AdWords offers several keyword matching options. These keyword matching options allow you greater control over what search queries result in your ads appearing. The article below explains keyword match types and what you as an advertiser can do to get the most out of your keywords, control your costs and maintain your AdWords account quality.
The Types of Keyword Matching Options are:
1. Broad – allows other keywords to be included or relevant keywords (as deemed by Google) to be substituted. Disneyland vacation = Disneyland park tickets
2. “Phrase” – allows the keyword to be shown in the phrase order i.e. “red shoes” with terms before or after the phrase. ”red shoes” can = “girls ‘red shoes’ size 3″
3. [Exact] – allows your ads to show only on the exact keyword specified. [banana nut bread recipe] = [banana nut bread recipe]
4. –Negative – will restrict your ads from appearing for the –negative keyword. i.e. “red shoes” with a negative –kids prevents the ads from appearing for “kids red shoes”. Negative Keywords can be included in Broad, Phrase and Exact Match Types.
As explained above, Broad Match keywords are extremely flexible. ”Phrase Match” will tighten down the keywords further by keeping your phrase in-tact and [Exact Match] is the most restrictive keyword match type because it will only allow your ads to be served if the search query exactly matches the search query. While exact match may sound ideal, many advertisers find it difficult to work specifically with exact match keywords because it is difficult to think of each and every search query that their potential customers will use. The possibility of missing out of potential traffic makes phrase and broad match keywords valuable. While broad and phrase allow the potential to appear for search queries that are not relevant to your products or service there is a way to combat that with the use of Negative Keywords.
How do I know when my ads are appearing for irrelevant search queries and who do I identify negative keywords to add?
Run and analyze the Search Query Report from your Reports Center. This report will provide you with the search queries that resulted in your ads being clicked. You can use this report to identify keywords that are irrelevant as well as use it to find new keywords to add to your account.
Here is an example:
Your Keyword: dance shoes
Search Query Report identifies a click for: ballroom dancing shoes
So, you have identified through your Search Query Report that you are appearing under the search query ‘ballroom dancing shoes’ but you do not sell ‘ballroom dancing’ shoes. In this case adding a negative keyword -ballroom will prevent your ads from appearing when the word ‘ballroom’ is included. Learn more about How Negative Keywords can have a Positive Impact and how to add negative keywords to your account.
I have identified irrelevant search queries, now what do I do to prevent my ads from appearing next time?
Add negative keywords or change your match option to a more restrictive match type. Changing your match type is not always an option because it can often lower your traffic too much. This is where negative keyword are so helpful. Negative keywords will prevent your ads from appearing for irrelevant searches.
If your keyword list contains broad or phrase match keywords then negative keywords are most often a must.Negative keywords prevent your ads from appearing and potentially receiving clicks from search queries that are not relevant to your product or service.Suppressing impressions (and clicks) from irrelevant search queries will improve your CTR and quality score and allow your keyword list to work harder to bring qualified prospects to your website.
AdWords Offers the Following Negative Match types:
Negative Broad Matched – To create a standard negative keyword, insert a minus sign before a keyword and add it to your ad group or campaign.
Example: -free download
Adding this negative keyword to your account would prevent your ads from showing on any search queries containing the terms free and download Your ads still have the potential to appear for variations of these terms. Your ads will also still show on search queries that only contain one of the terms.
For example, the search queries software download andfree software could trigger your ads, while free software downloadwill not.
Negative “Phrase” Matched - To create a negative phrase matched keyword surround the term with quotation marks.
Example: -”free download“
Adding this keyword the system wouldn’t let any search query containing the phrasefree downloadtrigger your ads. The search query free download accounting softwarewould not trigger your ads. However, your ads could possibly show on the search querydownload accounting software or free accounting software.
Negative [Exact] Matched – To create a negative exact matched keyword surround the term with brackets
Example: -[free download]
This negative keyword would only prevent your ads from showing on the search queryfree download. Search queries such asfree accounting software download andfree software could still trigger your ads.
It is suggested to add relevant variations of your negative keywords, including both the singular and plural forms.Learnto add effective negative keywords to your ad group or campaign.
Now that we have some familiarity with negative keyword match types the next question is how do we identify negatives to add to the account?AdWords offers two tools to identify negative keywords.
The search query report is a very helpful report to identifying negative keywords.This report will show advertisers what the actual query was that resulted in their ads being served.You can use this report to identify negative keyword to add to your account.
The keyword tool can be used to identify negative keywords.
Watch this Video
Adding Negative keywords is easy.They can be added at the campaign level to cover all adgroups or at the ad group level if the negative keywords are specific to one category.
