Blogging Statistics — 31 Stats You Need to Know in 2024

Online marketing is a fast-paced and ever-changing landscape, but one thing remains the same: content is king.

We’ve compiled a list of 31 blogging statistics that will help guide your content marketing strategy in 2024 so you can spend less time fretting and more time creating content that delights and converts.

Your business blog presents an opportunity to connect with your audience by providing helpful and enjoyable content that keeps people coming back.

Brands that prioritize blogging see 13 times more ROI than brands that don’t, so read on for facts and stats to keep you in the know and inspire your future content marketing endeavors — feeling inspired to start your blog?

Great! Let’s get into the facts.

General Blogging Facts
The Benefits of Business Blogging
Writing, Formatting, and Posting
Blogging Challenges
Building a Successful Blog

General Blogging Facts

There are over 600 million active blogs across the internet. (Growth Badger, 2022)
More than 50% of bloggers are between 21 to 35 years old. (Truelist, 2022)
Blog posts remain the most popular content format, with 9 out of 10 marketers using blogging to achieve content goals. (SEMrush, 2023)
There are an estimated 32 million bloggers in the U.S. as of 2022. (Statista)
Over 2 million blog posts are published daily. (Hosting Tribunal)
The niches that have the highest percentage of blogs with over 50,000 monthly sessions are food (42.8%), lifestyle (13.3%), and travel (10%). (RankIQ).

The Benefits of Business Blogging

80% of internet users interact with both social media sites and blogs. (DemandMetric)
59% of marketers find blogging valuable. (DemandMetric)
Websites with active blogs have 434% more indexed pages and 97% more inbound links than those without. (BKA Content)
Companies with blogs produce an average of 67% more leads monthly than companies that don’t blog. (DemandMetric)

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After video and eBooks, blogging is the third most common content marketing strategy. (HubSpot)
80% of bloggers report that blogging drives strong marketing results. (Orbit Media)
90% of businesses use content marketing tactics, such as blogging. (DemandMetric)
Companies that blog get 55% more website visitors than businesses that don’t. (HubSpot)
Bloggers, on average, include 2-3 images per post. (Orbit Media)

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88% of bloggers who gate content report some/strong results from blogging (35% of them report strong results). (OrbitMedia)
Bloggers who use 7+ images per post are 2.3x more likely to report strong results. (OrbitMedia)

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70% of people would rather learn about a company through articles than advertisements. (DemandMetric)

Writing, Formatting, and Posting

In 2022, it took bloggers 4 hours and 10 minutes to write a typical blog post, up from 3 hours and 57 minutes in 2019. (Orbit Media)

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40% of content marketers say original visuals, such as infographics, perform best in their articles. (Venngage)
The average blog post is 1,376 words. (Orbit Media)
Many business bloggers argue that listicles (list articles) are the most popular blog post format. (HubSpot)
B2B blogs are typically 12% longer than non-B2B blog posts. (Orbit Media)

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Posts with video experienced a 4x increase in engagement metrics. (Orbit Media)

88% of marketers use visuals in over 50% of their blog articles. (Venngage)
Bloggers who publish 2-6 times weekly are 50% more likely to report strong results. (Orbit Media)

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Blogging Challenges

52% of bloggers say engaging with readers through their content is getting harder. (Orbit Media)
Although content creators say that producing original visuals provides results, 35% say they struggle with creating this content consistently. (Venngage)

The chart below highlights content creators’ biggest struggles when it comes to implementing visual content in articles:

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43% of people admit to skimming blog posts. (HubSpot)
B2B bloggers spend, on average, 26% more time on each post than B2C bloggers. (Orbit Media)
The average human attention span has decreased from 12 seconds to 8.25 seconds in the last two decades. (Golden Steps ABA)

Building a Successful Blog

Now that you’ve seen the benefits of running a business blog, you might be eager to get one started on your site or improve upon your current blog.

Regardless of where you are in blog development, brainstorm ideas for engaging posts that keep your buyer persona in mind, optimize your web content for SEO, and follow other best practices that have led businesses to gain ROI from their online content.

Want more success tips on how to be a better blogger? Check out this post with tips from HubSpot’s own blog team. With our free blog builder, you can get started blogging today.

How to Run Google Ads: A Guide to Setting Up Your First Campaign

As the former head of marketing at two different tech companies, I can tell you firsthand: You can optimize your content for search engines all day, but sometimes, pay-per-click advertising — or PPC — is the way to go.

In this blog post, I’ll walk through everything I’ve learned about how to run Google Ads, from creating your account to launching your first campaign.

Of course, PPC is just one part of an effective marketing strategy. And remember: Your competitors are likely buying ads for the same search terms and keywords you’ll be targeting, so standing out from the crowd can be challenging.

But if you’re struggling with a limited organic presence and want to boost ROI fast, I’m here to tell you that paid ads might be your best bet for driving traffic to (and conversions from) your website.

What is a Google Ads campaign?

Build Your Google Ads Campaign Like a Pro

How to Create a Google Ads Campaign

How to Cancel a Google Ads Campaign

What is a Google Ads campaign?

Google Ads is a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising platform that you can use to get your ads listed on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs).

With this system, you can create just one campaign, which is used to organize groups of similar ads, or you can run multiple campaigns at once through your Google Ads account.

