How to optimize keywords

In Direct Commander, you can quickly optimize a set of keywords: eliminate overlap or merge duplicates.

Eliminate overlap

Removes overlapping keywords matching the same search query. If two keywords differ by one word, a negative keyword is added to one of them.

Examples:

Original keywords

Result

Comment

Trip to mars

free trip to mars

trip to mars -free

free trip to mars

Negative keyword added

buy trip

buy trip alpha centauri

buy trip

buy trip alpha centauri

Keywords differ by more than one keyword, overlaps are not eliminated

moon tour -reviews

book tour to Moon

moon tour -reviews -book

book tour to Moon

Negative keyword added. Word order, grammatical form, and stop words do not matter

Merge duplicates

Combines several phrases that differ only in negative keywords. The combined keyword will contain the negative keywords from all the original keywords. The other keywords are deleted. If statistics exists for keywords, the keyword with the best CTR is left.

Examples:

Original keywords

Result

Comment

flight to the moon -cartoon

moon flight -free -cheap

moon flight -free -cheap -cartoon

The keywords have been merged. Word order, grammatical form, and stop words do not matter

flight to mars

fly to mars

flight to mars

fly to mars

Different parts of speech, no merging

You can also optimize a set of keywords that belong to different ad groups or campaigns. However, overlap is eliminated and duplicates are merged only between ad groups served in the same regions and advertising the same website.

Keyword optimization

  1. On the Campaigns tab, select a single campaign or multiple campaigns.

  2. Get statistics and prices for the selected campaigns: click Get and select the Statistics and prices only option.

  3. On the Ad groups tab, select one or multiple ad groups.

  4. Go to the Keywords tab. If you want to eliminate overlaps or merge duplicates for selected keywords only, select the relevant keywords.

  5. Click the Edit button and select Optimize keywords from the menu.

  6. In the window that opens, specify which set of keywords to correct.

  7. Select the operation to apply: eliminate overlaps only, merge duplicates only, or both.

    Tip

    Merging duplicates can result in all keywords deleted from some ad groups. To be able to quickly find such groups later, turn on the option Mark the groups that all phrases were deleted from with a star ★.

  8. Select the option Show preview of changes.

    Use the Preview changes option to check the changes that will result from keyword optimization and edit them, if needed.

  9. Click the Apply button.

  10. Check and edit changes in the window Preview changes.
    The window displays all the keywords that are going to be changed. If you have a lot of changes, they are divided into parts. Click Next to view the next part of your changes.
    For more information, see Preview changes.

    Note

    Follow this step only if Show preview of changes is selected.

  11. Click the Finish button.

Previewing changes

Use the Preview changes option to check the changes that will result from keyword optimization and edit them, if needed.

  1. Check the changes on all the tabs in the Preview changes window.

    The window displays all the keywords that are going to be changed. If you have a lot of changes, they are divided into parts. Click Next to view the next part of your changes.

  2. Apply or cancel changes:

    • On the Duplicates tab, you'll see the keywords to be deleted as a result of optimization.

      To keep a keyword, clear the option in the Delete column for the keyword.

      To mark a keyword with a star, select the option to the left of the desired keyword.

    • On the Overlaps tab, you'll see the keywords that will have negative keywords added (this is needed to eliminate overlaps in the set of keywords). The changes will be highlighted in bold.

      To cancel adding negative keywords, clear the option in the Adjust column for the desired keyword.

  3. Click the Finish button.

You can use keyboard shortcuts for certain actions:

Keyboard shortcut

Description

Space

Select or clear a change.

Ctrl + M

Add/remove star for the selected items

↑, ↓

Move one row up or down.

Hover the cursor and click on the first item, then press Shift and click on the last item

Select multiple items sequentially.

Ctrl + A (Win)

cmd + A (Mac)

Select all items on the active tab



You can also go to

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Keyword planner
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Keyword case