Research your Search Query Reports regularly to identify negative keywords.Negative keywords will improve your CTR and preserve your budget by showing your ads to only the best prospects for business.
Before you start an AdWords account it would be wise to make sure that AdWords will work with your business model. AdWords has strict policies regarding promotion of pharmacies, drugs, alcohol, firearms, adult content, tobacco, data collection, get rich schemes, arbitrage, affiliate marketing sites, etc., etc, etc. Read the AdWords Terms & Conditions for your location as well as the many various AdWords Advertising policies before you get started.
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Are There any Types of Sites that are Difficult to market with AdWords?
There are some sites that Google feels merit a low landing page quality score. Low landing page quality score can often affect Affiliate websites. Affiliate marketers would benefit from reading the Affiliate Policyand the Link Policy documents as well as this great article by fellow AWHE Writer Bela Lakatos on “Display URL for Affiliates“ before they get started with AdWords.
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Do I need to do anything to my website first?
Most often. Your website should be organized, honest, transparent, functional, contain contact info, be ecstatically pleasing and most importantly provide a good user experience. Be clear on what you do with personal information, if you do request personal info include a privacy policy that is linked to the request form. Have a clear call to action, install Google Analytics and AdWords Conversion Tracking. Read Google’s AdWords Full Landing Page Quality Guidelines.
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Where will my ads appear?
Google offers three networks.
Google Network– Keyword Advertising shown only on the Google.com domain.
AdWords Ads on Google.com
Search Partner Network- Keyword Advertising that covers the Google Search Partners such as AOL, ASK, Business.com, howstuffworks.com and many more.
AdWords Ads on the Search Partner Network
Content Network – Contextual advertising. Your page content is matched to content network sites. Keywords are not necessary with the content network but can be used to help Google match your pages to content network sites. If through your keywords Google finds your ads and website relevant to the Content Network website your ads become eligible to appear on that content network site.
AdWords Ads on the Content Network
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Can I have my ads show in my local area only?
Yes, you can use the location targeting feature under SETTINGS to target a specific location in just about any corner of the world.
Selection the Location that you want your ads to appear.
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What should know before I start my first Campaign?
Before you build your first campaign create an outline of the services or products you plan to advertise. Create lists of related keywords for each product or service and then break that list down farther into lists of keywords by theme. Say you sell BBQ accessories, create an ad group around BBQ accessories with related keywords, BBQ brushes with related keywords, BBQ Flavored Wood Chips with related keywords, BBQ sauce with related keywords, BBQ Grills with related keywords. The idea is to create ad groups that have high relevance. By breaking down the ad groups by keyword theme you can present visitors with ad text that is related to the theme. This setup also makes segmenting and reading data easy.
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How do I select keywords?
Make a list of specific keywords that are very relevant to your products or services and expand to new keywords ideas. Be specific with your keywords. Most advertisers cannot afford to market non specific keywords. AdWords has a Keyword tool to provide keyword suggestions and there are several great keyword research tools available online through other sources.
1. Broad – allows other keywords to be included or relevant (as deemed by Google) keywords to be substituted.
2. “phrase” – allows the keyword to be shown in the phrase order i.e. “red shoes” with terms before or after the phrase.
3. [exact] – allows your ads to show only on the exact keyword specified.
4. –negative – will restrict your ads from appearing for the –negative keyword. i.e. “red shoes” with a negative –kids prevents the ads from appearing for “kids red shoes”. Negative Keywords can be included in Broad, Phrase and Exact Match Types – Learn morehttp://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=67991.
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How do I Identify and add Negative Keywords?
Negative keywords can be identified by running a search query report or by using the keyword tool. Learn more about identifying negative keywords. Negative keywords can be added at the Campaign level to cover all ad groups under the campaign or at the ad group level to cover only specific ad groups. Read here to learn how to add negative keywords to your adwords account.
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Are there any tips for writing ad text?
Be honest, transparent and clear. Convey your message and convince a potential customer to click your ad by offering specials or discounts if they are available on the website. Avoid the use of hype in your ad text and allow your potential customers to identify with you by closely relating your ad text to the keywords in that ad group.
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How Can I see my Ad Live?
Google has a preview tool located at http://www.google.com/adpreview. This tool will allow you to view your ads live at any time without causing impressions on your account.
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What is Ad ‘Rank’?
Ad rank is a score that your keyword receives when the quality score is multiplied by the max CPC – Quality Score X Max CPC = Rank.
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What is the difference between ad rank and ad position?
Position is the actual position of your ads on the results pages. Rank is the score a keyword receives based on it’s quality score and Max CPC and this Rank is what determines your position and what you pay per click.