Each campaign includes multiple ad groups. These groups, in turn, house your keywords, ad text, and landing pages.

In my experience, I’ve found that structuring a Google ads account with campaigns helps make it easier to target different audiences (for better personalization), to be more intentional with bidding, and to run other tests without affecting the main campaign.

As marketing expert Max Freedman explains, “No matter which type of campaign you choose, it will likely include more than one ad group.”

Max says, “Each ad group may represent a different product you want to market to the same audience, and each ad group may have a unique keyword set.”

For example, imagine you work for an organization that sells two products. One is a more lucrative opportunity, while the other is less important but requires some spending.

With separate campaigns, you can give each of these products its own ads, putting more of your budget toward bidding on ads for the more lucrative product without risking that the less lucrative one might eat up all your spending.

For more information on how ad spending works, check out our ultimate guide to Google Ads.

Below, I’ll share some of my favorite real-world examples of Google Ads campaigns. Then, I’ll go through some of my top tips to help you optimize your Google Ads strategy and teach you how to post Google Ads like a pro.

Build Your Google Ads Campaign Like a Pro

When I first started out as a junior marketer, I thought advertising was just for big companies. But in fact, companies of every size and in every industry can benefit from setting up a strong Google Ads campaign.

Indeed, PPC advertising can be a highly effective strategy to drive revenue for any business.

As entrepreneur Neil Patel explains, PPC is “different from other advertising models (like banner ads with a CPM or cost per thousand impressions) because you’re not paying for eyeballs.”

He says, “Instead, you’re paying for results. No results? No clicks, leads, or sales? You don’t pay. Simple as that.”

So, if you’re looking for inspiration, here are some of my favorite examples of Google Ads campaigns, promoting everything from marketing agencies to holiday destinations:

1. New Breed Marketing

Search Term: “what is inbound marketing”

Links to:

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Oftentimes, I’ve found that customers may know that they have a problem, but they’re not really sure where to start when it comes to solving it.

That’s exactly the challenge that New Breed Marketing aimed to overcome with this Google Ads campaign.

New Breed Marketing, one of HubSpot’s agency partners, is an inbound marketing service provider.

Because New Breed‘s customers might not know what “inbound marketing” even is — let alone why they should work with New Breed to start implementing it — New Breed simply aimed to define the term for their customers.

In this way, their ad helps buyers confirm that inbound marketing is indeed what they’re looking for.

This ad is as simple as PPC advertising gets. The meta description is just one sentence long, indicating little more to searchers than the fact that inbound marketing is a process they should be investing in.

Meanwhile, the blue link — or “Site Extension” — promises to explain inbound marketing in the form of a downloadable guide.

This prepares viewers who click through to the website to submit their contact information in exchange for access to that guide.

Remember: Google Ads campaigns cost you money every time somebody clicks on one of your ads.

That means you need to ensure that you’re getting something tangible out of every one of those clicks, whether that’s a new lead, a warm prospect, or a sale.

2. Nettitude

Search Term: “cybersecurity”

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One question I always think about when setting up an ad campaign is how broad or narrow I want the scope of the campaign to be.

In general, if you focus on very broad search terms, searchers will be less likely to want to buy something right away. On the other hand, a broad term is a great way to access a much wider range of potential customers.

In this ad from Nettitude, you can see the latter effect at play. For this campaign, Nettitude bid on a broad, one-word search term: “cybersecurity.”

While this broad search term doesn’t target a narrow, specific type of searcher, the details of their Google ad ensure that the link will be relevant and useful to many different types of searchers — no matter their level of interest when they start their search.

While this approach isn’t always effective, I think Nettitude does two things particularly well in this case.

First, its meta description highlights several value propositions that most people looking for a cybersecurity solution are likely to be receptive to, from its promised “2-hour response time” to the offer of a “free initial consultation.”

These phrases quickly emphasize how easy and convenient it is to get started, substantially lowering the hurdle for potential customers to reach out.

In addition, I think it’s always a good idea to display a phone number directly on the page. Since this search term is likely to reach a broad, diverse group of people, it makes sense to try to get them on the phone as soon as possible.

I’ve found that this can help nurture customers’ interest and keep them from wandering off to another search result (and forgetting all about you).

3. Rock Content

Search Term: “content marketing course”

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Rock Content, another one of HubSpot’s agency partners, is a content marketing service based in Brazil.

I really like this particular ad campaign because it’s a little unusual: The Rock Content team opted to bid on a search term that’s only somewhat related to the service offered on its landing page.

How does this work? Rock Content is interested in the search term “content marketing course” because it offers them the chance to connect with marketers looking for classes that will help them increase their content marketing knowledge.

I found this campaign really clever because it aims to pivot these searchers away from their initial goal — taking a class to improve their content knowledge — toward instead engaging in an evaluation to determine how much they already know.

This evaluation might not be exactly what every searcher is looking for, but it is a smart way of refocusing their interest on a related service and introducing them to Rock Content’s offerings at the same time.

4. Destination Canada

Search Term: “cheap holiday destinations”

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Similar to Nettitude’s broad, cybersecurity-focused campaign, this campaign from the travel site Destination Canada also leverages a broad search term to drive people toward its unique, narrower offering.

Specifically, this campaign is designed to reach people who are generally interested in exploring options for affordable vacations and then pivot them toward learning more about all the fun things you can do on a holiday trip to Canada.

