We're trying to get one of our sites to appear in the top 3 ads above the search results but even though the quality score is great and the bid high it won't get up there. Anyone have any tips? Would starting a new campaign or even a new account help as the keyword history might be the reason why it doesn't appear in the top 3?
Yeah, I got an idea. First, do this in the morning when you know you and the rest of the AdWords advertisers have not burned up their daily budgets. Bring up the Google Ad Previewer in a browser. Do a search on the keyword you are working on. Hopefully, you see it in the list of ads just not at the top. Go into your AdWords account and raise your bid. Wait a few minutes and then do the same search. You should see your ad higher. If not, increase the bid and wait a few minutes before checking. Keep doing this until you get where you want to be. It's faster if you go too high first and then work backwards. And Google AdWords advertisers say you can't find out what your competition is bidding... I think we can guess what they are bidding pretty accurately using this method.
Securing a position above the organic results is a matter of obtaining a very high quality score. All of my ads which occupy such a position have all-time CTRs of between 20% and 50%. Work on your CTR and thus your quality score and you should soon get the position you want. Here are a few simple and quick tips on building a high CTR/quality score . . . 1) Continually split-test your ads. 2) "Peel and stick" keywords which get low CTRs into their own ad groups with custom ads. 3) Modify your landing pages to be more relevant to your keywords. 4) Make sure the markup of your landing pages is valid. 5) Get as many backlinks as you can to your landing pages from sites which rank high for your keywords in the organic results.
All great advice from Masterful, but one thing you need to know is sometimes you will never be able to because of one thing, account history. IF they guys in those tops spots have been their longer and all other things being equal besides that, you will never take it over. You'll have to wait them out. I know people don't believe this, but it's true. Bid as high as you want, it won't matter.
I appreciate what you're saying, PPC-Coach. Winning the top spot can be very difficult, but it is possible. I know because I have fought my way to the top before, and, likewise, I have been knocked off the top. The way to do it is by building your quality score and NOT by increasing your bids. In my experience, increasing your bids doesn't have nearly as much effect on your quality score as does improving your CTR. As long as you can manage to secure a higher quality score than those above you, you will win the top spot.
True, to a point, though if the other campaign has improved their Quality Score to a similar level to yours, and their site converts better than yours, their customers' lifetime values are better than yours, or they just bid over the odds to appear top, you may never overtake them. Getting your QS as high as possible should be the top priority for every campaign, but sometimes you can do everything right, and the top position just isn't the most profitable...
What i did find when we first started about 12 months back, was that we appeared in the top 3 ads above the organic results. But recently we have slipped to top of right-hand side and it won't budge from there, even though quality score is "great". I have tried putting the keywords in their own ad groups with super-targetted ads and landing pages and even raised the bid to max which seems to be $100. Can't think of much else apart from trying to increase the CTR. Any further ideas guys?
After Google changed the formula earlier this year, the max bid is more important than ever in relation to the top spots above the results. If you've pumped the max bid (which it looks like you have) I would aggressively test ad copy to increase CTR. If you're broad matching you'll need to beef up the negative keyword list too in order to improve CTR.
Just to add to ppc-coach comments....current results impact historical results. So if the competition trips up and starts generating low CTR and they do it on an consistent basis, these results start to weigh heavily on the account history. Google goal is to show the most RELEVANT advert today.
thanks for the help guys, great info. i think the account and some of the ad groups might have low ctr, would it be better for me to start a brand new account with max bid ($100), better targetted, smaller ad groups which should therefore mean i will appear in the top 1-3 straight away? or should i stick to this account and try and increase the ctr? appreciate the help guys.
What's your conversion rate (and ROI) from position 1-3 versus 4+. In other words, why do you want to be in the top 3?
here's some approx figures for 1 month: Being in top 1-3 --------------- Clicks: 1500 CTR: 5.5% Conversion: 8% Being 4+ -------- Clicks: 600 CTR: 3.5% Conversion: 10% Basically, i want to increase the number of leads coming through and i think being in the top 1-3 will achive this, what do you think?
It probably will, just keep an eye on costs. The top spots can get quite a few "curiosity clicks". Let the numbers guide you!
If the goal is 'more leads', you will most likely achieve that goal by pushing yourself into the top 3 for average position. You can see the value of the clicks, however, at your lower average position, where you have a better conversion rate. As GFC mentioned - curiosity clicks - can be a factor. If your ROI can weather the lower conversion rate, by all means, go for it.
So if i want to increase the leads and can support the extra cost i should be in the top 1-3. The problem is getting there. I think the only thing i haven't tried is trying to increase ctr as the ads are currently targetted so that the user only clicks them if it applies to them. If i do a more generic ad it will increase ctr but the conversion rate will go way down. Any other way of getting into top 1-3?