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How is ad rank used to determine my ad position and cost per click?
Quality Score X Max Cost Per Click = Rank
Advertiser A. Max CPC of .55 with a Quality score of 1.7 = assigned rank is .93 = position 1
Advertiser B. Max CPC of .65 with a QS score of 1 = assigned rank of 65 = position 2
Advertiser C. Max CPC of .30 with a QS score of 1.5 = assigned rank of .45 = position 3
Take B’s rank of .65 and divide it by A’s QS of 1.7 – .65 / 1.7 = .38 cents.
- .38 is what Advertiser A has to pay + 1 penny added to place it above B’s position for a total of .39 cents.
Take C’s rank of .45 and divide it by B’s QS – .45 / 1 = .45 cents.
- .45 is what Advertiser B has to pay + 1 penny to place it above C’s position for a total of .46 cents
This process repeats until the end of the auction where the last bidder pays the minimum bid required to be active in the action.
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How do I raise my ad rank?
Because rank is determined by Quality Score X Max CPC you have to raise one or the other. Raising quality score is done through raising CTR, this can take time to achieve so if you need to see immediate improvement in your rank you will need to raise your bids.
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What does ‘below first page bid estimate’ mean?
Below first page bid estimate indicates that you need to increase your bid to be placed on the first page of search results. First identify if the reason is due to underbidding or if you have a low quality score. If you see a low quality score try to identify if there is room to improve the quality score. If the quality score not low then you may be in a competitive market and need to raise your bids to be ranked higher.
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What does ‘Rarely shown due to quality score’ mean?
This messaging indicates that you have a problem with either your Keyword Quality or Landing Page Quality Score, possibly both. Your quality score needs to be addressed immediately. See the next steps to evaluate your low quality score.
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How can I see my Quality Score?
Watch this Video or see written instruction below.
To view your quality score go to the keywords section. Visit the button labeled Filters & Views. Go to Customize Columns. Enable Quality Score to show and then grab and drag the quality score button to the place you would like it to appear in the user interface. Your quality score will be shown on a 1 – 10 scale. 1 is the lowest and indicates a major problem and 10 us the highest and indicates a great performing account.
Step 1.
How to See your Quality Score in AdWords
Step 2.
How to See Quality Score in AdWords
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What should I do if I have a low Quality Score?
First identify if the low quality score is due to a problem with your keywords or the landing page (website page) that your visitors land on. A quick way to see quality score details is to go to your KEYWORDS section and place your mouse pointer over the little bubble next to the keywords status. A popup will appear indicating your quality score level for the keyword, landing page relevance and landing page performance.
How to Identify the reason for your Low Qualtiy Score
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Why do I have a low Keyword Quality Score?
Low quality keywords can be due to the following:
past performance: If Google finds that a keyword has provided poor results for advertisers in the past it may receive a diminished quality score from the start. Either avoid the keyword or work on increasing its quality score by increasing the Click Through Rate (CTR).
Relevance: If the keyword is not truly relevant to your product or service it may cause a poor relevancy score. Keywords should be as specific as possible to the product or service. Example of poor keyword for ‘ballet shoes’ would be ‘ footwear’ – Example of Good Keyword: ballet shoes, ballet slippers. While footwear is relevant to ballet shoes it is not relevant enough to effectively use with AdWords.
Low Click Through Rate (CTR): A low click through rate is an indication that visitors do not find their search query relevant to your ad text. Google judges relevance through user behavior so a low CTR in an indication of a problem. A continually low CTR (less than 1% on the search network) will degrade quality score. – See How do I evaluate and Improve CTR? below.
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Why Do I have a poor Landing Page Quality Score?
AdWords Adsbot
Google visits your landing pages with their AdsBot-Google bot to evaluate your landing page for relevance to your account and especially user experience. This bot will crawl your pages looking for signs of a poor quality landing page. Poorly scored landing pages will require high minimum bids, when not paid, will prevent your ads from appearing. Google uses landing page quality score to insure a good user experience for people using Google to search the web. Below is a list of common reasons for low landing page quality score – in no particular order.
Framing – multiple pages with different URL’s that are the same as the parent site
Data Collection websites that offer free items or info in order to collect private information Avoid asking for personal information if it is not absolutely necessary – If necessary present a privacy policy and link it to the form that request personal info.
Affiliate sites that’s purpose is to send traffic to another site with a different domain. These sites can often be bridge pages or sites that contain non original content.
“Get-rich quick” sites.
Poor comparison shopping sites whose purpose is to send visitors to other websites.