The landing page isn’t a casual article, but it’s also not a detailed itinerary. In this way, the campaign finds a middle ground, targeting the middle-of-the-funnel space to drive value for the brand.

After all, when launching a Google Ads campaign, you don’t want your ad to be too broad to convert customers — but you also don’t want to be so close to the cash register that your searchers aren’t yet ready for what you’re offering them.

Destination Canada’s approach strikes that balance perfectly, holding users’ interest while avoiding chasing them away with overly specific content.

In addition, the ad includes two sub-links beneath the main Site Extension.

I’ve found that sub-links like these can be a great way to highlight the key subjects that will be covered on the landing page if the user clicks through, thus maximizing the ad’s click-through rate.

5. FM Training

Search Term: “leed certification online”

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FM Training is a certification hub for facility managers (FMs), and one of the many things FMs are responsible for is making sure that their building facilities are LEED-certified.

Earning this certification requires substantial coursework, but it can be a challenge to find curricula that cater specifically to these professionals.

That’s where FM Training comes in. Their Google Ads campaign is designed to make sure that FMs know they’ve come to the right place.

The first sentence of the meta description clearly states the target audience and provides a highly concrete value proposition: “Many FMs See a Salary Increase of 6% Or More.”

In this way, the ad uses the limited space available to send a strong message, encouraging viewers looking to get certified to click through and make a purchase.

I also think this ad offers another great example of the effective use of multiple links.

While some of the other examples we’ve looked at link to just one landing page or just one or two sub-links, this ad includes five Site Extensions directly beneath the ad.

This helps users jump directly to the information they’re most interested in, further boosting the chances that they’ll end up converting.

6. LeftLane Sports

Search Term: “hiking boots for women”

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Finally, I think it’s important to highlight how Google Ads can be particularly powerful for local businesses. This campaign from Boston-based LeftLane Sports makes the company money even if users don’t click on the link.

How is that possible?

If prospects in the Boston area search for “hiking boots for women,” they won‘t just see a paid ad inviting them to make an online purchase from LeftLane Sports — they’ll also see exactly where the brand’s nearest storefront is and even how long they’re open that day.

This is a great way to drive website traffic to the most relevant product pages while also promoting your business’s local presence in the process.

How to Create a Google Ads Campaign

Clearly, there are a lot of different ways to design an effective Google Ads campaign. So, if you’re ready to get started with your Google Ads strategy, read on for a step-by-step guide on how to run Google ads.

1. Create a Google Ads account.

Before you can do anything, you’ll need to visit the Google Ads website and sign up for an account.

As part of signing up for a Google Ads account, Google will automatically take you through the process of creating your first campaign, which includes setting up a payment method.

Google charges fees on a per-click basis, so be prepared to share your banking/credit card information during the setup process.

Note: I know you might be nervous about handing over your financials, but don’t worry.

You won’t get charged for ad spend until you fully set up your first campaign and start getting clicks, and you can always turn it off once you get through the registration process.

2. Select your campaign goals.

Once you’ve created an account, the Google interface will prompt you to select a primary goal from the following three options:

Get more calls.
Get more website sales or signups.
Get more visits to your physical location.

Remember, this goal will be tied to your advertising campaign. As such, I would definitely recommend choosing the one that most closely represents the results you want to see.

3. Complete the “Describe your Business” section.

Next, Google will prompt you to enter your business name and website, as well as other important information to describe your business. This information is used to help predict your audience and can also be used in the ad itself.

4. Designate your geographic area.

In this section, you’ll designate where around the world you want your ads to appear. In my experience, this is particularly helpful for local businesses — but it’s helpful even if you’re an online-only shop, too.

After all, if you don’t have a physical storefront, you may be less concerned about geographic constraints, but it’s still not a bad idea to consider where the majority of your audience lives.

And if you’re not sure, you may want to back up a step and consider your buyer personas first.

For example, why spend money advertising to people in the Midwest if the bulk of your customers live in the Northeast?

Another factor to consider is whether your company serves international buyers. If so, you can reach users in other countries by expanding your campaign’s geographic area to include those locations.

Just be careful to avoid selecting too broad an area. If buyers in other countries are unable or much less willing to make a purchase, you might end up paying a lot of money for visitors who never end up purchasing anything.

As content marketing specialist Susie Marino explains, “​​When you host a dinner party, you don’t invite everyone you’ve ever met. You choose a select few.”

Susie says, “This way you can cater the experience to their specific tastes and interests. Similarly, you don’t want your Google Ads campaign to show to the world.”

As such, she notes that it’s important to designate the right location for your campaign, to ensure you’re inviting the right people to your Google Ads dinner party.

5. Set your keyword themes

Google will automatically offer some themes based on your website content, but it’s a good idea to customize your keywords.

I’ve found that using Google’s suggestions as a jumping-off point (while making sure to adapt their suggestions based on your own specialized knowledge and perspective) is generally the best way to set your campaign up for success.

It’s also important to keep in mind that you’ll be competing against many other companies for the same audience.

So, when you choose the keywords for which you want your ad to show up, take some time to think carefully about which ones are most likely to reach people who are ready to buy.

For instance, if you’re setting up a Google Ads campaign for a shoe store, you might assume that a keyword like “luxury shoes” might be the way to go.

But instead, you may have better luck with a more specific phrase, such as “red leather heels.”

