Thanks to some of you on this forum, I've realized that keywords which generate high CTR don't always convert. Therefore, when I optimize my keyword base, I try to weed out nonconverting keywords, even those which get a lot of clicks. Here's my question: At what point do you suggest deleting a keyword, i.e., how many nonconverting clicks do you allow before the keyword gets the axe?
Before doing that, I'd ask myself "why doesn't this phrase convert?" Things to try: - Dedicate an ad to it so the ad matches better with the landing page to avoid wrong expectations - Dedicate a landing page it for the same reason as above plus it increases relevancy so there's a smaller chance they hit the back button fast, allowing you to do your pitch - If ad and page are 'perfect', is the product/service competitively priced? - If ad and page are 'perfect', is the pitch missing anything vital? - If the phrase doesn't convert directly, does it still convert indirectly? (Use Analytics funnels to see whether this word makes an enquiry often and then check whether it gets converted manually.) If all the above doesn't work, maybe that traffic shouldn't come to your site. How quick to come to that realization depends on your overall traffic and what you offer. Also on your budget. But I personally always give it a good chance, i.e. spend quite a lot/gather a lot of data before ditching it. I'd also base it on similar phrases' performance. PS Good to see a to the point and well presented question every now and then!
Excellant reply ., straight to the point Also, check wether your ads reach the target audience., For some products of ours, for some phrase, the audience would be both teens (non converting clicks) and people within the age group 21 - 30 (most converting clicks), so we use negative match to get the most quality clicks
True, There is no relation with CTR and conversion, when choosing your keywords. You need to concern more with this factor, when you use dynamic ads - {Keywords:} variables on your ad. Deleting a keyword is your last effort and need to be avoid. Normally you delete a keyword when you figure out that you have added a keyword to your campaign by mistake or you have tried all kind of methods for a negative ROI keywords. Here follow some tips for a negative ROI keyword: - direct it to a more relevant landing page on your site - move it to an adgroup that has static ads, don't has dynamic ads (ads that use {keywords:} variable. ) if the efforts above don't work you may decrease the bid of this keyword in relation to other keywords if all efforts don;t work you can consider deleting the keyword.
Thanks for the advice, guys. This is a big help! TOPS30, thanks especially for this: I'm going to start implementing some of these suggestions.
Google always try to push you to get a high CTR (offering you High Quality Score, high position and low actual CPC) , but we forget that some times we need to use the ad to filter and get a low CTR but get the right audience and positive ROI for certain keywords.
that is so true! I mean the quality factor and adrank and ctr and whatever google uses to measure you quality is too much in many cases!! You have to write more agressive adtexts if you want traffic, high ctr and maybe an premium spot for relatively low money, but that doesnt always comply with googles little child: "relevancy". And it makes your conversions go down, if you have static textads that really get the point, you are penalized with an lower ctr, receive much lower traffic and you have to have an way bigger keyword list to compensate the difference. But you pay smaller cash, thats good, its much more work but it pays off. But in my opinnion is all the quality factor, adrank stuff nothing that can measure quality like it should be, even if some will curse on me now, i personally think yahoos placement is much more relevant, in terms of user queries and what they got presented as result.
Thatz so untrue, Your ad should not be aimed at High Click throughs, Your ad should be aimed at quality relevant click thrus., If you sell cheap watches., 1)Quality clicks would be from an ad containing "Cheap Watches" with the negative keyword Free 2) high but inefficient clicks would be from an ad containing "Free watches" without any negative keywords., High clicks work., as long as it reaches the targetted audience.
Basic rule of thumb: If you spend 3x your conversion goal with no conversions, you might think about dumping the word..... So if you conversion goal is $10 and you've spent $30 with no sales, you might want to think about ditching that term.