Users should be able to easily find what your ad promises. If you offer a special make it available with in 1 – 2 clicks of the landing page.
Feature unique content that can’t be found on another site. This guideline is particularly applicable to resellers whose site is identical or highly similar to another reseller’s or the parent company’s site, and to affiliates sites. These pages are often known as:Bridge pages: Pages that act as an intermediary, whose sole purpose is to link or redirect traffic to the parent company. Mirror pages: Pages that replicate the look and feel of a parent site; your site should not mirror (be similar or nearly identical in appearance to) your parent company’s or any other advertiser’s site.
To ensure the best possible user experience, AdWords won’t show multiple ads leading to identical or similar landing pages at the same time. This is true even if the pages have different domains - check your content here http://www.copyscape.com/. It’s especially important to feature original content because AdWords won’t show multiple ads directing to identical or similar landing pages at the same time.
Provide substantial information. If your ad does link to a page consisting mostly of ads or general search results (such as a directory or catalog page), provide additional, unique content.
Site validation issues. – check validation with http://validator.w3.org/. Some validation issues can indicate a communication issue with Googles adsbot.
If you were able to identify with anything in the above list work on making changes if you can. The adsbot will visit your landing pages again within a few weeks.
A great tool to track the adsbot was developed by AdWords Top Contributor, Richard Ball at Apogee Web Consulting, get tracking the Adsbot-Google here. This will allow you to identify when the adsbot has visited you again.
Below are three links with further explanations of landing page quality guidelines as well as an important page on link policies that effect landing page quality score.
Click Through Rate, otherwise known as (CTR), is the number of clicks divided by the number of impressions (ad views), the higher the CTR the better. Google uses CTR data to gauge the relevance of your keywords to ad text. When an advertisers includes a new keyword in their account it is assigned a quality score based on the keyword performance within the Adwords system for other advertisers, as well as its relevance within your account. The quality score assigned can then be raised or lowered from that point based on the Click Through Rate (CTR) score that the keyword accrues within your account. CTR has a large impact on quality score so raising CTR, and in-turn Quality Score, will result in you being able to improve your bottom line by either seeing an increase in your current ad rank, or if you choose to stay at the same rank you can instead reduce your bids.
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How I evaluate and Improve CTR?
A low CTR indicates room for improvement. Perhaps potential customers found your ads in error due to poor keyword selections, perhaps your broad match types are expanding to irrelevant searches, maybe your ad text is boring, and perhaps your rank is just too low to make your ads truly visible. Below is more detail on evaluating CTR at the keyword, ad text and rank levels.
Evaluating Keywords
Are your keywords too generic? These days’ internet users are search savvy and use specific search queries to be presented with the most relevant search results possible. If you are a personal trainer you may be tempted to select a keyword like ‘fitness’ but think of all the other applications that the word ‘fitness’ can apply to; fitness diet, fitness equipment, fitness supplements, fitness clothing, to name a few. If your ads appear for your personal training program when a person searches for fitness supplements then you are not going to appear relevant, will not receive the click, and your CTR will suffer.
Are your keywords in the proper match type? There are different keywords Match Types and selecting the right match type for your account is important.
- Broad – allows for your keyword to expand to relevant keywords. Example: broad match keyword ‘computer repair’ could expand to ‘computer repair jobs’, ‘computer monitor repair’, or ‘computer repair classes’.
- “Phrase” match- will keep a phrase in-tact but can allow for words to be added before or after the phrase. Example: “computer repair” can expand to ‘free computer repair ’.
- [Exact] match- will only show the ads when the exact keyword is used [computer repair]. This option does not require negative match keywords.
–negative match – will restrict your ads from appearing for the –negative keyword. i.e. Broad match keyword “computer repair” expands to ‘computer repair jobs’ add a negative -jobs and it prevents the ads from appearing for people looking for a job. Use your imagination a little and add negatives for -job, -employment, -career, -careers, -hire, etc. Negative Keywords can be included in Broad, Phrase and Exact Match Types – Learn more http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=67991
For most advertisers to effectively use broad match and phrase match keywords it will be essential to use negative keywords to maintain a good CTR and not waste money on irrelevant clicks.
Identifying and adding Negative Match Keywords
Negative keywords can be identified by running a search query report or by using the keyword tool . Learn more about identifying negative keywords. Negative keywords can be added at the Campaign level to cover all ad groups under the campaign or at the ad group level to cover only specific ad groups. Read here to learn how to add negative keywords to your adwords account.
