Recommended number of keywords per ad, per order?

Hey folks, I've read a lot of conflicting opinions on how many keywords you should attach to an ad, or to an order. Some people seem to think that you should have only a handful of keywords attached to an ad, while others seem to believe that its fine to almost shotgun blast each ad via thousands of keyword phrases?

Any insight into a good rule of thumb as far as how many is too many, or any potential pitfalls of having keyword loaded orders would be greatly appreciated.

I get the impression its more of an issue with Adwords than with MSN?

 

When I'm trying to convert/track properly I limit it to one word/phrase per ad/ad group/order.

 

Wow, I didn't realize people would be using singular phrase/ad/orders.

You'd then create a whole lot of those I take it?

I see you posting here a lot, and take it you're pretty experienced with PPC, so would assume you're using subid tracking etc as well?

 

Yes.

I track in a number of different ways depending on the expectations/desired results. I really like the one word/phrase per ad group because it offers the greatest flexibility as campaigns progress. I never need to delete keywords and set them up in new ad groups, and, it's just easier to track performance when working this way...at least for me.

 

Thanks for that - an interesting approach which I haven't previously seen discussed.

Diving into adCenter (and PPC in general) has been a great learning experience so far. I never realized how much you can learn about it with a limited spend initially.

Some things I'm still unsure of, such as how my overall Order average stats play a part in my click price? I've heard that your average CTR, and other factors can drive your CPC up? Do you have any words of wisdom in regards to these sorts of factors?

 

Not a lot at this point in relation to adCenter. AdWords is far more mature when it comes to attempting to measure "quality" and factoring in elements other than CTR & bid. At this point in adCenter if I want to place better I just bid more and maybe play around with ad copy.

One major pita with adcenter is the lack of an adwords editor type tool. In their defense you need to walk before you run...and at this point in the game they are still walking. Once they have some tools/methods for quick and massive changes/additions we'll be able to learn more about how their system works and treats different variables.