You should always be on the lookout for strategies to improve your results, especially if they are easy to implement…

1. Add Negative Keywords

Negative keywords should be thought of as an extension to the keywords you already have. They are words that add qualifications to those searchers who see your ad, allowing you to get rid of those who are likely a waste of your ad budget.

Let me give you an example. Probably the most common negative keyword is "free". By typing in a dash in front of free ("-free"), you prevent searchers who types in the keywords containing that word like "free information" or "free pictures".

And, if you're selling a product, these searchers are very difficult to turn into paying customers on the spot because as soon as they see a price on your page, they will hit the back button and look for a free competitor elsewhere.

When deciding whether to use the negative keyword term "free" you should consider the sales process. If you go for the sale right away (instead of just trying to get a lead), and you have competition, then it will likely increase your campaign results.

2. Add Exact Matching Keywords

These are the most stringent keywords because the only search they allow is the exact phrase you typed.

So, if the searcher typed in "Apple computers" and your exact match was "Apples", then your ad would not be shown.

To add an exact match, you just put brackets [ ] around the keyword (ie. [Apples]).

A good strategy when adding your keywords is to test which type of keyword has the best conversion rate for you. Do this by putting each term in quotes, brackets, and just the keyword alone.

You may be surprised to find that an exact match may show a 9% clickthrough, while a normal keyword might have 3% clickthrough rate for the same word.

When the keyword is just normal and without anything surrounding it, then it is called a broad match. 

When your keywords are in broad match, then your words undergo Expanded Broad Match…

Google's expanded broad match automatically ads plurals to words and identifies similar terms.

So, if your normal keyword was "apartment", then your ad might also show for the similar keyword "flat".

This is especially useful for the English language because there are many different synonyms. However, this also might cause problems for you if searchers not interested in your product often type the synonym.

For example, your keyword might be "car", and your ad also shows up for "auto", but "auto" does not convert any visitors to sales like the term "car".

You can find out likely synonyms for any keyword by using the Google Sandbox keyword tool in Ad Word Analyzer. If you find any objectionable keywords, then you can get rid of the term and just use phrase or exact match for the keyword!