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Evaluating Ad Text
Is your ad text well written? Ad text needs to be honest, compelling and contain a call to action. If you offer specials let people know. Your ads appear amongst many other advertisers, ad text that stands out and grabs a potential customer’s attention is important. Create professional, prominent ads that are free of gimmicky language and make sure your offers are available with 1 – 2 clicks of the landing page.
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Evaluating Ad Position
Does your ad position need to be evaluated? Ads that are below the page fold (requiring users to scroll down) will receive impressions because they are on the first page but will not actually be viewed as often as ads above the fold. If you find you have a low CTR check your ad position. If you find it is low on the first page you may want to consider raising your position by adjusting bids. A great way to identify position issues is to run both a Keyword Performance Report and Impression Share Report. These reports will help you identify if your ad position needs to be addressed.
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Can I track my sales, leads, registrations, etc?
Yes, with Conversion Tracking. It is a simple snippet of code that needs to be installed into your website. The code works behind the scenes of your website to collect data when a specified ‘action’ has taken place, such as a sale, registration, lead or contact form is filled out. This code can even be customized to capture and pass important variables from shopping carts such as the price of a sale pre shipping and tax to make it very easy to analyze data.
Watch this Video or see written instruction below.
To create a conversion tracking action visit the Reporting Tab and the Conversions link.
Tracking Conversions
Next Step is step 1 in creating your conversion tracking code.
Step 1 – Create Conversion Tracking Action Code
Step 2 & 3 – Name your conversion and select the purpose of the conversion.
Steps 2 & 3 – Name Conversion and Select Purpose
Steps 4 & 5 – customize your conversion tracking code and install it on your website.
Steps 4 & 5 – Customize and Install your Conversion Tracking Code
Once you install the code into your website and upload it live online the code should show as verified
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What reports should I run often?
There are many helpful reports located in the AdWords Help Center. Mentioned below are a few to get your account off to a good start. Getting familiar with all the reports center has to offer is going to be important for you when reviewing data and optimizing the account. Spend time getting familiar with all the report center offers.
Here are some of my favorites:
Search Query Performance Report – if you are running keywords in Broad or “Phrase” match it is important to run Search Query Performance Reports regularly. This will help you to identify negative keywords as well as new keywords to add to your account.
Impression Share Report – This report will allow you to identify if you are losing Impression Share to rank or budget as well as how much impression share is exactly matched to your keywords.
Keyword Performance Report – Easily identify keywords that need to be evaluated.
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Are there any tools or tips to help me get the most out of my budget?
Yes. AdWords has features such as ad scheduling, position preference, ad delivery. There are are tools available to some account such as the bid stimulator. Best practice for small budgets is to make sure you are going for quality clicks by using very specific keywords and using keyword matching options to control when your ads show. I think that advertisers on a tight budget should do their best to pre-qualify their prospective visitors.
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Do you Have a Question?
If you have a question that you would like answered feel free to post it in the comments below and the AdWords Help Experts team will do our best to answer. It will also help us develop this AdWords FAQ further to help other advertisers.
An effective AdWords campaign usually will undergo major changes in its life. It is often difficult to build a perfect account from the start, for many it is a learn as you go process. This series of Improvement Quick Tips are designed to take an account that is performing OK and take it to a new level of performance. The incentives to improve an account include a higher conversion rate and higher quality scores which equate to lower costs per click. The question becomes how do we make quality score great. Is there a way to continue to refine an account to further increase the quality score, increase conversions and reduce costs? Answer = Yes.
Organizing Your Account – Ad Group Themes
Organizing your account into tightly knit ad groups around a specific theme can increase relevance and account quality. When ad text is directly related to keywords, customers identify better with the ad because it so closely matched their search query. This results in a higher click-through-rate (CTR) which will increase quality score.
For this example I have setup an account for a door repair service. The keywords I selected for the service were: door repair, commercial door repair, storm door repair and entry door repair. The ad text is generic with “Door Repair” as the title.
Sample 1
Keywords in NON Specific Themes
A New Approach
I decided to reorganize the ad groups into themes. This example outlines the ’Storm Door Repair’ theme. I created a new ad group labeled ’storm door repair’ and created ad text with Storm Door Repair in the title. Keywords were selected to focus strictly on storm door repair. The CTR increased and the Cost per click (CPC) was greatly reduced. The original cost, $2.19 average CPC to $1.14 average CPC.
Sample 2
Theme
Why the Improvement?
The improvement is directly related to the relevance of the ad text to keywords. People can identify with the advertisement. The relevance in the theme is stronger. Setting up an account this way can be time consuming; starting with a setup like scenario 1 and work to identify what keywords deserve their own group may be a good approach for someone that does not have a lot of extra time.
When are we done improving?
