8. Targeting with keywords

Where can you target?

You can set (or target) keywords at the following levels:

On the category page
On the product page
On the search results page

Noticing that you are getting less satisfactory results on a category page? Then disable it. Or do you want to be shown on a category page but not on the product pages within that category? You can easily set that up yourself as well.

Keyword Targeting

What is keyword targeting? In short, it means carefully selecting which words or word combinations you use to ensure that your advertisements are more visible to your target audience in bol’s search engine. If your bid wins on the chosen keyword, your item will be displayed when a customer searches for that keyword.

Keyword Strategy

How do you find out which keywords work best for you? Your keyword strategy helps with that. There are two types of keyword strategies you can choose from:

Automatic
Manual

Automatic Keyword Strategy

You can let the selection of keywords be done automatically. Bol then searches for relevant keywords based on your article information. This is great if you are new to advertising or want to launch new items. Even for the more experienced advertiser, the automatic keyword strategy is still useful. This way, you are visible for all the keywords that bol associates with your articles. You can then optimise by excluding keywords that you find less relevant or that perform poorly.

Are you starting with advertising? Begin with an automatic keyword strategy. This way, you will quickly – within about two weeks – find out what your most important keywords are. These are the keywords that:

Have the most volume
Generate the most conversions

Manual Keyword Strategy

You can also choose to manually set keywords in your campaign. You then determine the keywords yourself. However, keep in mind that you may miss out on traffic that comes from other relevant keywords. The most important thing when manually selecting keywords? Relevance. If a keyword is not relevant to the item, the sponsored products will not be delivered.

Exact or broad match

You can differentiate between an exact or broad match for a keyword:

Exact: These keywords are only delivered when there is an exact search for this keyword. For example, the keyword “bicycle”.
Broad: These keywords are delivered when a combination with the relevant keyword is typed in. For example, a campaign with the keyword “bicycle” will also be found for terms like “blue bicycle” or “children’s bicycle”.

Exclusion keywords

Exclusion keywords indicate which keywords you do not want to be found for. For example:

When you want to advertise with a specific colour or size. Example: you want to advertise with large TVs. Customers searching for small TVs are therefore less relevant for showing your ads. Exclude all keywords related to small TVs.
When the search term is too general. Example: if you only sell phone cases for the iPhone, the keyword ‘iPhone’ might not be relevant. People might be searching for a phone and not a case. It would be wise to exclude this keyword.

Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific search terms. They usually consist of 3 or more words together. For example, if you sell makeup bags, a good long-tail keyword might be “pink makeup bag with mirror”. This way, you can display your sponsored products for more relevant and specific searches, which often results in higher conversions.

Structure your keywords

With a large selection of items in a campaign, you also have a large number of keywords. It is important to structure your campaigns and keywords properly. Therefore, ensure that you group products that are relevant to each other in one campaign. Sneakers with sneakers and running shoes with running shoes. This way, you can set the keywords specifically and fully tailor them to the products in that campaign. This provides structure and clarity when you analyse and optimise the campaigns.

Targeting on the Category Page

Within sponsored products, you can precisely choose on which category pages you want to display your ads. We have already set up the categories for you based on the match between the text of your chosen keywords and the title of a category page. This ensures that you only need to choose which specific categories (within the existing breadcrumb trail) you want to target. You indicate this by ticking a checkbox.

For manual campaigns, it is possible to view the average winning bid per category. This is useful information when you are setting your own bid. This bid can also vary per category within the breadcrumb trail that your campaign targets.

Targeting on the Product Page

Within your manual campaign, you can also choose on which product pages in the categories you have selected you want to advertise. This allows you to target much more specifically!

How it works

Each product is divided into different category levels. For example, the product ‘Body Cream X’ falls under:

Personal Care > Body Care > Skin Care > Body Creams.

You can place targeted bids and focus on different levels within your product category. This makes your advertisements more relevant to your audience. This increased relevance can lead to a higher Click-Through Rate (CTR), Conversion Rate (CVR), and number of sales.

The caveat is: the deeper you dive into your category level, the less visibility your advertisements will receive.

Good to know

When you select a category, all subcategories are automatically selected as well. For example, if you target 'skin care', your ads can also appear in subcategories such as 'body lotions', 'body butters', and 'body oils'. In the placement report, you can see where your ads were actually delivered.
Selecting a specific category does not guarantee that your ad will be displayed in that category. The visibility of your ad is determined by our algorithm, which considers the relevance of your ad and your bids.
Keep in mind that after adjusting your targeting, it is crucial to regularly check your results and give your campaign enough time before you start optimising. This way, you can be sure that you're on the right track!

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions