One tool i use quite a bit but don’t blog about enough is Google’s keyword tool. The reason i’m blogging about it now is because it has the power to change strategy… and i’ve used it myself to change or silence opinions… think ‘x’ is more popular than ‘y’? Let’s see…
Google’s traffic estimator tool (located inside adwords) suggests ‘x’ is the more popular of the two letters at face value. Change the ‘match type’ to ‘exact’ and it tells a different story. ‘y’ is almost 3 times more sought after in google searches than ‘x’.
So what?
Well hang on a second, this is a pretty big deal… for years and years you may have thought ‘x’ came before ‘y’ in normal conversation… your maths teacher would always put x before y… therefore it was more popular… or you had some sort of mad logic to determine which you thought was more popular. Screw all that logic and screw your guessing games… we now have facts & figures.
So *that’s* what. That’s what makes this tool invaluable. It eliminates opinions and guess work and can change ideas for marketing campaigns or entire business strategy in a heartbeat. Whilst any results from an automated tool must be taken with a pinch of salt (Google stats aren’t everything), don’t underestimate the value of Google’s keyword tool.
Let’s have fun
Mercedes & BMW… two big brands. Who wins in the search wars? Well at first glance, BMW do. About 65% -v- 35%.
Let’s go deeper in to territory battles…
- In Germany, BMW win. 70% -v- 30%.
- In US, BMW again. 74% -v- 26%.
- In UK, same story. 69% -v- 31%.
- In Ireland, same story. 70% -v- 30%.
So the stats are just for fun, but they paint a pretty clear picture. If we want to know what brand is more popular, we can see at a glance BMW wins comfortably. The power is in your hands… this market research at your finger tips.