Never really. I find that I am always looking to improve an account, finding ways to increase quality score, reduce costs and ultimately increase conversions. My next step on this account will be to include specific keyword matching options such as [Exact] and “Phrase” match. This will increase the CTR even further. I will also test different ad variations of the Storm Door Repair ad text to find the most compelling ad text possible.
Sample 2 does not reflect a change in quality score yet, but in time it will. While we wait for the new quality score to be reflected we can enjoy that lower CPC.
Future Improvement Quick Tips will include: Keywords, Ad Text, Bidding, Tracking Codes, Reading & Understanding Account Data, The Reports Center, Implementing Changes, Optimizing Websites and More.
I have looked at numerous accounts this week and am so surprised to see keywords that just don’t belong in their accounts, with a poor Quality Score (QS) and horribly low Click Through Rate (CTR). Not only does this drag their accounts down, it also wreaks havoc on the keywords’ CTR performance for every advertiser that should be using the keyword.
For instance, I recently looked at an account for a personal trainer. The account held keywords like ‘beach’, ‘weight watchers’, ‘excercise equipment’, none of which he offers, but are somewhat related. Of course you want a good body to go to the beach; “weight watchers” is another option to a personal trainer and when you visit this personal trainer you will use excercise equipment. Now, all of these keywords have a poor quality score and terrible CTR, and of course they should! This account has been running these keywords for months accruing a terrible historical CTR. Eventually this account may grind to a complete halt due to these keywords’ low CTR alone. Before that happens though, he will damage these keywords for other advertisers who do sell ‘excercise equipment’. This is why Google considers quality score important. A poor quality score is a deterrent. An indicator that something is wrong, that perhaps the keyword should be seriously re-evaluated and possibly removed all together. Google want’s you to stay relevant. It is the building block of adwords. It keeps things in check. It also keeps advertisers happy and ultimately keeps the end users of Google happy when they are provided with search results that are relevant to their query. If I wanted to find a weight watchers meeting in my area I would not expect to see ‘personal trainers’ in the search results. If Google can not keep their end users happy by presenting them with relevant search results then people will stop using Google and the end result will be the advertisers using AdWords not reaching the largest audience available on the internet.
How this effects you.
When an advertisers sets up an account and selects their keywords they receive an initial quality score based on the historical performance of the keyword on the AdWords system. Advertisers that have misused keywords have lowered that historical performance for other advertisers.
Can You Fix it?
Yes, If you find a newly added keyword that is truly relevant to your product or service has a poor score work on the CTR. Once you add a keyword to your account you can increase it’s quality if it is relevant to your ad text and landing page and achieves a good CTR. It make take time to accrue positive CTR history.
Notes:
Don’t use keywords that are not directly related to your product or service.
If you see a Poor Quaity Score or very low CTR (aside from the content network) something is wrong and needs to be addressed immediately.
Don’t freak outwhen you see a low Quality Score on a keyword that you know is very relevant, it is just that the keyword did not get a good performance history on the system, likely due to other advertisers misusing the keyword. If you are getting a good CTR with the keyword it’s Quality Score will improve.
Starting small is golden therefore newbie’s performance numbers are usually not big enough. I mean say hundreds of or a few thousand impressions a month, and much much fewer clicks. If you have ever tried to ride a bycicle you know that while it can be pretty easy at a reasonable speed, as you are slowing your vehicle down, balancing might get more and more difficult. A newbie may be in a similar situation if he wants to investigate the relationship between the CTR of a broad or phrase match keyword and its Quality Score. (It’s common knowledge that CTR, or Click-through-rate, is the most important factor considered by the AdWords system in the calculation of your Quality Score. Now we are supposing that the beginner wishes to monitor in his account how his improving CTR will lead to better Quality Scores.)
Paradoxically, he may experience a considerable increase in CTR associated with a worsening Quality Score or vica versa. The reason for it is that the AdWords system only gathers Quality Score data when a user’s query exactly matches the keyword in your account. E.g. in case you have the phrase match keyword “holidays” in your ad group it may happen that 10 users keying in the search query *summer holidays* see your ad and click on it. Say that 10 other users key in the exact search query *holidays* but none of them clicks on your sponsored link. In this scenario your phrase match keyword’s Click-through-rate is a fantastic 50% (10/20) while your exact match specific CTR is 0%. The consequence is that though you have a really high overall CTR, your Quality Score is pretty bad.
It may be frustrating and resulting in a distorted picture. It’s perhaps even more lamentable that you get the least information in this respect in the most sensitive first stage of your learning curve. For this reason I’d advise every newbie to list their broad or phrase match keywords as 2 match types — broad & exact or phrase & exact. That way at least they are likely to grasp more quickly what is happening and why to the relationship between the CTR of their broad or phrase match keyword and its Quality Score.
