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How to determine if a keyword is going to be profitable?

by Johnson Tay
16 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hey guys,

Firstly, do you have any tip on determining with fairly high certainty if a particular keyword is going to be profitable?

I know you're not a prophet, neither am I, so I understand it's impossible to be totally accurate with your prediction So let's just say with fairly high certainty

Also, for those keywords that were consistently profitable for you, did you actually "google" them to check out the competition??

If so, what were your observations? Any trend you notice?
#determine #keyword #profitable
  • Profile picture of the author phish3rz
    Well I am in the affiliate / commission industry, so for example Click bank - I look for products with high gravity ( High amount of sales ) and so I base my keywords on what I see as a top selling product. This has helped become successful at selling products effectively as I have targeted popular keywords.
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    • Profile picture of the author JLP
      Detecting Online Commercial Intent:
      Detecting Online Commercial Intention: Audience Intelligence: adCenter Labs
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    • Profile picture of the author MarketingProInfo
      Originally Posted by phish3rz View Post

      Well I am in the affiliate / commission industry, so for example Click bank - I look for products with high gravity ( High amount of sales ) and so I base my keywords on what I see as a top selling product. This has helped become successful at selling products effectively as I have targeted popular keywords.
      Just to clarify one point 'high gravity' on Clickbank doesn't mean "high amount of sales"; it means the product is poular with high exposure by lots of affiliates who are promoting that product. It can have 'high gravity' with loads of folks promoting it yet it could still be poor on conversions and sales.
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      • Profile picture of the author Michael T.
        Originally Posted by MarketingProInfo View Post

        Just to clarify one point 'high gravity' on Clickbank doesn't mean "high amount of sales"; it means the product is poular with high exposure by lots of affiliates who are promoting that product. It can have 'high gravity' with loads of folks promoting it yet it could still be poor on conversions and sales.
        Or it is a new popular product like "Google nemesis"

        High gravity can't guarantee you good conversions,but it can be a good indicator.
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        Regards...Michael T.

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        • Profile picture of the author yaji
          Best way is, allocate some test money and try Google AdWords. See how much money you need to pay for a click in order to get to the top of all advertisers competing for the same keyword, and track it, compare it, and you then know that the high paying keywords asvertisers are willing to pay is the one most profitable.
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          • Profile picture of the author Solidsnake
            Banned
            All of my keywords are profitable as long as my site is getting traffic... many articles are getting low quality because of insertion of high paying keywords that are not necessary to be included on articles..
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    • Profile picture of the author askloz
      If you base your information off of that, then you're not maximizing your income..

      take my word for it... use affiliate elite to 10x what you're making now.

      Originally Posted by phish3rz View Post

      Well I am in the affiliate / commission industry, so for example Click bank - I look for products with high gravity ( High amount of sales ) and so I base my keywords on what I see as a top selling product. This has helped become successful at selling products effectively as I have targeted popular keywords.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael T.
    Originally Posted by Johnson Tay View Post

    Hey guys,

    Firstly, do you have any tip on determining with fairly high certainty if a particular keyword is going to be profitable?

    I know you're not a prophet, neither am I, so I understand it's impossible to be totally accurate with your prediction So let's just say with fairly high certainty

    Also, for those keywords that were consistently profitable for you, did you actually "google" them to check out the competition??

    If so, what were your observations? Any trend you notice?
    There is not a rule to see if the keywords will be profitable or not but...

    I will explain you how am i researching:

    First of all when you find a keyword with any tool(keyword elite,google keyword tool external(free tool)...)you must check how much monthly searches that keyword has.

    Immediately after that I "google" the keyword too see the competition,if that keyword has too much competition it is not worth advertising for that keyword because the keyword could be profitable but not for $1-$2 or even more a click,and that is usually a normal price if you have much competition.

    TIP:Use google.com domain to research your competition if you are going to target all the world(because everyone targets U.S.A. for searches),you can get a better picture of your competition.

    TIP:Check the link "more sponsored ads" if it has more than 2-3 pages it is not worth it because you have much competition,sometimes it has 10+ pages,definitely not worth advertising for that keyword.

