I recently worked with a large, publicly-held company that had a six-figure quarterly budget to spend on Search Engine Marketing (SEM). A big part of the goal was to ensure we secured top billing on the very esoteric phrase that we (and our competitors!) used to define our market. I can't tell you what it was without revealing the company, but if you imagine it was something like "Enterprise Activity Management", you're close enough.

The cost to secure the top slot was $14 per click!

Now, they could afford the price, and saw it as pure advertising: there was value in having their name associated with the phrase.

For most of us, though, we're counting on the Search Engines to drive sales, not passive eyeballs. So the question is: how do you avoid the $14 term?

You might think that you're involved in a market space where it's inevitable, and if you sell airline tickets online, I suppose it's possible you're right. But the likely truth is that there is always a way to maximize your click-thru traffic through smart keyword purchases.

There is an art as well as a science to this. You'll need to:

   * Work out what the customer thinks they're looking for: unless you're
      trying to brand some hifallutin name for a new marketspace, what you call
      your stuff is irrelevant in a Search environment
   * Get very specific: if your customers are looking for '8-ball pool', then think
      about other suffix and prefix words you can use to pinpoint a customer
      audience, and to avoid bidding against competitors to drive up click-thru
      costs
   * Use misspellings: think how often you use the DEL key on your keyboard -
      everyone does it, and by capturing searches that are misspelled, you can up
      your click-thrus while maintaining a low cost

On the first, try to imagine how your product is used. If, for instance, you sell accounting software, you can be sure the term 'accounting software' is going to be popular and costly. But customers don't necessarily look for that - think about the problem they're trying to solve and pick your terms accordingly. For example, you might choose 'run my finances', 'do the books', 'track revenues' or anything else that meets the purpose for which your product will be used.

Now let's get specific. You can always add geographical terms: 'in London', for instance, makes you very specific...but may not be ideal if you're selling globally and 100% online. On the other hand, if you have a Mac product, adding 'for Mac' makes sense, as does 'for Apple' or 'for Leopard'. Then consider what the user might type into Google - perhaps they'll phrase their search as a question ("what's the best software for accounting", say), or as a statement ("I need to manage my finances"). Remember - it costs you nothing to have many terms, nor, indeed, to have many campaigns, each of which focuses on a particular set of terms.

Finally, remember those fat fingers on the keyboard. There are many excellent commercial products that will help you build sophisticated misspelled keyword groups. However, I personally prefer to use a few free online sources, including this excellent one from SEOBook.com. Again, don't be afraid to load up your campaign with hundreds of variants on your core terms - if you run out of space, just build another campaign.

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Avoiding the temptation to buy into expensive, popular terms will help you to get the most from your SEM budget. Then modify, modify, modify to carve out a unique position on terms that aren't as heavily trafficked, and you'll get the best bang for your buck.