Note that if the performance numbers are really huge, the above scenario is practically out of question. In such cases when you are improving the CTR of the broad match or phrase match, you should be statistically improving the underlying or embedded exact match CTR as well. However, this post is meant for newbies with low performance numbers.
All my former keywords (bids of a few cents for each click, #1 position) were suddenly doomed “poor quality” and “not relevant”. The minimum bid was raised to almost 90 cents though there is no competition.
It’s a complaint we hear most often from newbies to the Google AdWords advertising program.
You should see right away that the amount you bid is not the amount you pay. Google AdWords uses a so-called second price auction model the effect of which is that while you may bid 90 cents, the paid amount will probably be much less. The bid in this case indicates your seriousness, how much you *could* be paying. Of course, you can’t know for sure before you accrue clicks. However, based on general experience we may state that the price will be really lower since you have few competitors. Try to get a good click-through-rate and the actual CPC will go on lowering down to $0.10 or so. It should be noted that some savvy advertisers are known to have bid around $100.00 and paid $0.01. Generally speaking, your short-term competitors may increase the average CPC temporarily their actual costs, however, will get them to leave finally.
What you should achieve is to have a nice CTR in the region of 5% or higher, keyword search only. The Google AdWords system is considered to assume a cca. 2.5% CTR until you build up a meaningful history specifying your own actual CTR. Specialists argue the system seems to have a price goal for the space which is in fact a lower limit. In case your landing pages, ads and keywords are fine you may receive a good initial minimum bid. AdWords, however, modifies the minimum bids in stages. The second stage is the very first visit by the AdWords bot exploring your landing page quality and various relevance factors. If the bot results are poor you may see a sudden increase in your minimum bids which newbies are often upset with. Now you need to discover what the problems might be, create a new ad group and cancel the former one.
If the above remedies don’t cure the situation you are punished by a poor account history in the course of the AdWords auction. Established online businesses often rehabilitate such keywords by moving them to a new Google AdWords account. Small ventures, of course, are often unable to follow suite and have more difficulties with solving the problem. All in all, we may state that if you have few competitors you will not have to pay high costs per click for extended periods of time. Precondition is, of course, that you need to build up a meaningful history with acceptable CTR values so as to lower the actual prices. It’s plenty of work to do for any new advertiser.
Many new Google AdWords advertisers complain that though they have managed to identify low competition keywords the AdWords algorithm assigns very low Quality Score to their keywords which leads to pretty high bid requirements for them. It defies logic – they argue since market forces are considered to ensure that low competition is coupled by low prices. In this article we discuss cases where the keywords are far from being popular among users.
1. “The system appears to be optimized for people selling goods of interest to millions of people, to huge marketers no matter what they are selling…” – this is an excerpt from a blog entry often cited by newbies. In some sense, it is true. It is much easier to advertise appropriate products using popular keywords searched for by hundreds of thousands of people especially if Google is *optimistic* about these keywords. However, Google is a profit oriented mass media and not a charity. Which mass medium would make life easier for someone with extremely uncommon keywords? Would TV commercials be helpful in marketing LaTex, a physics related “equation editor”? A new brand of shampoo is much more suitable for TV, isn’t it?
2. The problem is twofold.
- a. Historical CTR is a very important factor in your keyword’s Quality Score.
- b. Lack of previous history makes Google cautious.
(Google has good reasons for a./ and b./ and that boils down to *relevance*. However, this question is beyond the scope of this short article.)
Now, if your fellow advertisers used your keyword poorly in the past, Google is pessimistic about this keyword. If they did not use it in the past or just a few times, again: Google is pessimistic about this keyword. Google’s pessimism is, of course, reflected in your keyword’s low Quality Score which in turn means high bids for you.
3. Someone has recently asked me “Can only commonly-used search terms be used for keywords?” They are probably much easier to use due to 2.b. So what can advertisers affected by 2.b./ do?
First off, what would the equation editor’s seller do in regard to offline advertising? He may perhaps try to identify a periodical on physics which is read mostly by research team members and place an ad in it. Similarly, he can identify a few physics related websites allowed for placement targeting within AdWords and only run his ads there.
Others might be more interested in a general audience so they need to bid for keywords and the equation editor’s seller may also decide to bid for keywords in regard to his specific placements. The issue of 2.b is still to solve. Actually they need to alleviate Google’s pessimism about their keywords and as everything else, it costs money. If Google misses a good history, they have to create one themselves.