    So you found a "good" keyword,"google" that keyword and you can take a "screen shot" of that page(with ads),save that "screen shot" and after one week "google" that keyword again.

    Now you have that "screen shot" and real time picture,if there are people running the same ads like last week when you took your "screen shot" it is a good indicator that that keyword is profitable because they are still running the same campaign.

    Or you can test it by making a small budget campaign.Remember that you can get a wide picture of your campaign profitability after 500-1000 clicks not less.

    Hope it helps you.
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    Regards...Michael T.

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    • Profile picture of the author askloz
      Originally Posted by Michael T. View Post

      There is not a rule to see if the keywords will be profitable or not but...
      isn't there?

      then please explain what "research", "compare", and "buy" keywords are?
      Originally Posted by Michael T. View Post

      I will explain you how am i researching:

      First of all when you find a keyword with any tool(keyword elite,google keyword tool external(free tool)...)you must check how much monthly searches that keyword has.
      yes, but what else are you missing here?

      Seasonal trend!!!!!!

      Originally Posted by Michael T. View Post


      Immediately after that I "google" the keyword too see the competition,if that keyword has too much competition it is not worth advertising for that keyword because the keyword could be profitable but not for $1-$2 or even more a click,and that is usually a normal price if you have much competition.
      Really? That's very surprising...

      Did you know, it all depends on how your CTR is doing and that you can still out position other competitors that pay more than you and still convert at a lower cost and still get higher positions?

      Originally Posted by Michael T. View Post

      TIP:Use google.com domain to research your competition if you are going to target all the world(because everyone targets U.S.A. for searches),you can get a better picture of your competition.
      But what is your "theory" of competition? I bet it's not the correct approach!

      Originally Posted by Michael T. View Post


      TIP:Check the link "more sponsored ads" if it has more than 2-3 pages it is not worth it because you have much competition,sometimes it has 10+ pages,definitely not worth advertising for that keyword.
      Not true, it means that it's a VERY high converting niche.

      question is, is more of those ads by affiliates, or by merchants.

      Originally Posted by Michael T. View Post


      So you found a "good" keyword,"google" that keyword and you can take a "screen shot" of that page(with ads),save that "screen shot" and after one week "google" that keyword again.
      Why do that, if you have keyword elite, you can monitor this in project 5

      Originally Posted by Michael T. View Post

      Now you have that "screen shot" and real time picture,if there are people running the same ads like last week when you took your "screen shot" it is a good indicator that that keyword is profitable because they are still running the same campaign.
      this really doesn't have any bearing over the positions or not if someone decides to drop out of a keyword position...

      Originally Posted by Michael T. View Post

      Or you can test it by making a small budget campaign.Remember that you can get a wide picture of your campaign profitability after 500-1000 clicks not less.

      Hope it helps you.
      After 500-1000 clicks? then you're spending too much money. 100 is ample.
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      • Profile picture of the author Michael T.
        Originally Posted by askloz View Post

        isn't there?

        then please explain what "research", "compare", and "buy" keywords are?
        Ok mate I agree that that keywords will sure be more profitable but how many searches has a "buy" keyword compared to a normal keyword without the "buy",and how much competition?

        If it has 100 searches monthly it is not worth advertising for that keyword.

        If it has much searches there is a very huge competition.

        Example:"buy web hosting" this keyword has a lot of searches but also a lot of competition,so the cpc is very high.Not worth it if you don't have a huge budget.But the budget can't guarantee you success also.

        Also we all have our well converting keywords,but no one will tell you that keywords.Who wants even more competition?I think no one.

        Really? That's very surprising...

        Did you know, it all depends on how your CTR is doing and that you can still out position other competitors that pay more than you and still convert at a lower cost and still get higher positions?
        Yeah mate I know that,you can do it with decreasing your cpc by 15% every 1-3 day/s(some people decrease it every day,some evrey 2 or 3 days,I am decreasing it every 2 days and it works fine for me) and normally you can out position them only with a "great" quality score and a good budget.
        Split testing your ads is also a must.



