywords that way.

If I was advertising a service like a plumber or an estate agent, the keyword list would be much shorter – there are not that many phrases that people search for if they want a local plumber! For estate agents, there are slightly more, as you can list the areas that they cover, whether they have houses to sell or rent, whether they have flats/apartments, and so on.

So every keyword list has to be built slightly differently.

I wouldn’t recommend putting every keyword into a single group to begin with – I always create the Adgroups first, then use them to create my keyword list.

I’ve read that a good method is to create one adgroup and just throw in broad terms, then mine log files to get a feel for the market…

this only works for a few hours though… alas. what to do.?