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How do I choose keywords and placements?

Keywords and placements are two different things

Keywords are what people search for and watch on YouTube. They tell Google what kind of content your ad belongs next to.

Placements are specific channels and videos. They put your ad next to content you have picked yourself. If you know which channels your audience watches, placements are the most direct targeting you have.

Avoid broad words

If your video is about how to tie a tie, words like clothes or men are too broad. They put your ad in front of people who have no interest in your video, and your budget goes with them.

A YouTube search for the single word clothes, returning a children's vocabulary video, a cartoon, a haul and an outfits video, none of them about ties, with a large red cross drawn across the page
A broad word returns nothing like the video you are promoting.

Match the subject exactly

For the same video, these work far better:

  • how to tie a tie
  • tie a tie easy
  • tie a tie for a wedding
A YouTube search for how to tie a tie, returning four tie-tying tutorials, with a green tick drawn across the page
The exact subject returns the audience you want.

If the video is about one specific knot, go one level deeper:

  • how to tie a half windsor
  • half windsor knot tutorial

Do not go so narrow that nobody searches it

Phrases like the easiest way to tie a half windsor knot for a wedding suit have almost no searches. They will not hurt your campaign, but they will not do anything either.

Two quick checks

Use auto-suggest. Start typing your topic into YouTube or Google search and look at what it suggests. Those are phrases people actually type.

The YouTube search box part-way through typing how to tie a half windsor, with the suggestion list open underneath it
Half a phrase is enough. Every line in the list is something people search for.

Search the keyword yourself. If the results look nothing like your video, it is the wrong keyword.

Blocked keywords

Some words cannot be used at all, because Google restricts advertising on those topics. The builder tells you when a keyword contains a blocked word. See Why are some of my keywords blocked?.

What to do next

Open Edit Campaign, then Targeting, and replace your broadest keywords with phrases that describe exactly what your video shows.

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