Who else loves April Fools?  Google!  Check out all the crazy pranks they’re playing on unsuspecting internet-combers today:

Yep, Google is Topeka in honor of Topeka changing their name to Google, Kansas last month.  They did it in hopes that they would win the nation-wide race to be the first city to get Google’s experimental high-speed fiber optic technology.  They’re back to normal now that it’s April, but we admire their commitment.

For a list of compiled Google pranks, check out Search Engine Land.

And they’re not the only ones.  Check out the headlines at Wikipedia News today:

Here’s the breakdown, courtesy of Search Engine Watch:

Rising search terms "gift cards" using Google Insights

Gift card searches are hot again this year.  Of course gift card searches are always hot keywords this time of year (as seen below), but it has been highlighted by companies’ low inventories due to the recession (and their preparation for the worst).  If your company offers gift cards, it’s a great time to capitalize on these keywords for your Pay-Per-Click advertising campaigns.  If your company does not offer gift cards, it might be a good idea to get them.  Increased December traffic is also important to factor into your SEM budget.

2004-Present "gift card" search spikes

Sources: Nathania Johnson of Search Engine Watch & Google Insights

Source quoted, image credit: David Liu, Resource Nation

I thought of two great examples for this.

Whenever I see the Macintosh Apple, I think of the Mac kid on the commercials.  He is smart and quick-witted.  It makes me feel wise and also a little artsy to own a Mac laptop.  It is the essence of “cool” that really grabs us. 

The second one that has grabbed me rather recently is GM. There have been several commercials talking about America having a comeback, about streamlining their brands and having fewer, but more efficient models.  It is really tailoring to the recession and making us feel reassured even though our economy and people feel vulnerable. 

Branding is important because “people don’t buy with logic, they buy with their emotions.”  Once you have a brand, you are more likely to make “all decisions… in alignment with the brand [and] over time, you build a stronger business identity.”  What brands evoke emotions in you?  How can you develop your brand to be more appealing to consumers and get them to search for your terms?  What keywords can you put in your ads to comfort people and evoke their emotions?

-source: Jay Ehret, themarketingspot.blogspot.com

Selecting Negative Keywords

1) Use negative keywords to make sure that your ad only shows up when the person is looking to buy your product.  

2) Negative phrase matching is slightly more complex than that, but can also be very helpful.  It might be prudent to put the brand name in quotations so that people searching just the brand will not see your ad?  This might seem counterintuitive to marketing, but there are examples where this is necessary.  For instance, if you are selling a brand that is getting a lot of press, chances are people are not looking to buy, but just looking to investigate what they’ve heard in the news.  It’s not always good to show your ad if you are not going to get a sale.  If someone just types “Brand name,” then you can put that as a negative phrase match.  However, if the person types “Buy Brand Name,” then your ad will show.  See the difference?  Now you are only attracting consumers.

3) You can also use negative keywords to filter out people who may be looking for your general category but not for your specific product.  For instance, if you are selling “vintage 80s movies,” then you may not want to show your ad when someone just enters “movies.”  You may want to add other negative keywords like decades (“90s, 70s, 60s, 50s”) to ensure that your ad only shows up when someone wants to buy 80s movies.

These are just some easy ways to consider utilizing negative keywords.  Your ad will show up when it is most relevant and it is simple to change negative keywords in order to filter down or expand visits to your website.