I am setting up a PPC campaign targeting a niche document processing market. One of the issues is that my company offers a service that can be described by a number of different names, and applies to a huge range of document types. When you add the fact that each keyword string also needs a geographic specifier, the result is a massive amount of potential keywords to be targeted. Over time I will have the bandwidth to drill down and create the masses of tightly grouped AdGroups and landing pages that would be ideal, but for the short term I need to use cruder groupings. My question - Does Google frown on an AdGroup with several thousand related longish-tail keywords, but with low overall impressions? Important point - of the 3K or so keywords in my test AdGroup, only 30 or so are eligible, the rest being ineligible due to low search volume. So perhaps the real question is whether Google penalizes you for leaving large volumes of keywords that are "ineligible due to low volume" sitting inactive in an AdGroup? Any insights would be greatly appreciated. George
A large number of keywords in a group doesn't hurt QS. Each keyword's QS is calculated based on relative CTR to competitors. As long as each keyword is relevant and gets a high CTR (again, relative to your competitors), your QS will reflect that. It's not having a high number of keywords that will hurt you, it's having irrelevant keywords and poorly matching ads. It's possible to have hundreds of keywords or even a thousand or more in a group. I'd be surprised however if you can't further theme those keywords into tighter groups. You say so yourself so I'd start doing it right from the beginning. More work sure, but hard work pays off in the end, work you'll have to do and say you will eventually. Low search volumes don't make a keyword ineligible. It's just a message warning you there is few searches on it, not that there won't ever be. If you do your research, you'd know there's low search volume. But who cares? If that one search every four months gets a click and converts, that's what you want and the campaign accomplishes its goal.
Interesting - so "ineligible due to low search volumes" is just a warning, and does not mean the keyword is actually inactive. The Google wording is a little less than clear on this: From Google AdWords: "This keyword isn't eligible to show your ads because few people search for it on Google... If many people search for this keyword in the future, it might become eligible to show ads." But if you follow the "More Info" link, Google states: "If the number of searches for these keywords increases even in a small amount, your keywords may be reactivated and could start triggering your ads to show again." But the primary point is that having these low volume keywords in an AdGroup is not a negative. Thanks. George
No, It is a fact that the keyword is not active. As their document says (And Last month in Adwords meet,they said the same thing) that if the number of times keyword being searched is increased, they will start the ad automaticlly. For example a new product name which is just launched.
You're far better off splitting your keywords into adgroups from the beginning. That way you can build more relevant ads and increase CTR and reduce cost of clicks.
Update - I talked with a Google AdWords support person today, and asked whether there was a downside to having thousands of keyword combos that are inactive due to low search volume parked in an adgroup. The answer he gave was interesting - there is nothing wrong with doing this, but if these inactive keywords have lower quality scores than your active keywords, they would bring down the average quality score seen over your account. I assume he was implying that this lower average score could mean something, and I also assume this is in the context of your account history influencing each keyword QS calculation. In my case, so far the keywords in my test adgroup that are ineligible have a much higher average QS than my active keywords, so I'll leave them be until this changes. George
I have keywords that show low search volumes yet, get the most impressions in a group. So go figure. As stated, just a message which really doesn't mean much IMO. I don't put much weight into what a support person tells you. They're reading from scripts basically or to the best they recall from little training. I don't think many have much if any practical experience in Adwords. The "low QS keywords bring down the QS of other keywords in group/campaign/account" line is bull and from a script. There's no logical reason for this and no evidence to support this that I can uncover. So why say it? Could be a few reasons. One, throw people off so they don't reverse engineer the system. Two, true to some extent but the weight of this so small, you wouldn't notice, hence my saying there's no evidence. The reason your ineligible keywords have higher QS is because it doesn't have enough data to figure out a proper QS. They are after all low search volume. If they did, sounds like they wouldn't be high QS. I'd take a close look at your ads.
Hello George BRK, Interesting question and insight. Having thousands of keywords will not affect your quality score (QS) if they are relevant. However, your quality score is affected by the relevance of your site to those keywords, how easy it is to navigate your site, and your past and current click-through rate. Google explains how they calculate your score in the support section of their site. Here are three examples of what they use to calculate your QS- "The quality of your landing page: How relevant, transparent, and easy-to-navigate your page is Your keyword/ad relevance: How relevant your keyword is to your ads Your keyword/search relevance: How relevant your keyword is to what a customer searches for" Search Engine Land also has a blog post in which they explain in what instances too many keywords can be a problem. "There are keywords, often many, that make sense to you but that despite your best efforts don’t earn respectable quality scores in your account. (Let’s say anything less 6 is not respectable.) When this happens, there are three possible explanations: You have more work to do improving the attributes that really matter to quality score. Most people seem to assume this is their only option. AdWords could be making a mistake and assigning an incorrect quality score or applying some bad or mistaken information. That happens, but rarely, and if you can prove it you should take your case to your AdWords representative. The keyword in question just doesn’t work for you, and it should be paused or deleted. Prospects are telling you (it’s their actions that Google is measuring) that for whatever reason the queries being attracted or the ad copy you’ve written or the geographies you’ve targeted are not pleasing them. In effect they’re asking you to stop showing them uninteresting ads, and stop wasting your money – on the keyword as currently configured." The links to these pieces are listed below: http://searchengineland.com/why-google-adwords-quality-score-is-your-friend-77187 http://support.google.com/adwords/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2454010. Hope this information helps, Shawn
The searchengineland.com article was excellent. It has motivated me to take a deep dive into the world of QS. If I'm going to get serious about optimizing my PPC I think this is a necessity. Thanks for the info! George
Thank you GeorgeBRK, I'm glad it helped motivate you to dig deeper into the world of QS and learn as much as you can for your PPC efforts. I wish you the best of luck. For further reading on Quality Score, you might want to take a look at this blog post in Search Engine Watch: One part you might find especially useful is "Google has just activated a feature in AdWords which should save pay-per-click (PPC) advertisers' time diagnosing issues with their keyword quality score. Now, when you hover over the status bar of your keywords, a dialog box appears with 3 new quality score indicators. These indicators are for Expected Clickthrough Rate (CTR), Ad Relevance and Landing Page Experience and they are rated according to Below Average, Average and Above Average." SEOmoz also has a nice piece on relevance factors that affect your quality score. This is a sample- "Although the Quality Score for the [yourbrandhere] keyword is a 7, this should not be concerning. As a general guideline, if a Quality Score is above 5-6, the keyword is in good shape. I confirmed with the technical team that there are no backend issues with the keyword." Let's analyze the implications of this statement, shall we? The keyword in question (a unique brand name, if you're wondering about competition) has a quality score of 7/10. Currently, the top result costs X, and at a quality score of 10, the top result would cost (7/10)*X. A long-term savings of 30%. That's something everyone would love to see, but how do we get there?" Here are the links to those posts: http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/other-rel...gle-if-its-30-of-my-quality-score-let-me-know http://searchenginewatch.com/articl...rds-Quality-Score-with-Comparative-Indicators. Hope you find these helpful, Shawn
No it will not hurt quality score. keywords with low quality score will not trigger the ads. keeping these type of keywords in ad group will not penalize for anything.