Though the bid is relatively high initially, they need to run the ad for some weeks. The turning point in regard to Google’s mood is believed to be around 2.5 CTR. If they can persuade Google through their results that they can produce a CTR above that value in the long run, they may expect the bid to fall drastically and remain low or even very low for the rest of the time. However, whether or not it’s worth the investment should be considered by themselves.
It might sound strange for many newbies but match types do not affect QS (Quality Score). The AdWords system only collects QS data when the user’s search query is an exact match of your keyword. If you use the phrase match keyword “video game” and the user keyes in *purchase video game* you may get an impression but these data will not be a factor in the calculation of QS for the keyword “video game”. Since data is collected only for exact matches the QS of an exact match keyword is then assigned to the phrase match and broad match type keywords as well.
Now let’s assume that only the broad match or phrase match type of a particular keyword is used in an ad group which has been running for quite a while to accrue sufficient data. If the broad match has accrued 100,000 impressions and 5,000 clicks , the CTR is 5%. In this case, you may experience that some of the users keying in a matching search term in fact do key in your exact keyword, say 10,000 out of the 100,000 users. Because in this case the numbers seem to be large enough chances are that approximately 500 of this 10,000 “tight” users will click on your ad resulting in 5% again. This example shows that the assumption is false according to which you could enhance the CTR of a broad match keyword without achieving an increase in QS that is purely based on exact match CTR. Though QS data is not collected for a broad match keyword it *is* collected for the “embedded” exact matches.
Starting small is golden so newbie’s performance numbers are usually not big enough. I mean say hundreds of or a few thousand impressions a week, and much fewer clicks. If you have ever tried to ride a bicycle you know that while it can be pretty easy at a reasonable speed, as you slow your vehicle balancing might get more and more difficult.
A newbie may be in a similar situation if he wants to investigate the relationship between the CTR of a broad or phrase match keyword and its QS. Paradoxically, he may experience a considerable increase in CTR associated with a worsening Quality Score or vica versa. (As set out above, if the performance numbers are really large, this scenario is practically out of question.) It may be frustrating and resulting in a distorted picture. It’s perhaps even more lamentable that you get the least information in this respect in the most sensitive first stage of your learning curve. For this reason I’d advise every newbie to list their broad or phrase match keywords as at least 2 match types — broad & exact or phrase & exact. That way at least they are likely to grasp more quickly what is happening and why to the relationship between the CTR of their broad or phrase match keyword and its Quality Score.
All advertisers have the power to succeed with AdWords. They just need to know how to create a highly scored account. Whether you optimize your account or a professional does it for you the principals are the same.
Create Relevant Groups – Categorize
If you sell more than one product or service create a separate ad group for each category. Each group will have a set of highly targeted keywords, targeted ad text and a targeted landing page.
Keywords
Generic vs. Specific
Select specific keywords. Do not use generic keywords vs. specific keywords to describe your business. Most advertisers can not afford this option. If you sell Ladies Shoes do not use a keyword like footwear it is to vague. You will take impressions and clicks that are not going to result in business.
Matching Options
Different Matching options will not result in a different keyword quality score. Your broad match keywords will have the same keyword quality score as exact match. All keywords are scored as though they are exact match. However you can increase your overall account quality score through increasing the Click Through Rate (CTR) with different matching options. Your matching options are broad, “Phrase”, [exact], -negative and -[embedded match].
Ad Text
Create compelling ad text. Give users a reason to click your ads. Place your keywords in the ad text so that users identify your ads with their search query. If you are having a sale or offering free shipping mention it in your ad text. Try adding several ad variations set to run evenly so you can test the effectiveness of different ad text. You can identify the ad text that performs better by a higher CTR.
Landing Pages
Landing pages need to be original, have a transparent ordering process and do not require people to go through a signup to enter the site. The product needs to be found within 2 clicks of the landing page. If you have multiple products or services the ads should land users on the specific landing page for that product or service. Include your keywords in your landing page text.
Click Through Rate (CTR)
Once your keywords, ad text, and landing pages are created your account will begin to accrue a CTR score. CTR is the number of clicks per impressions. CTR is calculated historically per keyword, the associated ad group and the historical CTR of the display URL’s. Because the CTR is calculated for historical data it takes time to see improvements. A high CTR is a indication that users find your keywords and ad text relevant to their search query.
Analyze Data & Cut the Fat
Review the account data daily. You will see what keywords are performing and which are not. Cut the fat. Part of your score is the historical CTR for the group and display URL so poorly performing keywords do harm to your account.
*Want a professional to give your account a quick audit? The experts here can review your account for a reasonable fee. Contact us for details*
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