If you’ve been reading or watching Youtube about keyword research for Amazon PPC, you might have read or heard about targeting long-tail keywords for PPC. So should you abandon short keywords and focus more on long-tail keywords?
What Are Longtail Keywords?
Long-tail keywords are long, specific search terms that usually consist of 3 words or more. For example, “longtail keywords” is a keyword; “what are longtail keywords?” is a longtail keyword.
When you download the search term report on Amazon, you’ll see hundreds of keywords. If you filter the list according to search volume, you’ll notice that short keywords have higher search volumes and as you go further down the list, it will be mostly long-tail keywords.
Which is better: Short or Long Keywords?
As a seller, you would want your listing to appear on high-traffic keywords. More traffic means more impressions, and more probability to convert to sales. So when you run your keyword research to find what keywords to target, it’s likely you will be attracted to the short tail or head keywords.
But do note that when there is a high search volume, there will be lots of competition from sellers like you who would like more traffic to their listing. That’s why short keywords are more expensive as competition is high and keyword bid is also higher.
Long-tail keywords have lower search volume but conversion tends to be higher. The higher conversion is because it is more precise that’s why average Amazon buyers tends to enter long-tail keywords when searching on Amazon because they will get streamline, more relevant search results so it’s easier for them to choose which. When they just search for a short keyword, they’ll get a lot of results and this might confuse them due to more choices.
So as a seller, always place yourself as an average buyer on Amazon.
Of course, this doesn’t mean you should abandon short keywords. If you believe you have a ‘winnable’ product, you should go for it. As you’ll notice, big brands usually dominate these short keywords and this is because their brand can easily be remembered.
So when buyers are presented with a lot of choices, big and known brands will get noticed and have higher chances of getting the sale. But this doesn’t mean it is impenetrable. If you’re not a known brand, you can still get noticed by having a competitive price and more reviews. It always matters if you have an optimized listing. If you’re not sure how to optimize your listing, you can check this article on how to improve your conversion and sales.
Now if you’re already indexed for a short keyword, you can use that keyword to generate more keywords. Just make sure that short keyword has a good conversion rate that’s within your ACOS threshold. And to get indexed with long-tail keywords that include your main short keyword, you can start a campaign in broad & phrase match type. Make sure to bid higher than the suggested bid so Amazon’s algorithm will get that campaign running and look for your keywords.
If you have a killer product with an optimized listing, competitive price, and a great number of reviews, you should be able to generate impressions, conversions, and rank for your listing with that short keyword and other long-tail keywords.
Long-tail keywords are less expensive but it has a lower search volume and sales velocity won’t be enough as compared to short keywords. So a good PPC strategy is to keep and maintain your ranking for those short keywords with good conversion rates and to find more long-tail keywords that have a good sales conversion. If a long-tail keyword is not performing, you can pause it or add it as a negative keyword so it won’t affect further your ACOS.
Manage your PPC spending well so it won’t negatively affect your ACOS. Try to look again for other keywords. You need to keep bidding on both short and long-tail keywords until you can find the search terms that will give the best conversion and ranking for your product. This basic strategy on bidding for both short and long-tail keywords with good conversion will help you generate your sales and conversion rate.
