Hey Guys, I'm working on a new campaign, and had a question about how to get rid of low CTR keywords... Basically what I'm doing is viewing 'search terms' for a particular ad group and there's 100's (1000's in some cases) where a term has say 50 or so impressions but no clicks (or no sales) - I don't want these anymore. Should I just add them as a negative keyword? Meaning, I would have 1000+ negative keywords. Thanks!
1. From what you are saying your ads are not focused enough. It seems most of your keywords are broad matched. Create more specific adgroups with ads specific to those keywords. That would be the first thing I would do in your position. 2. Over what period are you viewing these search terms? 3. If your ads are not focused enough, chances are that the keywords would perform better if they had their own adgroups. 4. It is OK for you to have 1000+ negative keywords - just remember that they will count towards your account 50 000 keyword limit
Okay, Thanks a lot. I think best bet is to add them as negative then. This over a period of about a week.. around $20k spent so should be enough data. For what this is, let's say it's 'games', just makes sense (i think) to target broad for the main term, then get rid of the poor performers. Edit: Actually, 50k keywords for account won't work... so maybe I should change to phrase match and go from there
If you have lots of money to spend (as in waste...) your approach is OK. It's much better for you to some keyword research and save some money. At the end of the day you would have known this either for free, with keyword research or if you paid for a Wordtracker subscription. You can easily see potential negative keywords that way without spending all the money. It always depends on what you are selling though. Bottom line: Research your keywords properly before running your campaigns.
Ok, so let's say you're going for a very competitive term, say 'games'. Would you not just put 'games' as a broad match?
Ianthekisser - so I signed up for Wordtracker.. but the terms are pretty generic... if I start with 'games', even if I drill way in.. it's not the long tail keywords that I would want/not want.. for example, I'll have some long keywords with like 5+ words in them, that are preforming great.. I could never find those through WordTracker... and just the same, I have long tails like that with high volume surprisingly, that perform horribly.
No way! What kind of games are selling? Flash games, xbox games, tea-time games, games for lovers,computer games, mobile games, what? At the very least I would put 'games' into the Google keyword tool to see what comes up. (or use Wordtracker). Even if I chose to go for broad match (which I personally, wouldn't) I would first do the above step. Then I would add all the keywords I don't want as negative keywords.
I'm gonna be honest with you. It seems like you are looking for a quick fix. Why in the world would you put in a term as generic as 'games'? What is your definition of performing great? Sales, clicks? If you are hoping to make a profit you have to start becoming more specific. It is quite obvious that your ads are probably generic, therefore the 'badly' performing keywords can't do better since they have no specific ads. How are you doing Quality Score wise?
Ok so performance is based on conversions (sales), using Analytics linked to the adwords account. It's profitable right now, so the goal is to trim the fat and increase margin. Quality score varies, some are 4/10, but the majority are 7+ and many are 10/10. Not looking for a quick fix, this is full time, so time isn't an issue. It's just that there are SO MANY (1000's) of keywords that are profitable and #1, They don't even show up on Wordtracker or Google Keyword Suggestion if I try. Of course, there are also 1000's now that are not profitable.
I must say I am impressed. It seems that you have loads of luck on your side. Are you saying that you have 1000's of both profitable and not profitable keywords with high search volumes? And that you are able to make a profit despite the fact that your campaign seems to be very disorganised? Wow! In any case, if there are patterns or common words in the non-profitable keywords use those words as negative keywords as well, to make sure they don't keep triggering your ads. I'm sure there are a few keywords that bring you loads of profitable traffic- create separate adgroups for those and use phrase and exact matches for them. Then split test ads in those groups so that you can continuously improve your CTR and therefore your QS.
Thanks Ian.. Well I wouldn't say 1000's have high volume - like some may have 50-100 impressions over the week span with no clicks, but based on how unique they are, I just found it surprising that there were that many impressions. Thanks for all your help!