Why are there no results? 7 tips to avoid failure in keyword selection for listing ads [2025 Latest Guide]

"Although clicks are generated by listing ads, they do not lead to conversions (CV)." "The cost per acquisition (CPA) continues to rise." ——. Many advertising operators face this challenge; what is the fundamental cause of this issue?

In many cases, the core of the problem lies in the strategy of keyword selection for listing ads. Simply setting keywords with large search volumes increases irrelevant clicks and wastes precious advertising budgets.

This article meticulously explains seven essential tips for keyword selection to maximize the effectiveness of listing ads. By grasping these points, you will be able to optimize your advertising budget and build a keyword strategy that connects you to true customers.

1. "Preparation is 80%": Strategic Design That Should Be Completed Before Relying on Tools

The selection of effective keywords is 80% determined before opening keyword tools. Even professional operators often overlook this preparation and end up wasting advertising costs. Successful campaigns begin with strategic design, not tools.

Diving into the Three Elements of "Product, Persona, and Search Intent"

Before relying on tools, it is essential to thoroughly analyze the following three elements.

• Understanding the product from multiple angles: List all the "functional values (low price, high performance, etc.)" and "emotional values (sense of security, time-saving, etc.)" that your products or services possess. This allows you to hypothesize about what issues customers are trying to solve and what words they might use to search for them.

• Clarifying the persona: Clearly depict the ideal customer profile you want to target with your ads (age, occupation, challenges they face, motivations for seeking services, etc.). With a clear persona, the granularity of keywords and the precision of match type selection greatly improve.

• Diving into search intent (Why): For example, behind the search phrase "SEO tool comparison," there are diverse backgrounds such as "wanting to know the difference between paid and free" and "wanting to confirm functional differences." Hypothesizing the purpose and emotions behind why users searched for that keyword, not just the numbers shown by tools, forms the foundation for accurate keyword selection.

In keyword design for listing ads that leads to results, it is more important than anything else to filter through "strategic thinking" before searching with tools.

2. Break Free from Dependence on Big Words and Enhance Cost-Effectiveness

Many operators tend to fail by concentrating their budgets on high search volume "big words" like "insurance" and "English conversation". Although these keywords may seem attractive at first glance, they hide two significant risks.

1. High competitiveness and CPC: Competition is fierce because many companies advertise, causing click costs (CPC) to soar.

2. Ambiguous search intent: The search intent of searchers is too broad, leading to many clicks from users such as students and job seekers who do not convert, ultimately driving up CPA.

The solution is to shift your focus to more specific and higher purchase-intent "middle words" or "long-tail words".

• Big words (not recommended): English conversation

• Long-tail words (recommended): Online English conversation for working adults free trial

By narrowing down to keywords with clear search intent like this, you can optimize advertising costs and achieve a high conversion rate (CVR), which is a fundamental principle for enhancing cost-effectiveness.

3. Eliminating "Wastes" with Excluded Keywords is the Key to Improving CPA

One of the most impactful yet often overlooked aspects of improving CPA is the setting of "excluded keywords." This setting should be considered an important process divided into two stages: initial "preventive measures" and ongoing "continuous improvement" after the campaign starts. Failing to do this can lead to ads being displayed for search terms unrelated to your services, resulting in unnecessary click costs.

The following are examples of keywords typically excluded as a preventive measure.

• Words for information gathering purposes: free, how to use, meaning, what is

• Words with low relevance: used, job offers, comparison

• Groups to avoid for BtoB products: part-time job, students

A slight difference in search intent can lead to significant losses. For instance, if a real estate company places an ad for "Used Apartment Purchase" (a company that wants to buy properties), and the ad shows up for a general user's search term (e.g., "Used Apartment Purchase"), they end up wasting advertising costs on the opposite needs. Therefore, it is essential to accurately exclude keywords that have a reverse intent from your services.

Setting excluded keywords is not a one-time task. Regularly checking the "search term report" and continuously excluding terms that do not lead to results is the most effective route to improving CPA.

4. The Account Structure in the AI Era Relies on "Data Volume"

In today's world dominated by AI automated bidding, the purpose of account structure is no longer to be easy for humans to manage. Its primary aim is to become a disciplined data provider to the AI.

To maximize AI learning effects, it is recommended to secure at least 30 conversion data per campaign per month.

If conversion data does not meet this standard, AI cannot learn adequately, and the accuracy of optimization decreases. In such cases, the following measures are necessary.

• Setting micro conversions: Beyond final conversions (like completed purchases), set intermediate goals such as accessing forms or downloading materials as "micro conversions." This increases the signals (data) for AI learning. However, if AI optimizes too much towards these intermediate goals, there is a risk of attracting users with low final purchase intent, so it is crucial to monitor closely to ensure that user quality does not drop.

