Dangers of Keyword Insertion

Sonya Wood - August 25, 2009

Keyword Insertion or Dynamic Text is a feature that is offered by Google, Yahoo and MSN for the creation of ad copy. It helps to make ads more relevant. In order to use keyword insertion, you will need to insert a code into the ad text. Then, once a keyword is searched, it will automatically replace the code with the keyword that triggered the ad. Keyword insertion has many benefits including increasing relevancy of your ads. However, there are many times when keyword insertion should be used with caution or not at all.

First, many advertisers might choose to bid on misspellings. This can be a cost-effective and strategic way to get more customers to your site, especially since there should be minimal competition. If your keyword is misspelled, then the dynamic text will also be misspelled in your ad copy. It is best to not use keyword insertion when you have misspellings as keywords, especially when it comes to your branded or trademarked terms.

Another case where keyword insertion may not be best is when you are bidding on keywords that are not relevant to the rest of your ad copy. For example, the ad below is talking about visiting Barbados, but the headline says italy vacations. This is a clear case of when you should not use keyword insertion.

Is everyone else using keyword insertion? When compiling research for ad copy, it is always a good idea to see what your competitors are doing. If you see that every ad has the same headline, it is probable that your competitors are all using keyword insertion. This is a great time to make your ad copy stand out.

Keyword insertion is an element that can be used to boost your click through rate and even your quality score; however there can be dangerous pitfalls to using this feature.