I'm building a methodology for building keyword lists which have direction relation to search intents + stages of a buying cycle/funnel.

We have an overlapping but non-competing interest in this area.

What I'd recommend is ... skip the books or guides on Google AdWords or the Bing equivalent. You've already read enough, and your question is framed with enough specific detail that you're obviously no slouch and probably past the beginner stage, I'd say. Reading guides would provide steadily diminishing returns. DIY time!

Brainstorm keyword ideas. Research the search stats. Once you feel you've covered all the relevant search queries and prioritized them, then it's time to run experiments.

That's why I say skip the books. At a certain stage, you have to leave biology textbooks behind and go dissect some frogs or observe the live frogs (your customers?) in nature.

Nothing is more empirical than running an efficient SEM campaign. You know this. Rules are starting points to b left behind in this space. Books and guides might provide some preliminary tips (at best) or be authoritarian (at worst).

Just arrange your spending alternatives as hypotheses. Measure which strategy performs better using some carefully planned A/B testing over a statistically significant period of time / impressions / clicks.

Set aside the generalizations. No author will give you what you need because you're already thinking of your problem at a granular level of detail.

Brainstorm. Plan tests. Measure. Rinse & repeat.

If you want to put 2 heads together, I might be able to throw out some extra ideas. But you don't necessarily need another person.

I agree with Joseph in that at some point you have to begin running campaigns to test your theories. After a few months or a year, you'll have a lot of data that shows which categories convert, and which don't.

One thing I'd add is that the higher you get up in the funnel, the more expensive it is to use AdWords to generate awareness. AdWords is great for high intent terms such as when someone searches for a plumber. When they search "plumber in San Francisco," for example, you know they need a plumber in San Francisco and are ready to buy. But once you get higher in the funnel for a service like yours with more vague generic terms, the more expensive it is to generate initial awareness with AdWords. With that in mind, I'd consider other traffic sources for earlier stages and AdWords more for higher intent terms.

While it's really good to be keeping the buying cycle in mind while producing your initial keyword target list, don't over complicate it.

I'd need to know more about your budget, customer LTV, sales process, etc. to give a more definitive answer but to keep things simple I'm going to assume you have a small budget, small sales team, and a sales process in the developing stages.

If those assumptions are correct, I would focus on the small subset of keywords you deem to have the most intent. Get very specific and make very granular ad groups with very specific ad text.

I would use exact match for a short time and see the results. Based on the results I'd likely launch a broad match modified version of the campaign and then use keyword query reports to develop more encompassing exact match keyword lists and negative keyword lists.

Easy to build from there.

My teams and i have managed ~$2million a month in ppc budget, so this is an area I can provide some really good insight into. If you have further questions feel free to set up a call.

- mike