        But what is your "theory" of competition? I bet it's not the correct approach!
        I don't just judge the competition from the volume of competitors,there are also factors like quality and persistence of the competitors.


        Not true, it means that it's a VERY high converting niche.

        question is, is more of those ads by affiliates, or by merchants.
        That is a normal thing,btw why would in the first place so many people advertise for that keyword if it isn't a high converting keyword.

        But you can't beat the competition with a $50 a day budget and that is a normal budget for everyone who starts with PPC,maybe even less.

        I assume that I gave my advice to a PPC newbie,so would you recommend someone who is new to PPC to go for high competition keyword?

        Think that the answer is "no".

        I would rather compete with affiliates than merchants,my opinion.

        Why do that, if you have keyword elite, you can monitor this in project 5
        I don't have keyword elite because I use wordtracker,but was thinking to get keyword elite because I heard only good things for keyword elite and also not that satisfied with wordtracker.

        But i would appreciate some insight information from you about keyword elite and it's features?
        Btw did it help you to increase your ROI and how much?

        After 500-1000 clicks? then you're spending too much money. 100 is ample.
        This opinion can vary from person to person.

        I had one campaign which i tested and after 100 clicks i got a conversion of 5% i thought it was a goldmine,but after 500 clicks the conversion fall to 1.4% and the campaign is now running with a 1.6% conversion rate but still good for that niche.
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        Regards...Michael T.

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        • Profile picture of the author dburk
          Hi Guys,

          If I may throw something into the mix, a high CPC is not an indication of whether a keyword will be profitable. Neither is how much competition you have.

          I have a couple clients that pay an average of $2.00 per click with a 1000% ROI. I have another group that is profitable with $10.00 clicks.

          Return on investment is how you determine profitability. Optimal ROI will rarely give you the highest total profits.

          Keyword research will give you ideas to test, but you cannot accurately determine your chances of profitability without performing an actual real test. Testing is the only way to achieve the "fairly high certainty" you seek.
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          • Profile picture of the author rsmllc
            The quick and direct way to find the converting keywords is to do a test campaign via PPC. The next best is to use a 'spy' tool (software, or an online service) that analyzes the words the competition is using. The most effective way to do the same thing for free is to use Google itself, by looking up news trends relating to your niche using Google news (helps you find out what people want), or by doing an optimized search for your target niche term and then looking at the PPC ad results for the same term.

            Concerning the latter, conduct the same search on Google for about a week to see which ads keep coming up (indicating they are the sucessful campaigns), then use the free Adwords tools to review the keywords the competition is using. Most likely those terms are the profitable ones, the variations you should steer your campaigns towards. Repeat the whole process starting with each niche keyword you are interested in, and you should find all the converting keywords that you will ever need.
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            • Profile picture of the author yaji
              Another alternatives in addition to AdWords way I mentioned above is to research
              ebay and amazon, find what customers are buying or wnating - this way you'll find the best keyword and the affiliates arong them are abundant.
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              Thanks, Yaji

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              • Profile picture of the author Michael T.
                Originally Posted by yaji View Post

                Another alternatives in addition to AdWords way I mentioned above is to research
                ebay and amazon, find what customers are buying or wnating - this way you'll find the best keyword and the affiliates arong them are abundant.
                Good tip,amazon and ebay are also a good resource to find what is hot now.
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                Regards...Michael T.

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                • Profile picture of the author flashgordon
                  I think using Amazon for short term hot keywords might work, but over the long haul they would prove to be too tempermental. I'd stick with the standard methods: also Google trends can show some interesting information on upcoming hot genres/areas to target.
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                  • Profile picture of the author macchiavelli
                    The only way to determine if a keyword is going to be profitable is to actually test it.
                    Put it in an adgroup.

                    Exact match that sucker and see how it converts for you.
                    If it converts, try and get more traffic from that keyword, if it doesnt convert profitably ditch it.

                    PPC is unpredictable as hell so the only way to find out what works is to try it.
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