• Campaign integration: While it is important to split ad groups finely by keyword intent, if data is too dispersed, the efficiency of AI learning will decline. If the number of conversions is low, it may be necessary to merge multiple campaigns or ad groups to consolidate data, accelerating AI learning.

To effectively utilize automated bidding, sufficient conversion data (30 or more per month) is required.

5. Quality Score is the Ultimate Weapon That Overrides "Bidding Amount"

In improving the efficiency of listing ads (CPA and ROAS) from the inside, the most important metric is "quality score." The ad ranking is determined not only by the simple height of the bidding amount.

Ad rank is generally determined by the following formula.

Ad Rank = Bid Price × Quality Score

With this system, if your quality score is high, you can display your ads higher than competitors even at a lower bid.

• Company A: Bid amount of 300 yen × Quality score of 5 = Ad rank of 1,500

• Company B: Bid amount of 200 yen × Quality score of 8 = Ad rank of 1,600

In this example, Company B has a bid of 100 yen lower than Company A but surpasses them in ad rank thanks to a higher quality score. Thus, quality score is the ultimate weapon for keeping advertising costs down.

The Three Factors that Compose Quality Score

To improve quality score, you need to address the following three elements.

• Estimated Click-Through Rate (eCTR): The likelihood of the ad being clicked when displayed.

  • Measures: Create ad copy that includes clear user benefits, such as "free consultation" and "next-day delivery," which naturally compel clicks.

• Relevance of Ads: The degree to which the keyword, ad copy, and user's search intent align.

  • Measures: Gather closely related keywords into a single ad group and ensure the main keyword of that group is included in the ad headline.

• LP Usability: Whether the landing page that users reach after clicking the ad is beneficial and easy to use for them.

  • Measures: Design so that the information promised in the ad can be found immediately on the LP, maintain page load speed within 3 seconds, and ensure full compatibility for smartphone viewing.

6. Keyword Selection is Not a "One-Time" Task

Keyword selection is not a static task to be done just once at the start of the ad campaign. Since the market and users' search behaviors are constantly changing, continuous improvement (PDCA cycle) is the key to success. This is the phase of "continuous improvement" in the excluded keyword strategy mentioned in section 3.

The main improvement activities to undertake after starting operations include the following.

• Regular Performance Analysis: Constantly monitor key metrics such as CTR (click-through rate), CVR (conversion rate), CPA, and quality score, and mark keywords with poor performance for stopping or review.

• Utilizing Search Term Reports: This report is a treasure trove showing the "exact phrases that users searched for." Execute mainly two actions.

  1. Excluding Non-Performing Terms: Identify search terms that receive clicks but do not lead to any conversions and promptly add them to the excluded keyword list.

  2. Adding High-Performing Terms: When discovering search terms that unexpectedly yield high conversions, formally add them as new keywords. This allows for optimization of bid amounts and ad copy for those keywords.

In this era of advancing AI automated optimization, the ability of operators to consistently refine their keyword sets based on data distinguishes the success or failure of campaigns.

7. Responsive Search Ads (RSA) Convey Intent Through "Fixed Features"

Responsive Search Ads (RSA) are a powerful format that automatically combines multiple registered headlines and descriptions to deliver the optimal advertisement. This provides the advantage of being able to meet diverse user needs.

However, this automation also carries a significant risk of "unintended ad copy being displayed." For example, there is a possibility of displaying combinations that contradict brand messages or ads with awkward context.

The feature that helps control this risk is the "fixed setting function (pinning)." Google's recommendation is to give AI maximum freedom, but there are times when prioritizing brand safety and message clarity should outweigh some optimization by algorithms.

This feature allows you to ensure that specific headlines or descriptions are always displayed in specific positions (headline 1, headline 2, etc.). By fixing messages that must always be displayed, such as brand names, legally required disclaimers, or the most important strengths, you can ensure message consistency and brand safety. Operators are required to regularly check the "combination" report to ensure that unnatural ad copy is not generated while flexibly reviewing their fixed strategies.

Conclusion

To achieve results with listing ads, it is essential to collaborate with AI rather than blindly trust it. Success arises from the synergy between human strategy and machine execution capabilities. The operator's role is to perfect the quality of "input" so that AI can perform at its best. By conducting deep persona analysis, establishing the correct account structure, and creating high-quality ad assets, optimal "output" can be achieved by guiding the AI correctly.

The goal should be to move away from simply "buying clicks" and invest in "targeted conversations with prospective customers."

If you are looking to implement the principles discussed in this article more advanced and efficiently, the AI marketing optimization platform "Cascade" automates continuous improvement cycles, such as analyzing search term reports and excluding poor-performing keywords, allowing you to focus more on strategic tasks. If you are interested, please check the details.