I was looking at one of my keywords today that has had 963 impressions in the space of 12 hours and 5 clicks, surprise surprise none of the clicks getting converted. Looking back through this keyword for the dates August 1st - August 20th I only received 720 impressions and 5 clicks. Does anone think something strange is happening here, and is it worth me contacting google about it? thanks.
Check your reports - it could just be a new word (on search) or site (on content) that picked up your ad and is driving the additional volume.
If you're running the content network, then it's probably a new site that your advert is appearing on (as GFC says). It appears that over time your QS on the Content Network increases, and with it your exposure on the Content Network.
Sorry, forgot to say, its just on the search network and now has 966 impressions. Content network is activated but with a v.low value and with no impressions so far. GFC - Just done a search report on the campaign and the keyword isn't listed. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see if it turns up with anything strange. I'll post back on here when I've run the search. Thanks for the help so far.
Maybe your competition for those keywords shut their ads off for some reason. It's the only reason I can think of...
Is it on broad match? If so, then the expanded matching may have added a new keyword that's completely irrelevant. And until somebody actually clicks on the advert, it won't appear in the report, so you won't be able to do anything about it.
Hi CM. Yes, of the 966 impressions, 964 were on broad, 2 on exact match. Just done a search report and there are some weird things going on. I've had searches done which don't contain any of the keywords in my adgroup yet its been triggering my ad. Very strange! I've noticed this before with the reports - even though I have the exact keywords google chooses to display a slightly different adgroup..... Has anyone else found this?
Broad Match now includes Expanded Matching. Google thinks of other things that it thinks are similar to your words, and bids on them as well. Sadly, it's not always very good at it. In your case, it sounds like it's come up with a new word that it thinks you should be bidding on, but it's not a very good one. And unless somebody who searches for it clicks on it, you can't find out what it is.
Thanks for that CM OK, sounds like expanded matching is having a field day on this particular ad group - time to put some negative matches in I think. Regards.
Besides just negative matches you could also just remove the broad match and do some exact phrase matching. On another note - I had this happen on a few of my campaigns a few months back. I had a sudden surge of traffic for one day and then it dropped off. It was on the search network. I contacted Adwords support and they stated that there were problems in the system. If it only happens for one day and returns for normal it could be that something is happening at google, but if it's consistent then I'd do some tweaks on your group. Either way - tweaking your group with negative keywords will definitely not hurt you...
Interesting re the 'blip. Yesterdays impressions were 83, todays are 90 so far. Definitely a google 'blip' imho.