How long should I wait before tossing a non-converting keyword? Should i wait until the keyword costs me the amount i would have made for one sale? If this is true, how do I account for higher initial bid prices? What are some of your hard and fast rules for eliminating keywords from your campaigns? -Jay
you don't eliminate, you adjust. Unless you are 100% sure, there is no way to ever make a conversion from that keyword.
but what if it's a keyword that has cost you 3 times the amount 1 sale would have made you? What exactly do you mean adjust? You can't just keep changing the landing page until something works can you? You may wind up spending 6 months making a keyword profitable. And in that time spend 50x the amount of revenue you would have made from just one sale. Do you really NEVER pause non-converting keywords? Wow. -Jay
pausing and eliminating keywords is important, but you cant make the judgment call after equaling the income of a sale. Its hard to explain, but there has to be enough reason to prove that it is impossible to convert that keyword. Why is it not converting is what you should find out first. Then when you find that out, if the necessary changes far exceed the rewards, then delete it. But the problem is if you deleted every keyword when it match 1x, 2x, or, 3x the income then you may be throwing away lots of potential keywords, or you may end up with an empty portfolio...
Thanks Robert. I have a much better understanding of your point now. You don't completely disagree with my strategy of pausing non-converting keywords, but you're of the opinion that when you have the funds and the time is right, it's important to go back and make those keywords work for you. So you've helped me quite a bit in my decision on how to go about my keyword tracking. I will begin by going over all my keywords & conversions once month. For the first few months I will trim (pause keywords) my campaigns to make them more profitable. Then once I have more money to risk, I can work towards converting the paused keywords by changing campaign structure (adding separate adroups) and changing landing pages or products for those terms. Thanks very much! -Jay
Yes, if a keyword is costing you much more than you can afford and it's getting silly, I'd pause it and come back to it another time. Then when you have a bigger budget, you can afford to give the keyword another chance and more time. Natural Google listings, can have a negative effect. Some of my keywords are getting low CTR and I feel it's because most people are clicking the natural listings instead of Adwords listings.
Great question. For people with a low budget and little money to spend testing, tracking and adjusting their keywords, it would be wise to start out with a SMALL list of very tight keywords that are at the end of the buying cycle... "Buy Dell Inspiron Laptop" "Purchase Big Bertha Golf Club" "Buy 4 Hour Work Week On Amazon" and so on... That way, your keywords stand a better chance of converting from the off where they SHOULD be making you money. Granted, your impressions and clicks will be low, but your profit should be higher... That money can then be taken and invested into expanding on your campaign by including more "general" keywords since you have more money to play with in terms of testing them. As for a direct answer to when you should delete a keyword... everyone has their own way of doing this... but my take is this: 200 Clicks or Cost of One Sale (whichever comes sooner) then start questioning the keyword. After that, it's just down to when I "feel" the keyword is no use until I delete it. Cheers Stewart
The problem with this is, say the keyword has cost you 10.00 and that's your profit for a conversion, who's to say it won't get 2 or 3+ conversions the following day and bring the average cost per conversion right down? As Robert says above "pausing and eliminating keywords is important, but you cant make the judgment call after equaling the income of a sale" which I agree with. I think you can tell by looking if it's 'getting out of hand'. I put a value on all my conversions ... if the cost per conversions is something like 2-3 times that, it's a sign to me that the bid needs descreasing .. if I spend on a keyword say 3-4 times the max cost per conversion, and it hasn't produced anything, I'll consider pausing it and coming back to it another time, or maybe even deleting it full stop. I think you have to use your head a bit and go off instinct .. not just mathematics.
Exactly and that is a great point too. But we don't have a crystal ball and cannot see what may happen tomorrow. So sometimes we will delete keywords that may actually be profitable longterm. I also never said I would delete it once it cost me the revenue of a sale... I said I would start to question it and keep a closer eye on it... As you say... instinct is what is all boils down unless we get given a crystal ball. Cheers Stewart
Well.... in response to all the helpful posts... (and thank you guys BTW) The fact is I'm still a newbie. I've been at this for just over a year and I need to start keeping some of the cash i make. If a keyword doesn't convert within a months time, I'm going to pause it. I figure I'll need at least 100 clicks on a keyword to see a conversion or two, so I'll need to adjust my bids to get the 100 or more clicks in a month... with me so far? If the keyword doesn't convert in one months time AND it's getting the 100+ clicksworth of traffic, I'm going to pause it. Why? Because I need keywords that are a sure thing. I can't see how you guys can track a single keyword through 4 months until it gets a sale and then decide whether or not it's worth keeping. I want dependable keywords that will give me at least one sale a month. It'll be easier to track and I'll keep my sanity (what I have left ) Does this sound like a fair strategy for my newbie goals? I feel like internet marketing is similar to a good workout plan. You may not have a good workout everytime you go to the gym, but if you consistently get yourself to the gym, you'll utlimately see some decent results. With this keyword conversion plan, i may miss out on some profitable long-term keywords but at least I'll keep ones that I KNOW will deliver when i expect them to. Robert? I know you're dying to rip this post apart Let me hear it. -Jay