Long-tail keywords are a powerful tool for boosting PPC results. If you’re unfamiliar with them, I’ll explain what they are, why they matter, how to find them, and how to use and track them in your PPC campaigns.

If you're reading this, you likely know what a keyword is in the context of PPC advertising. Keywords are at the core of how we reach potential customers when they use search engines like Google.

Top-level keywords, like Roof Company, Restaurants, or Marketing Agency, are broad and general, lacking specificity. When someone searches for a Roof Company, you can’t be sure what they’re after. Are they looking to hire a roofing company, or do they want to learn about roofing companies?

Because top-level keywords carry less meaning and intent, they’re often better suited for generating traffic rather than actual sales. For sales, you want to target more qualified traffic and that’s where long-tail keywords come into play.

Long-tail keywords are longer phrases with three, four, or more words. Roofing Companies in Amsterdam would be a good example. By adding a few words to the top-level keyword, users increase specificity and allow us (marketers) to clarify their intent. It's easier now to understand that this person is looking for roofing companies in the city of Amsterdam, helping us to infer willingness to hire the service. As marketers, we could target this keyword if we offered roofing services in Amsterdam.

In short: they can boost ROAS. For starters, long-tail keywords are more meaningful and carry higher intent, qualifying traffic and weeding out users who aren’t a good fit for your product or service. But also, when users search for something and you understand what they want, you can deliver a better overall experience by making your ad copy and landing page more relevant. This move will boost your ad clicks and (most likely) conversions, showing Google that you deserve a high-quality score. High-quality scores help you increase reach at lower CPCs, directly impacting your ROAS.

Keyword research is essential for a successful PPC campaign. There are several steps to uncovering relevant keywords, and you can read more about our approach in our Guide: How to Do PPC Keyword Research in 2024. Today, we’ll focus on finding long-tail keywords using Google Ads’ Keyword Planner.

You’ll now see a list of keywords along with various data points.

Before diving in, consider adjusting the timeframe. Long-tail keywords often have lower search volume, so I recommend a longer timeframe, like 24 months or even all time.

Now it’s time to analyze the keywords.

First, sort by search volume to get an idea of where to find specific long-tail keywords that can help build larger search volume. For example, "Bookkeeping services" is a strong candidate to break down further and uncover long-tail keywords.

While reviewing, you’ll start to see potential opportunities. Here are a few examples of long-tail keywords I found:

Next, evaluate the intent behind each query. Are these users ready to buy? For example, “Bookkeeper near me” suggests high intent, which is also reflected in its competition label (“Medium”) and Top of Bid data. This isn’t always the case, but it’s a good indication.

Let’s select “Bookkeeper near me” and use it as a starting point for deeper research. While it’s already a long-tail keyword (3 words), we might find even longer or more specific variations.

Now that we have our list, we can create a new ad group targeting this theme. Select all high-intent keywords, then craft ad and landing page copy that speaks directly to the user’s needs and intent.