Turning Clicks into Conversions: PPC Keyword Strategy

Understanding how people search—and matching their search intent to the stages of the marketing funnel—is essential for building a strong, lasting PPC strategy.

In this article, you’ll find:

A breakdown of the different search approaches people use.
Information about how these fit into each funnel step.
Useful advice for developing a keyword strategy that consistently captures intent.

With these strategies, you’ll be able to target high-value audiences, minimize wasted ad spend, and drive steady growth in your paid search campaigns.

Understanding how people search

People approach search in three main ways:

Searching for the exact name of the product or service.
Searching based on what they think it’s called.
Exploring related or broader terms.

To create a strong, long-term advertising strategy, it’s essential to align these search types with each stage of the sales funnel to capture user intent and guide them along their journey.

Examples:

Exact service: “Home cleaning service near me.”
What they think it’s called: “Maid service for deep cleaning.”
Related term: “Tips for keeping a clean home.”

Even at the bottom of the funnel, where intent is high, users might not use precise terms:

The correct term, high intent: “Hire a professional home cleaner.”
Close but different, still high intent: “Apartment cleaning service.”

Top-of-Funnel High-Intent Searches

Top-of-funnel searches focus on information-gathering but can reveal a long-term intent to hire cleaning services. For example:

“How often should I deep clean my home?”
“Best ways to keep my apartment clean with pets.”

These searches show intent for a clean home but don’t yet indicate a readiness to hire a cleaning service. While top-of-funnel keywords may have a lower CPC, testing them often requires a larger budget because they may not convert immediately.

Bottom-of-Funnel High-Intent Keywords

Bottom-of-funnel keywords show strong intent and a readiness to take action. For example:

High-intent, ready to book: “Schedule a deep cleaning service.”
Immediate service need: “Hire a weekly cleaning service near me.”

By aligning these search types with funnel stages, you can create a PPC strategy that reaches audiences at every stage, ultimately guiding them towards conversion while minimizing ad spend waste.

Choosing keywords according to the funnel’s stage

In longer sales cycles, incorporating top-of-funnel keywords is a smart way to engage potential customers early in their journey, strengthening your bottom-of-funnel targeting. By reaching users sooner, you gain a competitive advantage over companies that focus solely on high-intent, bottom-of-funnel terms.

Pairing top-of-funnel keywords with other campaign types—like Display, Video, Performance Max, and Demand Gen—creates a robust, long-term strategy that effectively covers all funnel stages.

For example, in “Key PPC Ad Strategies for Home Services,” I mentioned how a remodeling company with a long sales cycle might target “kitchen remodeling ideas” to capture interest at the top of the funnel. This helps build brand awareness before customers search for bottom-of-funnel terms like “kitchen remodelling company near me.”

Testing top-of-funnel keywords in addition to bottom-of-funnel terms can increase ROAS, lower cost-per-lead, and uncover lower-cost prospects in shorter sales cycles.

Following the establishment of core bottom-of-funnel keywords, adding relevant top-of-funnel search terms—which are frequently evaluated with greater budgets—can boost overall traffic.

Testing automation with search intent

With Google Ads and Microsoft Ads’ latest automation technology, you can now leverage AI-driven optimization by using broad match keywords and automated bidding.

This setup enables you to test both top- and bottom-of-funnel keywords in a broad match format, uncovering new variations and gaining valuable insights.

The updated broad match now accounts for user intent and previous search behavior, making it easier to capture relevant traffic without needing to test countless keyword variations, particularly for top-of-funnel searches.

Tracking Industry Keyword Trends

Ongoing keyword research and competitor analysis should be a continuous process, not just a one-time effort during campaign setup. Industry trends can change rapidly due to current events and market fluctuations, making it crucial to monitor new keyword trends regularly.

Leverage third-party tools to observe competitors’ keyword strategies, check Google Trends, and use Google’s Keyword Planner to discover relevant keywords that haven’t yet been incorporated into your ad campaigns.

Structuring Search Campaigns for Maximum Efficiency

For smaller budgets, focus on precise, bottom-of-funnel keywords that directly reflect your services or products, such as “personal injury attorney near me.”

For larger budgets, consider running separate campaigns with a wider range of keywords, including related top-of-funnel terms that target users who may need your services in the future.

With broader keywords, it’s essential to monitor campaigns closely, regularly adding negative keywords to prevent irrelevant searches from wasting your budget.

Conducting negative keyword research before launching campaigns is vital to minimize wasted spend right from the start. This process is similar to initial keyword research but involves identifying terms that may show up in tools like Google and third-party platforms but aren’t relevant to your ads. This step is particularly crucial when experimenting with related search terms or broad match keywords.

Building a Solid Campaign Foundation

When testing keywords across different funnel stages, it’s crucial to stick to best practices for search campaign structure. Keep Display Network targeting separate from your search campaigns.

Organize your ad groups around specific keyword themes to ensure a strong alignment between keywords, ad copy, and landing pages. Avoid lumping all keywords into one broad ad group and resist the temptation to over-segment into too many ad groups, like SKAGs (single keyword ad groups).

If you’re testing more top-of-funnel keywords, you can:

Add related terms to existing ad groups.
Create new ad groups.
Set up a separate campaign for them.

It’s usually best to run tests in dedicated test campaigns to prevent budget overlap with your primary keywords.

Aligning Ads with Search Intent

Top-of-funnel keywords and related search terms work best when matched with ads that address users’ informational intent.

For example, if someone searches “kitchen remodeling ideas,” an effective ad could be, “Looking for kitchen remodeling ideas? Find inspiration here. Rather than leading to a direct service page, this advertisement needs to divert viewers to an inspiration page or ideas gallery. Any call to action for booking an appointment can be placed further down the page, acknowledging that the user may not yet be ready to hire a remodeling company.

Similarly, for an attorney, if a user searches “what to do if you are in a car accident,” an ad could read, “In a car accident? Here’s what to do next.”

Instead of a hard-sell call to action at the top, this advertisement should direct viewers to a landing page with a checklist, advice, and ideas for accident victims. Near the bottom of the page, there should be a subtle mention of legal services.

You may greatly increase the reach and efficacy of your search ad campaigns by utilizing a range of keywords that correspond to the user’s intent and stage in the funnel.

Turning Clicks into Conversions: PPC Keyword Strategy by Sales Funnel