Sorry this is so long, but I’m trying to be clear . . . I have been searching for days to no avail, but after reading many posts on this forum I truly expect to get some good answers to my novice questions. Since I haven’t been able to locate this information I’m hoping answers to this post will help many others too. I have had reasonable success setting up my Adwords campaigns and adgroups, but I am having difficulty understanding how to use combinations of broad, phrase, and exact match to keep keywords from conflicting. I keep getting this error message: >Your ad isn't being shown for this keyword because there may be other ads within this ad group that are ranked higher.< I have probably way over-thought my keyword selections without understanding what, exactly, I was doing. Over the past few weeks I have developed thousand of keywords, in hundreds of adgroups, in a dozen campaigns. Originally they were all set to broad match. I have since set all my keywords to phrase match with much better results, but am still getting many conflicts. BTW my first ad entry got an EXCELLENT quality score, so my ad text and landing pages must be fairly good (I’m sure there is always room for improvement later), but that has dropped to OK or inactive as I have added campaigns, adgroups, and keywords. My bids are relatively low at .20 and .30, so I know I can activate keywords and probably raise quality score with higher bids. I do think the conflicting keywords are causing a lower QS as the required CPC has gone up since I started. I know I’m bidding way to low on the generic terms because my ad is being displayed on the 5th to 20th page, but that is okay for now. I’m just testing the waters. I know that some of my keywords should probably remain broad match and many should probably be exact match, but I’m not sure which or which will be the most effective. Like anyone, I want nickel bids for the search results with no, or few, other ads. There are many keywords which work for my business and some of the words in one keyword-string (search term) overlap with words in others. Like: Advertising Illustration –and– Photo Illustration –and– Graphic Illustration Olympia –or– Graphic Design –and– Graphic Design Firm –and– Graphic Design Agency Olympia There are hundreds of examples like this in my keyword/adgroup lists. I want to get impressions in my chosen geo-targeting area for the generic keywords and when people search with a specific city name. The number of ads showing for searches with specific city names are far fewer of course, then without, and I’d like to capitalize on the lower CPC for those. From reading here over the last couple days, it appears that I should probably set most of my keywords to exact, but I am unsure if that will solve my conflicts. Will I have to create reversed word-strings for the city specific keywords if I use exact match? Like: Graphic Design Agency Olympia –and– Olympia Graphic Design Agency Does exact match require words in a search phrase to be in the same exact order to get an impression? Will an exact phrase match for [Graphic Design Agency Olympia] compete with the broad match for Graphic Design Agency? I would still like to leave some of the generic terms set to broad match in case of misspelled words and other search terms I haven’t thought of yet. Is changing to exact phrase match my next step? Should I have separate campaigns or completely different accounts for broad match and exact match keywords? Right now I have conflicting keywords across campaigns when they are all set to phrase match and it was much, much worse when they were all set to broad match. I hope my questions are clear. Please bonk me over the head if I need to supply more information. I’m sure I’ll be slapping myself on the forehead when I get a clear understanding of all this. I discovered here that creating a new account and starting over my be the best solution to my dilemma, but I need to know more about what I’m doing first! THANKS for taking time (my next question should be simpler) Quickdraw www.dayledesigns.com
well first up I think you need to get a clear understanding of what broad, phrase and exact match do. Here is detailed match type info https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6100&topic=10975 important broad match info https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=10974 but to sum things up, you really only need broad and exact match types for every keyword. Phrase is usually used sparingly to have better control over a broad that may contain to many variations. So, for every keyword you have in your portfolio you should have and exact version and a broad version, and they should be separated within their own adgroups. Do not mix them all together. Having a large portfolio of keywords is fine, but the keywords should not be duplicated in other adgroups. There is no need to duplicate the same keyword many times over again. This is also why you are getting that conflict message. Your entry QS is almost always set to OK or GREAT... This basically means you have no major issues on your landing page, but you may still have an under performing campaign. If min bids are raising daily or over time, then you are performing less than your competitors. You need to segregate more keywords and continue optimization by extracting exacts from your broads, and placing volume keywords in 1 - 1 adgroups for better control. bidding higher will not raise your quality score, it will only place you higher on the search results pages. You are probably relating CTR with QS