Posts Tagged ‘exact match keywords’

Remember The Exact Match Option

January 7th, 2009

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.

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Posted in Improving CTR, Quality Score

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Some Considerations On Quality Score And First Page Bid

December 11th, 2008
Many newbies think they understand the concept behind Quality Score especially because every time they ask a question regarding the details they receive the same automated response from support. What they do not always understand is why the Quality Score incorporates such general issues that when they research their score no exact reason is given as to why it may be low. How are advertisers supposed to adjust their landing page or ad campaign if they are not sure what is prompting the negative rating?
The key concept of the whole Google empire is *relevance*. That’s what made Google the No 1 Search Engine in the world and that’s the cutting edge which continues to keep Google ahead of the competition. While in general *relevance* refers to the usefulness of information to a user, in terms of figures it is reflected by a keyword’s Quality Score which is algorithm based so that the AdWords system can calculate with it. Of course, any mathematical algorithm per se can only be an approximation e.g. as compared to the linguistic-psychological notion, conception or mental apprehension of what “relevance” means for us, humans. Even the best mathematical algorithm is nothing more than just an approximation. However, so as to achieve a good approximation, the Quality Score formula needs to be pretty complex and to include a lot of factors for consideration.

What is ‘Quality Score’ and how is it calculated?

Quality Score for Google and the Search Network
If you take a look at the above help page you’ll see that a really great number of factors are considered in the calculation. Some factors are within the scope of your responsibility while some are beyond. Accordingly, a low rating can be caused by any of them and only a very thorough investigation of your case can decide what the real reasons might be. Paradoxically, such an investigation cannot be algorithm based for the time being, it requires human intelligence in most cases.
Many people likewise wonder how it is possible to have a good average position of e.g. 4.5 but then not have a first page bid? If the average position is 4.5 doesn’t that qualify you to be on the first page?

The first page bid estimate only applies to search queries exactly matching your keyword, it may well not apply to phrase or broad match search terms. This translates you may accrue a good avg. position from phrase and/or broad match impressions while simultaneously the first page bid estimate indicates that your bid is too low for the first page. (In regard to an exact match impression, of course.)

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3 Match Types With The Same Quality Score

December 10th, 2008
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.

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Posted in Improving CTR, Quality Score

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[Exact Match] Keywords

December 7th, 2008

Exact Match is the most tightly controlled keywords matching option. For advertisers on a tight budget this keyword matching options is a must. Is your keyword was [can crusher] your ads will ONLY appear on a search query for [can crusher] Your impressions will be lower than the broad and phrase match options but because your ads are only showing to users looking for a [can crusher] you are more likely to achieve a higher quality customer that will be evidenced in a higher CTR.

The below screen shot is perfect example of a higher CTR achieved with exact matching.  Highlighted below are two keywords.  One in [exact match] and the second in “phrase match” because the phrase match keyword is allowing other words to appear before or after the keyword it can cause the ads to appear on search queries that are not specific enough to the product or service and that is easily seen in CTR score.

While [exact match] is a tightly controlled matching option and will allow you to achieve a higher CTR using [exact match] will require you to create a larger keyword list because you are not letting AdWords do the work for you.  Although it creates more work for you, taking the time and effort will create a better quality keyword list and a more productive account.

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Posted in Getting Started, Keywords

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