You might miss out on people who are looking for shoes of all types, but you’ll snag those who have a particular shoe in mind.

Plus, these customers may be more likely to make a purchase if your ad leads to a landing page with red leather heels, thus making the ad that much more likely to pay off.

Another way to limit clicks that don’t lead to purchases (and thus save money) is by using negative keywords.

For example, you can tell Google to show your ad to people searching for “red leather heels” but not to people who include “stilettos” in their search.

Negative keywords like this will tell Google what terms you don’t want your ad to show up for, helping you further target your ad to the people most likely to actually be interested in what you have to offer.

6. Write your ad

As a writer myself, this is my favorite part of the Google Ads process. It’s also one of the most important parts of any Google Ads campaign. The copy on your ad is the critical ingredient that will convince potential buyers to click.

Importantly, you want to write copy that attracts plenty of people — but you also want those people to buy. If they click but don’t buy, you pay anyway.

So make sure to keep your target audience in mind when crafting your ad, rather than just casting as wide a net as possible.

There are three key components of a Google ad:

Headline.
Description.
Destination URL.

Below, I’ll walk through the various factors you’ll want to keep in mind for each part.

Note: Google will automatically start you off with just one ad. However, if you want, you can choose to set up multiple ads in a single campaign.

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Headline

The headline is the first thing viewers will see when your ad shows up on an SERP — so it’s vital to start with a great headline, full of search terms that will be relevant to your niche.

Google splits the headline up into three sections of 30 characters each, so make each character count. If you’re struggling to stay within the character limit, see if you can use any abbreviations or shorter synonyms to convey the same ideas.

Description

After the headline, you get space for two 90-character descriptions. Use the first description section to highlight the benefits of your product or service. How will your company solve your buyers’ problems or address their pain points?

Then, in the second description, you can highlight a key feature.

Of course, no one gets their ad copy perfect the first time. So don’t be afraid to experiment: If you notice that your ad isn’t getting a lot of traction, be ready to change the tone or content of the text.

Destination URL

The last element of your ad is the destination URL or the webpage people will be sent to when they click on the ad. Just choose the page you want them to land on and paste the URL into the field.

Note: You can use these templates to plan out your Google Ads, make sure they fit within the character counts, and preview what your ad will look like when it’s live.

Download Now

7. Set your ad budget

Once you’ve set up your first ad, it’s time to start thinking about the money. Google’s ad platform enables you to designate a daily budget to keep you from spending more than you’re comfortable with.

You’ll want to set aside enough money to make a difference, but don’t break the bank.

Especially when you’re just getting started, it may make sense to set a fairly small budget and then expand your spending as you learn more about what works.

If you want more control over the price per click, you can manually set the bids for clicks, and then your ads will just stop showing once your budget is spent. That’s a good way to make sure you won’t end up with a shocker of a bill later.

Most importantly, remember that your budget isn’t set in stone.

As entrepreneur and marketing specialist Allen Finn writes in his comprehensive guide to ad campaign budgeting,Every niche, every account, is different. When in doubt, pay close attention to the wealth of data available to you and adjust accordingly.”

Once you start your campaign, make sure to set aside some time to review the results — and continuously adjust your budget based on performance.

8. Complete the “budget and review” section.

You’re almost done! In this section, you’ll be reviewing your campaign settings. It’s best to double-check each of the following:

Your daily budget.
Your monthly budget.
The impressions you’ll get for that budget.
The clicks you expect to get based on that number of impressions.
The location(s) you’re targeting.

9. Double-check your double check.

I can tell you from personal experience — you can never be too careful when it comes to double-checking your ad campaigns. Before you launch your ads, it’s always a good idea to check over everything one more time.

Is everything spelled correctly? You’ll miss out on keyword searches if your ad has a typo, not to mention the risk of countless potential customers seeing an embarrassing mistake.

Once you’re sure that everything is set up correctly, take a deep breath and move on to the next step.

10. Set up billing

Because Google charges per click, it will ask for your payment information during the Google Ads account setup process.

By providing your payment information, you’re giving Google the ability to charge you for the advertising costs accrued through your campaign.

11. Hit submit

Once you’ve dotted your i’s and crossed your t’s, you’re ready to go! Hit “submit,” and voila — you’ve set up your first Google Ads campaign.

To create additional campaigns, perhaps with different or tighter keyword groups, just select Campaigns from the menu on the left. Then, click the blue “plus” button and choose “New Campaign.”

The Google interface will then walk you through the additional steps to set up a second campaign.

In addition, once the campaign is set up, it’s worth considering A/B testing different versions of your ads, in order to further optimize them.

Try out different headlines, introduce new features, focus on different benefits — and then take note of how those changes impact the number of conversions. There’s always a way to make your ad perform better. It’s up to you to find it!

How to Cancel a Google Ads Campaign

To cancel a Google Ads campaign, first sign in to your Google Ads account. Then, follow the instructions below:

Click “Campaigns” from the menu on the left.
Find the campaign you want to cancel.
Click the checkbox next to that campaign.
Click “Edit” from the drop-down menu that appears.
Click “Pause” to place the campaign on hold, or “Remove” to permanently stop the campaign.

Note: You can select multiple campaigns to bulk edit.

