What do you consider a good Global Exact Match for a key word?

[Zoolander]

The following article implies that 2,400 isn’t bad……Quote from second to last paragraph of #2: “The real problem comes when you choose to target a keyword like 'ladies leather handbags' which has a broad match search volume of 2,400 but an exact match search volume of only 260”

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/6-keyword-research-mistakes-you-might-be-making

I like to keep mine under 50% competitive.  For one site which is in high competition market (as far I can see) has SEO irrelevant brand name domain, a primary key word at 51% with 2900 Global EM for page name with a secondary keyword at 44% and 590 GEM.

Another site with primary domain and keyword at 50% and 1000 GEM with other keywords between 40% and 50% and GEM’s of 1300 (also a page title), 1900 (also page title), 1000 (also a page title), 2400, 5400, 14800 (niche I might work on later), 1000, 1900, 4400, 3600, 5400, 1600, 3600 (also a page title), 1300, 1000, 2900, 1300.

SEO won’t be my only approach but within my competitive capability I think that’s the best I can get.

So, wondering what your thoughts where on a good Global Exact Match?

[Zoolander]

Thanks for your input.  I can see SEO really is an ongoing thing that you finetune.

Unfortunately I don't think I can track conversions as I don't sell direct, I can get as far as "prospect" (i.e. when someone clicks through to a retailer where my book can be bought).  I can't compete with Amazon and other retailers for their free delivery and worldwide reach, so I link to retailers who buy them wholesale from me and they sell my products.

I'm new to this so I don't have any real data. If at best I can rely on "prospect" I think I will calculate my costs for minimum 1% conversion on all marketing on the assumption that all are from within prospects %, and work my way up from there.  I have already sold 100 copies with pracitally no marketing so that's a good sign I guess.

Have yet to sort out webmaster tools as I thought it would be best to do my on page first.

Good point about profit vs conversion rate, I have a losing BingYahoo! PPC campaign at the moment (probably downsizing or closing down soon) and have thought it would be better if I sold Motorbikes and Mopeds or maybe Ferarris and Yatchs rather than books on PPC !

[Sam_McRoberts]

This is an extremely subjective question, and I think you need to work it backwards.

Keep in mind that exact match search volume tends to be the most accurate (when comparing to impression data in GWMT.)

Use data about your site's existing conversion rate, and see what your site's typical CTR happens to be for various positions by looking into webmaster tools data. Once you have that you can say something like, "well, my site converts at 3%, and my CTR rate in position 1 tends to be 20%, so I need at least 170 impressions to generate 1 conversion."

Then you factor in the value of a conversion, and the estimated cost to get you ranking in the top position, and see if the keyword is worth the effort.

If a conversion is worth $5k, and your site converts at 10%, then even a keyword with 50 searches a month might be worth targeting