Watch Episode 11 on "PDF":
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Read the Transcript of Episode 11 on "PDF":
What's up folks, Wil Reynolds here.
This is another Wasteful Wednesday, the series where I show you how to take some money back that you're probably giving to Google, cause they don't need anymore.
In today's episode, we're going to talk about three little letters that can waste you a lot of money...
P-D-F
When people add the word "PDF" next to a keyword, guess what the freak they want? A PDF! Are you offering them that? Hardly ever.
So let me show you a couple of examples to make it real for you and make sure that you don't fall into the same trap, that just lines Google's pockets with more money that they don't need.
Keyword of the Week: "PDF"
Ex. PDFs / Files
Query: "How to sell PDF files online using PayPal"
So, "how to sell PDF files online using PayPal", real search term, got real clicks, gave Google money.
So this is probably not what they want to get clicks on.
I'm not going to click because I'm not trying to take people's money, Google.
Query: "Risk management tools and techniques in banks PDF"
But "risk management tools and techniques in banks PDF".. weird query, I know, but I found it.
I found somebody bidding on it and sure enough, look at these results.
It doesn't really feel like PDF, like "get our tool"...
Query: "MongoDB administration PDF"
"MongoDB administration PDF", real word that I caught and look at the results:
No, this isn't what I'm looking for.
Of course organically, once again:
Google knows, if you want a PDF, there's a good chance we should show you a page, that's a damn PDF. I can only imagine that there's links to PDFs from these docs.
So there you go, "MongoDB administration PDF", you said you wanted a PDF.. Google organic gives you a PDF, on the paid side, they'll just take your money.
Ex. Textbook
Query: "logistics and supply chain management textbook"
The last one I got for you, this one isn't PDF specific, but I'm going to show you a way that college kids are taking your freaking money.
So be very careful that people are searching for generic words and the word "textbook", as you can see...
And respect to Oracle and these other companies that are showing up here, respect to you guys [who] are giving eBooks, but nah I'm looking for a textbook.
I will tell you, these words are getting clicks and those clicks aren't helping customers or clients. They are just resulting in people losing their budget.
That's this Wasteful Wednesday, my friends! Have a hypothesis you want me to run and check for you? Please leave a comment below and I'll be more than willing to do it!
If you're like, man, you've been dropping all these nuggets, but I want to run my account through all of these ideas and more -- go to Saving Benjamin™ Lite. This is our tool that will check out your keywords at scale and see how many times (if at all) this is happening to you!
Key Takeaways
- Use your SEO and PPC data together to identify whether or not your PPC ads are matching to PDF terms.
- Negate terms like “PDF”, “textbook”, etc. — especially when you’re bidding on a competitors brand name — to improve Quality Score and Landing Page Experience. Leverage our Saving Benjamin™ Lite tool to find more negative keywords in your PPC accounts.
- Keep watching Wasteful Wednesday episodes here!
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