When you’re setting up your first Google Ads campaign, it’s only natural to feel a little nervous or overwhelmed. But with this guide to how to post Google ads, you’ll be on your way to crafting a Google ads strategy like a pro in no time.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in March 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

PPC Keyword Research: The Complete Guide

Pay-per-click (or PPC) marketing can feel like a daunting task. From creating ads to monitoring performance and understanding bidding strategies, there’s a lot to take in. But PPC keyword research is an often under-appreciated, yet necessary, component of search engine marketing.

With proper keyword research, you can more accurately build ads and landing pages that encourage clicks from users. Completing PPC keyword research can ultimately lead to more conversions on your website and a positive return on your ad spend, which is why it’s worthwhile.

In this post, I’ll walk you through everything you need to know about PPC keyword research — from why it matters to how to begin researching and beyond.

Table of Contents

What is PPC keyword research?
Why does PPC keyword research matter?
How to Research PPC Keywords
Best PPC Keyword Research Tools

What is PPC keyword research?

PPC keyword research refers to the process of identifying keywords to include in pay-per-click advertising campaigns, usually through Google Ads or other search engine marketing platforms.

The goal is to identify keywords you want to bid on as part of your PPC campaigns. Then, your ads will display when users search for those keywords.

Here’s how keywords are categorized:

Average Monthly Searches: The number of times the keyword is searched per month on the search engine.
Cost-per-Click: An estimate of how much you’ll pay each time a user clicks your ad when it appears for this keyword.
Competition (CMP): A score from 0-100 in Google Ads’ Keyword Planner that indicates the level of competition for placing an ad for a keyword. When looking for new keywords in Keyword Planner, these are denoted as low, medium, or high.
Top of Page Bid: An estimate of how much you’ll need to bid on a particular keyword to ensure your ad appears in the keyword’s search results. Since this can fluctuate, Keyword Planner gives you both a low-range and high-range estimate.

These basic metrics are important because they can help you estimate the amount you’ll need to spend per month on your ads for them to be effective.

Different Types of PPC Keywords

We can divide keywords in several different ways. Each category is important to understand so that you can craft relevant ads that properly meet the search intent behind the keywords.

Some of these categories are provided directly by Google in your Google Ads account. SEM tools provide others as a helpful way to further guide your PPC keyword research.

Search Intent

There are a few ways to categorize keywords by search intent, but some common categories provided by SEM tools include:

Informational: The searcher is looking for information, such as definitional content or “how-to” guides.
Navigational: The searcher is looking for a specific website or company, often to log in to an existing account.
Commercial: Searchers are looking for products or services, typically in research mode. They may be looking for something specific, but not necessarily to make a purchase at that moment.
Transactional: These types of keywords have the highest purchase intent. The user is looking to take action right at that moment, whether that action is booking tickets, buying an item, or signing up for a service.

Different searches have different intent behind them. Sometimes, people are just looking for information. These informational keywords lend themselves well to search engine optimization (SEO), which focuses on organic search results. However, for PPC campaigns, they are less effective.

The most effective keywords to target for PPC are those with high search intent, mainly commercial or transactional keywords.

With these keywords, you can capture search traffic when purchase intent is highest. Your ads are likely to attract more website traffic and convert more users to customers for these keywords.

Many brands will choose to also bid on keywords in the navigational category, particularly for searches of their own company. It’s a way to double down on traffic capture alongside the organic search results for your company.

You can also leverage navigational (or “branded” keywords) to bid on your competitor’s brand names and potentially steal some of their search traffic. (Sneaky, I know.)

Keyword Length

Keywords can also be divided into short-tail keywords or long-tail keywords.

Short-tail keywords are the most popular way to search for a topic, product, etc. They have the highest monthly search volume, but they’re not very specific.

A good example would be “boots.” According to Keyword Planner, this term is searched between 10,000 to 100,000 times monthly.

On the other hand, long-tail keywords are less popular ways to search for topics or items. They usually contain more qualifying terms but are searched less frequently per month.

Using the example above, a long-tail keyword in this instance would be “brown women’s ankle boots.” This keyword is a lot more specific and might yield better results in a PPC ad campaign. However, it’s searched far less frequently at 10 to 100 times monthly.

Keyword Match Types

Depending on your product, service, or campaign, you might want to be highly specific with your keywords. At other times, you might want Google to do some of the PPC keyword research for you. That’s where match types come in.

When you add keywords to your PPC campaign, you can choose between:

Exact Match
Phrase Match
Broad Match
Negative Keywords

If you select Exact Match, Google will only display your ads for exactly the keyword term you have entered. It will also include extremely close matches, such as small spelling errors, plural versions, or a reversed version. For example, your ad will display under both “women’s boots” and “boots women” searches.

Phrase Match slightly expands your selected keywords so your ad will show up for variations of the search term. If you’re targeting “women’s boots,” your ad might also display under search terms like “best women’s boots.”

When you select Broad Match, Google will display your ads for phrases that are related to your keyword. In the same example, your ad may also display under search terms like “women’s doc martens” or “brown ankle boots.”

Negative Keywords are keywords that you instruct Google not to show your ad for at all. In your boots campaign, for example, you might want to use a Broad Match strategy. But you’ll want to instruct Google not to display your ads for terms like “men’s boots” or “women’s sandals” by adding them as Negative Keywords. Similarly, you might want to exclude terms like “free” or “sale.”

Why does PPC keyword research matter?

