Question

Running campaign for myself ( electrician in Canada), every time I put broad or phrase match on keywords I’m getting so many useless clicks ( like electrical job, electrical union, school etc. ) , even I’m keep adding those words to negative it’s something new and every time. But once I make exact match for keywords I’m not getting any clicks at all. Do I just keep wasting money and adding negative keywords till it works or maybe I’m doing something wrong at all?  

Answer 1

Are you targeting an specific area?  

Comments

@main4869 yes, North of Toronto

---

@bitters try to look the search intended for electrician in that zone. Use SEMRUSH or Spyfu to look at your competitor ads and keywords. That might throw some Light

Answer 2

Hire a, professional so you can focus on what you do best heh

Answer 3

There's a huge list of negative keywords avialble online.  

Comments

@enrol Thanks, will check it up

---

@enrol stealing some of these, thanks

Answer 4

Why not do broad match modified?  

Answer 5

Try broad match modified instead. The electrical space is very competitive. Use a free or paid tool like SEM rush to do keyword research to get a better understanding of how people are searching.  

Comments

@raynell9 BMM gives you more control. Using phrase or exact match you will likely get lower impressions and higher cpcs. Using a tool such as keyword planner or SEM rush will give you a better idea of how people are searching for your services. Add the right negative will save you big time.  

---

@raynell9 Yes I did. You add negative keywords to solve that problem. And do proper keyword research

Answer 6

Hey man, have you started building out a negative keyword list yet? I specialize in Google Ads for Automotive Dealers and Contractors (plumbers, electricians, HVAC repair, Home Remodeling, etc. ). I have created a master negative keyword list. This can help save you THOUSANDS of dollars. Feel free to take as many as you would like.  

Comments

@boart hows your HVAC?  

---

@onetime currently only working with one HVAC client but the campaign is doing very well. Client is seeing huge YOY gains in phone calls

---

@boart what city/region?  

---

@onetime Pittsburgh

Answer 7

Personally I’d do exact and phrase only. I like to do a phrase adgroup and an exact adgroup, then use the phrase adgroup as keyword research to add to exact. When you combine “looser” match types with “tighter” match types, the looser ones will dominate. Give exact it’s fair shot to perform against the other by isolating them out. Make sense?  

Answer 8

I'd just do exact and phrase. Never broad match. And do a lot of keyword research. How many keywords are you using right now? I would expand that list a lot. And beef up that negatives list. There are a lot of lists you can find online of general negative keywords (like job, career, free, etc. ) so you don't always have to wait until someone uses it to add it. And look at what people were searching for when you did have broad match. it'll probably give you ideas of more keywords to use.  

Comments

@intermediate thanks, working on it right now

Answer 9

For the people who tell you not to use broad match keywords, they must not be in very competitive markets, because modified broad match (in a lot of cases) can lower your cost per click without changing your SERP positioning. Your negative keyword list should be pretty big and include your competitor names. You may also benefit from splitting your traffic and making the mobile call only, as this can lower your cost per acquisition considerably, even though the cost per click will be higher than the desktop traffic. We work with quite a few electricians in the U. S. and this is a tried and true method in almost every market.  

Comments

@moyers4 Yeah. Definitely. Actually, I don't even know what Google Ads is. I just heard about it on TV.  

---

@moyers4 Sure, leave the competitors in. That way when they click on the call only, which usually has a CPC 2-3x's higher than desktop, you can get an 8 second call that says, "Is this Bob's Electricians? No? Ok. " and they hang up. Great use of budget.  

Answer 10

I messaged you. I can help.  

Comments

I think it is frowned upon to PM people unless they request it. If you can help, post the information here. You may be able to help more than one person that way.  

---

@penicillin I am not trying to help him through this thread. I PMd him because I can personally help him in a way that would be far too complicated to do here. I'm simply using the comment box to draw his attention to his messages so I can establish a line of communication that is far more reliable than this

---

@damning I didn't realize you were in a service industry other than marketing. I apologize but we see that all of the time in these groups. Someone asks a question and you get the "I PM'ed you" responses. Again, sorry about that.  

---

@penicillin It is ok. I am a marketer. I can also help him. I specifically replied to this because I'm actually currently looking to run an electrician campaign just go get some insight before I launch a national campaign. I will run his at no cost. To answer his original question though: 1. Make a really really extensive negative KW list 2. Run exact and see if you can actually get volume. If not, then run phrase. If phrase doesn't return volume, then run BMM. And finally broad if you have good profitability and you don't mind paying for the data Point 1: The examples he provided "union, jobs" etc are basic negs that should have been in place before the campaign was ever live. Spending 30 min combing through "electrician" on KW Shitter (now Sheeter) would negate 80% of the bad KWs that are bound to come through if you're running broad. He should leverage KW Shitter and make a neg list of at least 500 terms. Do the first 100 crappy KWs if you want to get a decent list quickly I would personally just run the main intent KWs like "electrician near me", "electrician in my area" etc Maybe even SKAG out the cities/zips(canadian equivalent? ) in his area because he's a local biz and it wouldn't take that much effort. KWs like +electrician +xyztown etc If he has good ads and good landing pages he should convert. He can afford more per click because he's direct. I would only get fancy and elaborate when he really needs big volume. Which I can't really tell from here because I don't have the data. But I would really start with some good KWs and only go for BMM and broad if volume is a problem