I was playing around with my adwords advert and I put a product price (£16.99) in the advert. It then sent the cost of my adverts sky high (£2.50/$5 a click!), has anyone else come across this before?
This would have nothing to do with the actual price. You either edited an ad or created a new one and probably deleted the old one causing all the ads data history to be "reset". You need to look at your quality score.
cianuro is right. Your quality score has decreased which has caused your minimum bid price to go way up. You need to work on improving your quality score. There are several factors that go into Google's calculation for quality score. Here are the ones they will publish. - Keyword relevance - Ad copy relevance - Landing page relevance - Click through rate (CTR) - Keyword performance history - Other relevance terms Google will not share Here are some tips on improving your quality score. Good luck.
Cianuro, are you saying that the history of the ADVERT has a bearing on the Quality Score? If so, if you're running two adverts (to test), and one has (good) history, won't the existing advert appear higher than the new one, thus making comparing the clickthrough rates misleading? I was under the impression that it's the history of the keywords that counts, not the history of the adverts. In which case, the only reason that changing the advert would impact QS would be if the text of the advert changed. I think it's more likely that it was just a coincidence, and that Google just did an update of your QS's at about the same time that you changed the advert...
ok that's interesting. I have only one advert setup, and I only marginally changed some of the wording. I'm going to have a read of that quality guide to improve my scoring. thanks!
As far as the history goes, I believe it is tied to the keyword itself. Google says "[The quality score] factors include performance variables like keyword clickthrough rate (CTR), ad text relevance, overall historical keyword performance with Google, and even the user experience on the landing page or site associated with an ad." What is a 'Quality Score' and how is it calculated? Ad copy is included in the quality score calculation as a measure of relevance to keyword, but it doesn't include a history. If you improve your ad copy, then the impact on your quality score should be close to immediate (theoritically). The next time quality score is computed you should see a change if you make your ad copy more relevant. The previous version of your ad copy will not be included in the quality score calculation. If you are running multiple ads for a keyword, Google will show the more relevant one more often if you have "optimize" option selected in the campaign.
That was my understanding, in which case, I doubt it's the problem here. If there were no major changes to the advert text, and nothing else changed, I think it was probably just that the QS was updated at about the same time. Unless writing a new advert forces Google to recalculate your QS, in which case a run of poor days (on clickthrough rate) just beforehand could have explained this effect?
I wish we could see a history of when quality score is updated. Google says they do it on a "regular basis" and "at least once a month". It would certainly help in these cases of determing cause by effect.
QS is about relevance. When you search for a keyword and click an ad, that CTR is not for the keyword. It cannot be. It is for the keyword tied to the ad. Think about it: KW: Mortgage Ad Title: Free Mortgage for Live KW: Mortgage 25%APR Mortgage Which gets the better CTR? If you edit the first for the second should your CTR history be carried over?
If you run advert A against advert B, and advert A wins, then surely you don't have to re-create advert A and deliberately wipe its history before comparing it with advert C? If advert A appears higher than advert C simply because it's been around for longer, then the whole testing concept won't work. Also, we know that the Minimum Bid Quality Score is set at a keyword level, and I've seen nothing on Google to suggest that the Ranking QS works differently.
Of course not. Then there would be no point testing and there would be no need for certain features in AdWords. However, Ranking QS DOES work differently. Have a read of Brads take on the issue: http://www.ewhisper.net/blog/google-adwords-quality-score-factors-demystified/ (Remember the additional "related" articles are all part of the article) I think he has it about right.