Understanding the keywords you want to target — and how you want to target them — directly impacts the effectiveness and cost of your PPC campaigns. That’s why PPC keyword research matters.

But let’s get more granular with why it’s crucial for your business.

Ad Relevance and Quality Score

Relevancy isn’t just important as a fundamental advertising principle. Google takes the relevance of your ads against the keywords you’re targeting and uses that information in a way that impacts your ad performance.

Alongside your ads, Google looks at the landing page you’re using and your past performance on Google Ads (the number of clicks your ads have earned) and gives you a Quality Score. The score is between 1 and 10. It then measures how relevant your ads and landing page are to the keywords you’re targeting.

When it comes to bidding on keywords, Google favors ads with a high Quality score. So, if your score is low, your ad strategy will be ineffective, or you’ll have to spend a lot more to appear in searches for your chosen keywords.

Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS)

At first glance, it can seem easy to load a campaign with perfect keywords. They relate exactly to your product or service and the purchase intent is high.

But this kind of strategy can quickly lead to an extremely high ad spend — and ads that don’t perform.

PPC keywords should be carefully categorized into separate campaigns, with specific landing pages built for each campaign. The estimated cost-per-click and the competition metrics are all indicators you can use to figure out how much your campaign will cost to run.

By paying close attention during the keyword research campaigns, you can ensure a positive return on your PPC investment—also known as Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). This means that the revenue you earn from your ads outpaces what you’re spending to run them.

Seasonal Targeting

Just like purchasing habits, lots of keywords have seasonal fluctuations. The searches for given keywords can spike at different times of the year or can trend upwards sharply based on market conditions or global events.

Careful keyword planning means you can target keywords and how much you spend on them at just the right time.

You can use tools such as Google Trends (or “Glimpse”) to see how keyword searches spike at different times. Here are the search trends for our “women’s ankle boots” example over the past five years:

Without fail, the searches for this term spike massively from October to November and start to trend back down around January. This type of insight can improve how efficient your PPC campaigns are, as you can see when to turn them off and switch them on for maximum results.

How to Research PPC Keywords

Do you need help with the step-by-step process for PPC keyword research? I’m here to help.

In this guide, imagine we’re an eCommerce store launching a new range of women’s ankle boots for the fall/winter season to guide some of our decisions.

1. Create your Google Ads account.

First things first, head to Google Ads and set up your account. Ensure you’re signed into the Google Account under which you want to run your ads. Click “Sign In.”

When you create your account, you’ll need to select whether you’re an individual or an organization, confirm your address, and provide payment details.

2. Switch your account to expert mode.

Google defaults your Google Ads account to Smart Mode.

This makes it very straightforward to set up and run ads, but you won’t be able to use Keyword Planner or see a lot of the detailed metrics you want to double-check for your PPC keyword research.

So, before you get started, use the Settings icon on the right-hand side of the gray toolbar and select “Switch to Expert Mode.”

3. Access keyword planner.

Use the hamburger icon in the top left corner to open the menu. Select “Tools” and click “Keyword Planner.”

You’ll see a screen with two options: “Discover new keywords” or “Get search volume and forecasts.” At this stage of your ad planning, you’ll click the first option to start checking out your keyword options.

4. Start finding keywords.

Now comes the fun part. Think carefully about the products or services you’re trying to promote. Your PPC campaign should be specific to a category, especially if you offer a wide variety of product or service options.

Start entering keywords that relate to your product. Here are some that you might enter to kick off a campaign for online sales of women’s ankle boots:

Tip: If you’re really stuck for keywords, try using the option to “Enter a site.” Keyword Planner will use the URL to pull a list of PPC keywords found on the web page you’ve entered. You can use your own site or a competitor site to start generating ideas.

Here are the results Keyword Planner gives us with these starting keywords:

But the planner also gave us a huge list of keyword ideas that we might want to use in our campaign. Unfortunately, many of the top ideas relate to Doc Martens boots, and we don’t sell those.

That doesn’t mean we should discount the entire list, however, as you’ll see in the next step.

5. Refine your keyword ideas.

Keyword Planner gives you a few different ways to refine the list of keyword ideas it has provided for you.

First, you can use the keyword suggestions under the “broaden your search” box to add in new ideas:

Next, you can use the “Refine” button to remove different options from the keyword ideas. For example, you can remove all brand-related searches so that terms like “Doc Marten” or “Timberland” are removed from the keyword ideas.

Similarly, Google will interpret the keywords you’re looking at and give you lots of options to refine the provided keyword ideas. In our example, Google enables us to remove different colors, styles, materials, and more from the keyword ideas.

All you have to do is de-select various options to refine your keyword idea list:

Now, Keyword Planner is giving us a much more relevant set of keyword ideas for our women’s ankle boots campaign:

6. Save your keywords and test results.

Start selecting the box to the left of the keywords you think would be worth targeting for your PPC campaign. This can take some time as, even with refinement, Keyword Planner will provide an extensive list of ideas.

Once you’ve selected a group of keywords you’d like to explore targeting, you can add them to an existing Ad Group or create a brand new one:

Create your ad group, and then select “Add Keywords” in the same dark blue bar. You’ll then be able to view your list of selected keywords under the “Saved Keywords” tab.

At any stage, you can click the circular + button to add more keywords to your list, or you can go straight to “Create Campaign” in the top right to start building your ad copy and bidding strategy using these keywords.

