Hi, I've 2 questions 1. I'm trying to figure out why one term appears to be starting to get more impressions than the other. This goes against previous history of the keywords. So if previously I had 2 terms on broad match, and term (a) got more impressions than term (b) - could lowering the max cpc and thus the ad rank for term (a) mean that term (b) might be shown more and deemed more relevant and get some of the impressions and clicks that term (a) used to get? Both terms have the same quality score. 2. I did a comparison check on this time last year for a keyword. The avg position was the same, the amount of impressions was roughly the same, the cost roughly the same, and the ad was the same. Problem is that the amount of clicks has gone down by about a 1/3. What would cause that? better ads from a competitor? thanks.
1. If those keywords overlapped, then yes - lowering bids for one will cause the other to rank higher more often and thus get displayed more. 2. Ceteris paribus, I would guess that it is your competition that has changed. If everything about that ad is the same a year later, I would in fact be surprised if you hadn't gotten left behind by your competitors. It's also possible that fewer people are clicking on ads in general for those keywords, but it appears that your quality score must have gone down if you were maintaining position whilst the cost was the same but clicks had fallen.
As explained in another post with a similar question, the system attempts to find the closest possible match of your keyword to the search performed, the exact match if possible. In other words, as you said, the one that is most relevant. The bid is not taken into account. Therefore, the reason one term is getting more impressions is simply because it is the one that more often matches the search. Changing the bids will have no effect. You should check the search query report for those keywords. It will likely give you ideas for negatives to use and expand the keywords. This will of course change the metrics. > What would cause that? better ads from a competitor? Quite possibly. Your ads don't exist in a vacuum. Other ads surrounding yours can affect your click rate positively or negatively. There can be other reasons too. Google is always experimenting with the display of ads. They changed the positioning slightly sometime last year. Most people did not notice but it helped increase click rates. Another test for a short time was merging the description lines on ads appearing on the right side. More recently is merging the first description line with the headline on ads above the SERPs. Another is showing the URL in lower cases only. Any of these changes can and will affect your click rate. You must be aware of them and adjust. I don't create ads in the same way I did last year because of them. I test and try to take advantage of them. Some say even the SERPs can have an effect on ad click rate. It's quite possible that a highly performing SERP is now taking clicks away from the ads. The good news is that since your QS and cost haven't changed, most of your competitors are likely experiencing the same thing.