Yesterday evening I started a campaign with several adgroups for keyword variations and two text ads each. All keywords became active with OK to Great quality @ .10 - .20 per click. This morning I noticed the disasterous CTR of about 0.3% (1,300 impressions to 4 clicks) in one particular adgroup and created completely new text ad to replace the one without any clicks. Shortly after 186 of 239 keywords became inactive requiring .30 - .40 per click. My question is if Google is looking at the CTR of the text ad and deactivates all my keywords how can I improve the CTR and quality score with a new text ad without increasing the bid price if all the keywords are still inactive? Is this like a "catch-22" or does the system just need time to evaluate my new text ad? Thanks
start with small quantity of keywords, achieve average CTR 1,5-2% then step by step add other keywords trying to keep CTR. For this campaign better start again...
First revise your landing page and then secondly create a new targeted text ad. Remember, minimum CPC is assessed from your landing page, nothing else.
No matter what you change, even if you write new ads or move the keywords to different adgroups. Adwords will still remember your poor performance for those keywords and you would still have to pay past the new minimum bid until CTR improves and your minimum bid is lowered again. If you don't want to pay past minimum bid you'll have to start fresh with a new account. As suggested by others here, start with a smaller quantity of keywords, it'll be easier to manage. Make sure that you turn off advertising on the content network and search partners too, as these places will show your ad to less relevant audiences and thus hike up your impressions with less clicks. Once you have attained good CTR, then think about using the content network and search partners to increase your volume.
actually once you delete and create a new text ad, the landing page will be reassessed for min cpc bid. You don't need to delete and start a new account
http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=87408&query=quality+score&topic=&type=f&%20onclick= True, however, you would still have to pay the higher minimum bid for some time before things improve, thus sometimes creating a new account is the best way to go.
Not quite; "Our system automatically evaluates all keywords in your account and uses the resulting Quality Score to assign a minimum CPC bid for each keyword. This is the minimum amount you need to bid in order for your ad to run. If the CPC bid that you've set for your keywords meets or exceeds the minimum bid assigned by the system, your ad is eligible to enter the ad auction. The Quality Score used to determine minimum bid is derived from your keyword's clickthrough rate (CTR), the relevance of the keyword and ad text to its ad group, your landing page quality, and other relevance factors. " https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=49174 The landing page is a piece of the puzzle but now the whole puzzle. The best way to recover in this situation would be to create new text ads aimed at improving your CTR. Even though AdWords says your keywords are inactive notice the text at the bottom of your ad group screens that include inactive keywords: " Inactive for search keywords have a Quality Score and bid too low to trigger ads on searches for Google or the search network, but they remain active for content impressions. These keywords may occasionally accrue search clicks as we re-assess their quality." Typically if you introduce a new set of ads you will accrue some impressions (and hopefully clicks) and if done right, your keywords will reactivate. The search and content networks have zero impact on your quality score (see question #6) which is used to determine minimum bids. Creating a new account is never the best solution.
No you dont have to pay the higher min bids, I fix these problems all the time and never have to adjust min CPC @GuyFromChicago - we are talking about Google Min CPC not quality score. QS is based on all things, and min CPC is based on landing page and relevancy. QS and min CPC are not the same things, they are 2 different things. Let me make this clear The main reason for Google slaps is improper account setup and structuring. You don't the greatest content landing pages in the world... I have many campaigns with clients with images as their content. Here are the top 2 reasons why your account is slapped 1. Improper use of display URL. Your display URL is probably sending to a 404 error page. 2. Keyword clustering. You are improperly clustering your keyword grouping and your mixing up your exacts and broads. Check my site in my sig, I go into more detail on this
A quality score is used to determine your minimum bid. "The Quality Score used to determine minimum bid is derived from your keyword's clickthrough rate (CTR), the relevance of the keyword and ad text to its ad group, your landing page quality, and other relevance factors." Source "Quality Score Formulas The formula behind Quality Score varies depending on whether it's calculating minimum bids or assigning ad position. It also varies based on whether it's affecting a keyword-targeted ad on the search network, a keyword-targeted ad on the content network, or a placement-targeted ad. While we continue to refine our Quality Score formulas, the core components remain more or less the same. Below you'll find a breakdown of each type of Quality Score. For calculating a keyword's minimum bid: * The keyword's historical clickthrough rate (CTR) on Google; CTR on the Google Network is not considered * The relevance of the keyword to the ads in its ad group * The quality of your landing page * Your account history, which is measured by the CTR of all the ads and keywords in your account * Other relevance factors" Source "Question 2 - How many quality scores are there? There is a quality score that used to rank ads and one that's used to set minimum bids. Content and search networks also have different quality scores. The quality score types and formulas are explained here." Source "What are minimum keyword bids and how do they work? A keyword's minimum bid is the lowest amount that you can pay in order for that keyword to trigger your ads. If you assign that keyword a cost-per-click (CPC) bid lower than this amount, the keyword will become inactive for search. A keyword's minimum bid is determined by its Quality Score. The more relevant your keyword is to your landing page and to the ads in its ad group, the higher the keyword's Quality Score will be. This translates into a lower minimum bid for that keyword and lower costs for you. " Source
@GuyFromChicago - I know what Google says, I have been doing this for years... QS difference is usually between 0.02 cents per click to 0.20 cents per click. Anything above 0.20 CPC indicates an error somewhere in your campaign setup and strategy. $1 $5 and $10 bids are not normal CPC bid prices. These are slaps and slaps are due to improper setups. Quality score variance has its biggest effect on average CPC not minimum bid. If you have a 0.20 min bid and you want the bid to go lower you have to do optimization of the campaign and content, but if you have a $1 or above minimum bid there is an error in your campaign. No matter how much content, meta tag, links, navigation bars and images you put it will not make a difference.
My responses were based on your two comments; "Remember, minimum CPC is assessed from your landing page, nothing else." and "QS is based on all things, and min CPC is based on landing page and relevancy. QS and min CPC are not the same things, they are 2 different things." I was simply pointing out that more goes into calculating the min bid than just the landing page, and, there's a direct relation between your quality score and your minimum bid. You won't often (if ever) see a $1, $5 or $10 min bid with a "great" quality score. Poor quality score = high minimum bid. I've been at this awhile too