7. Keep an eye on your forecast results.

As you continue to refine your keywords by adding new ideas or negative keywords, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on the Forecast tab. This gives you an estimate of the results you can expect from the keywords you have selected:

However, these forecasts should be used as a guideline only. The actual results of your campaign will depend on the quality of your ads, landing page, keyword strategy, and bidding strategy.

8. Rinse and repeat.

Depending on how many campaigns you’d like to run, you can repeat this process over and over for your keyword research, creating a new Ad Group for each new category of keywords.

Staying organized with your saved keywords and ad groups is key to creating highly targeted, successful campaigns that drive a positive ROAS.

Best PPC Keyword Research Tools

Curious which PPC keyword research tools are worth using? I’ve rounded up a few of my favorites.

1. Google Keyword Planner

Sometimes, the best place to start with PPC keyword research is to get the information right from the horse’s mouth. With Keyword Planner, you’re getting data directly from Google, so you can rely on its accuracy.

That being said, it’s not the smoothest tool, so it might feel a little overwhelming for beginners. You’re also limited to Google, even if you also want to run PPC campaigns on other search engines like Bing or Yandex.

What I like: The best part about Keyword Planner is that it’s completely free to use. But it also gives you the ability to move straight from keyword research into implementing your PPC campaign all from one place.

2. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a popular tool for both organic and paid search engine marketing. While the keyword research portion of the dashboard is more heavily geared towards organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO), it gives you plenty of PPC data, too.

Like Keyword Planner, you can organize keywords into lists. When you’ve narrowed down a starting list of keywords, you can export the list to paste them into Google Ads as needed.

What I like: Ahrefs is a visually appealing tool and a little easier to wrangle than Keyword Planner. It’s also more intuitive to generate new keyword ideas off the bat.

3. SEMRush

SEMRush has a lot of functions for digital marketers, including SEO, social media posting, content marketing, and more. When it comes to PPC keyword research, it offers similar functionality to Ahrefs but with more organization.

SEMRush has a specific PPC keyword tool for you to easily analyze, group, and remove keywords from different lists according to the campaigns you want to run.

For an extra monthly spend, you can also access the AdClarity extension to sneak a peek at competitors’ ad spend and performance.

What I like: The ability to easily filter out duplicate keywords across lists helps ensure your ad groups remain clean and are not competing with each other to bid on the same keywords.

4. Keywords Everywhere

Keywords Everywhere is a Chrome extension that enables you to examine keyword data right in the Google search results.

Simply enter a keyword, and you’ll get data on the search volume, Cost-per-Click (CPC), search trends, and competition.

It’ll even give you this data on related search terms in a separate box to the right-hand side of your Google search results.

What I like: Keywords Everywhere is very cost-effective, especially for beginners or marketers who run a small number of campaigns. You can buy 100k credits for $15 and simply use the credits as you need rather than being tied into a monthly subscription.

Start your PPC keyword research today.

Whether you’re a total beginner to Google Ads or a seasoned marketer looking to refine your PPC strategies, keyword research is the place to start.

Effective PPC keyword research creates efficiencies in your ad spend and performance so your ads can continually provide successful bottom-line results.

Go get researching.

What’s Google Sandbox? Everything You Need to Know

The alleged existence of a Google Sandbox is one of the more debated topics amongst web and SEO experts.

The presiding theory is that the sandbox effect is when “Google temporarily reduces the page rank of new domains, placing them into what is referred to as its sandbox, in an effort to counter the ways that SEOs attempt to manipulate Google’s page ranking by creating lots of inbound links to a new web site from other web sites that they own.”

In other words, just like you wouldn’t take advice from a toddler too seriously, Google may not trust you to rank competitively for terms until your domain is old enough to warrant trust.

While this may be sad news for your newly created website, you shouldn’t despair because the Google Sandbox is not as definitive as it seems.

Table of Contents

What is the Google Sandbox?
How long does a sandbox period last?
Why don’t new websites rank right away?
5 Tips for Reducing the Sandbox Period

What is the Google Sandbox?

The Google sandbox is a filter (which may or may not exist) that supposedly keeps new websites in a probationary period that prevents them from ranking high on Google’s top results.

Developers have debated the existence and the theoretical parameters of a sandbox on Google’s platform since 2004 when developers noticed that new websites would not rank high on Google’s results for a few months despite keyword optimization efforts.

The main theory surrounding the Google sandbox effect is that the active age of a domain (not to be confused with its initial date of registration) can keep a new webpage from blowing up first-page results before it’s proven.

Because a restrictive sandbox would almost certainly be a measure against spam, Google executives have made no commentary about its existence or what it measures, so bots and spam can’t get around precautionary restrictions.

How long does a sandbox period last?

The typical sandbox period could be as little as a few weeks, but most experts believe it lasts 6 to 9 months.

Your time in the sandbox is variable, depending on circumstances. Rand Fiskin (SEO mastermind and founder of SEOmoz) explains it like this:

“Google‘s sandbox is neither mythical nor cartoonish. It has spelled traffic doom for thousands of sites. Although the causes of this frustrating filter (and the solution) are still unknown, webmasters should be paying attention to potential signs of danger. If pages on your site can’t rank for obviously navigational queries (particularly those that include your brand name), you might want to look for solutions to Google penalties.”

Why don’t new websites rank right away?