which is a wrong interpretation of quality score. CTR and QS is relative to position and competitor keyword/positioning history of that keyword. Many people here make this mistake by trying to glance at CTR and guesstimate QS. This is impossible since avg keyword CTR ranges from keyword to keyword and industry to industry. being placed on the 5th to 20th pages may be OK, but it will be harder and more expensive to pull those low ranks out of those low positions and back into high positions at a good cost. The best strategy for low CPC is to start off bidding high and lowering over time. This allows you to maintain high positions for much less. Doing it the other way around where you establish yourself as a 5th page advertiser you will have to double or triple bid your way out till google re-establishes you as a top competitor. you should have a broad and exact version of every keyword at all times. There is no which or which... You want nickel bids and so does everyone else, but there are many factors about this. The most important is if its even possible of getting nickel bids in your industry. If your in a competitive niche such as technology, dating, insurance, or mortgages, it will never happen no matter what... Expect bids to always be in your industry average and there are many tools out there to give you expected CPC ranges. Don't be caught off guard or confused about low CPC costs. Its rare and impossible in niches with at least a small amount of demand. Every keyword string is unique to itself so... Graphic Design Graphic Design Firm Graphic Design Firm Olympia are all considered unique and do not conflict with each other in any way In fact here is a proper setup for this group of keywords adgroup 1 - Exact Graphic Design Graphic Design Firm Graphic Design Firm Olympia adgroup 2 - Broad Graphic Design Graphic Design Firm Graphic Design Firm Olympia This is also a well know strategy and your campaign should be structured as follows Campaign 1 - Local (This is geo targeted to the city you want. It excludes all other regions and is geo targeted so that vague searches are still highly relevant to your geographic location) adgroup 1 - Exact Graphic Design Graphic Design Firm Graphic Design Firm Olympia adgroup 2 - Broad Graphic Design Graphic Design Firm Graphic Design Firm Olympia Campaign 2 - National (This is a non geo targeted campaign, but all keywords contain city names you want to target to so that anyone in the USA can find your service regardless of location but for those who still know they want service in your location) adgroup 1 - Exact Graphic Design Olympia Graphic Design Firm Olympia Graphic Design Agency Olympia adgroup 2 - Broad Graphic Design Olympia Graphic Design Firm Olympia Graphic Design Agency Olympia Exact match is the keyword sting in exact order exactly how it is searched for in the search engine. So if you need total control over... Graphic Design Agency Olympia Olympia Graphic Design Agency Then you would need both versions YUP NO... If someone searched for Graphic Design Agency then the broad will win the auction if someone searched for I need a Graphic Design Agency Olympia then phrase will win the auction If someone searched for I need a Graphic Design Agency near Olympia Then broad will win the auction No you don't need (technically cant) have multiple accounts for what you want to do. Simply separate the match types by adgroup Use campaigns to isolate budgets and geo locations only You most likely do not need a new account. Its rare to need a new account, most accounts are fine, a new strategy just needs to be put into place... I hope this answers most or all of your Q's
Sorry Coach, There is a disclaimer at the top of the post. I was about ready to break it down into smaller questions Robert, Thank you very much for the detailed reply. I'll absorb that information thoroughly! I just skimmed it and believe it is exactly what I need to know.
I've read all the google tutorials. I was just confused if words within a keyword string would compete with other strings, but you answered that: no. There are duplicated words inside of strings, but no matching strings (that I planned anyway - I'll check every adgroup for dupes). I do have the QS column turned on in my campaign summary. Google says they do use bid price as part of QS. I'm sure my minimum bids are way too low for my industry and I have very low CTR because I just started. Score should go up as I raise bids, position, and CTR. I'll get my adgroups sorted then follow the stratagy posted by woofytalk, as you suggest. That would be the only reason I see to delete the current account and start over. #1 Can you please shed a little more light on the reason for this? THAT is very helpful and a pointed answer to my concern. About this: #2 Wouldn't the keywords in campaign 1 compete with those in campaign 2? I am using multiple campaigns to organize my adgroups. I've read, and it seems to help, that it is a good stratagy from an organizational point. Yes it helps greatly. Now, just the two bolded questions above and one more: #3 Where do local business ads fit in? I would guess they should be in separate campaigns, but like quesiton #2, wouldn't those keywords compete with other campaigns? I know two ads from the same account will never display at the same time. How do matching keywords in different campaigns sort themselves out? I know that helping others can often be it's own reward, but you have been very helpful. Can I give some of my services? Maybe a box of business cards? Quickdraw www.dayledesigns.com