Before you worry about how to make your time in the sandbox shorter, be sure to check out the following reasons to see if your content efforts are actually making your time longer.

The E-E-A-T Factor

One reason you may be stuck in the Google sandbox is because you lack relevance and authority.

“The days are long gone when you could pop up on Google overnight. To rank well on Google, you need to nurture your brand by building its expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.” (Ian Booth, SEOMoz)

Don’t forget that “Expertise,” “Experience,” “Authoritativeness,” and “Trustworthiness” extend to more than just the text you publish.

It’s important that you optimize images (both filenames and size for performance), ensure that links aren’t broken, and link only to credible websites.

AI, Plagiarism, and Spam

“The growing popularity of AI-generated content sounds appealing, but it does come at the cost of authority. SEO today genuinely looks at who is writing your content, not just at the content itself.” (Crystle Swinford, PR Newswire).

AI can be a very useful tool, especially for brands just starting a blog or creating other content. However, before you ask AI to make you a 500-word blog on the benefits of your product, remember that Google penalizes plagiarism, and AI content tends to be plagiarized.

Instead of generating an entire blog in AI, consider using AI to outline what headings you need for a blog, which keywords to target, and to generate content ideas.

Be sure to avoid writing spam and familiarize yourself with the purpose of content marketing. You don’t want posts to directly sell and inform about products — you want your content to be so useful that customers and Google recognize your authority.

Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing is the practice of writing low-quality content with a higher-than-average frequency of the same keyword.

The goal of keyword stuffing is to try and trick Google into ranking a web page higher in the SERP (search engine results pages). The issue is that not only does keyword stuffing not work, but Google will penalize you for this lazy attempt at writing.

SEO wizard Marcus Sheridan explains that “content marketing is no longer about keyword-stuffing and link-building; in fact, using those tactics today gets your page shuffled to the bottom of the heap. Quality content is the key to success.” (Finding Peak Podcast)

Check out this blog to determine how often you should be referencing a keyword to avoid stuffing.

5 Tips for Reducing the Sandbox Period

Don’t get too comfortable in the sandbox; here are some tips on how to reduce your sandbox time.

1. Consistently publish medium to long-form content.

Short-form content or not enough content can penalize your website in the eyes of Google.

Remember, you want to seem like an authority on your given content subject, but if you say too little, you will instead look like a novice who can’t or won’t give enough information.

The sweet spot seems to be articles and blogs that are at least 1000 words and published at least once a week but ideally multiple times.

However often you decide to publish, remember that consistency is key. If you publish a blog on Wednesdays, you want to be predictable for both your customers and Google.

Remember that you can always scale bigger or smaller after you’ve been taken out of the Google sandbox.

2. Focus on quality over quantity.

While consistently publishing content is important, you shouldn’t publish fluff just to have lots of content.

In an “Ask Me Anything” Reddit thread, John Mueller, Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google, said, “Personally, I prefer fewer, stronger pages over lots of weaker ones — don‘t water your site’s value down.”

One easy way to identify what content you should write about is to ask yourself, “What is no one else in my industry willing to talk about?” and then create an entire blog answering that question.

This may look like finances (pricing, margins, etc.) or questions to ask before purchasing a product. Check out this free academy lesson on how to create engaging blog content.

3. Improve your credibility with press releases.

There are many reasons to publish a press release, such as improving SEO or getting ahead of an organizational crisis.

When it comes to the Google sandbox, a well-crafted press release in the right hands could mean improving your authority with Google.

“The goal of a press release is to get your desired message into the hands of the journalists who are most likely to be interested in it – and gain positive media attention for your organization. Done right, press releases are an essential part of your communication strategy.” (PR Newswire)

4. Network to create solid backlinks.

Backlinks are another way to improve your credibility in Google’s eyes and reduce the amount of time you spend in the sandbox. Backlinks are the instances in which other credible sites link to your content or website.

“That‘s because a link to another website is more than just a link — it’s a vote of confidence, a recommendation, a way for publishers to say to their readers: ‘Here’s a source I trust. Go check it out yourself.’” (Irina Nica, Hubspot)

You will likely need to network with other content creators to get credible backlinks. Consider emailing people already in your network when you have a blog that’s useful to their organization, and see if you can link to one another.

5. Perfect your content distribution plan.

There’s no better time to work on your content distribution plan then when you are in the Google sandbox. Not only will it focus your efforts and lead to better engagement, but a solid plan could also limit the time you spend in the sandbox.

Keyword strategy should be an essential part of your distribution plan because once you start getting organic traffic from keywords, Google will take notice and reduce your sandbox period.

There are many different content distribution channels, and having similar messaging on several channels can increase your authority. Check out this ultimate guide to content distribution for advice on how to formulate your plan.

Forget About the Google Sandbox and Go Play

If all the possibilities of what can keep you in the Google sandbox have you feeling overwhelmed, remember that these are just guidelines, and ultimately, you determine where your content will go.

SEO expert Joel Klettke advises, “Part of the problem is SEOs want to have this rule book for what makes content work when, in reality, these are nice guidelines, but you have to pick and choose. Sometimes, not having the keyword in the headline means you can have a more compelling headline, which means more people are going to click, read, and engage.”

In the end, it’s important that you aren’t afraid to take risks during your time in the sandbox; it is a period dedicated to learning, after all.