PPC - When to dump non-converting keywords?

[gmartins]

Hi Guys n Gals,


When do you generally stop bidding on non-converting keywords?

Do you do it based on a #of clicks?
$ spent?

I am curious if there is an accepted rule of thumb like after you've spent the price of 2 sales on a keyword you should dump it or something to that effect.

Cheers,
G

[smorse1]

Sometimes, it might not be easy to determine - a keyword might be really good at "introducing" someone to your brand or product, and it might be the first to get the consumer into the conversion funnel, but it might be yet another keyword that actually closes the sale for you.
So by shutting down a keyword that has clicks but doesn't have any perceivable conversions, you might be inadvertently lowering conversion rates on other keywords.

Hope that makes sense. I have a software platform that allows me to monitor "assists" from keywords, so this helps immensely, especially when you are dealing with massive amounts of words.

[gmartins]

"So by shutting down a keyword that has clicks but doesn't have any perceivable conversions, you might be inadvertently lowering conversion rates on other keywords."

Interesting, how can you prove keyword "A" assisted with a sale based on keyword "B"??

[smorse1]

well...at work I have software that analyzes all the aspects of my PPC ads (I manage about 50k keywords). The software tells me how the keywords inter-relate, how many times someone visits before they convert, what the exact phrase is that they converted on (raw query) and a whole slew of other stats. Certain keywords tend to provide "assists" while others are conversion keywords. You might get some of this functionality from software like Wordtracker, but the software I use is pretty expensive.
My comment was meant to demonstrate that unless you dig a little deeper into the data, you might not be getting the whole picture on any given keyword.
I would say that, in general, if you don't see a positive return on your keyword after you have spent a couple of sales worth of $ on it, it's a safe bet to ditch it, but every situation is different.

[linkwhizz]

I generally keep bidding on non converting keywords as long as they have an acceptable Ctr. I aim for s campaign wide Ctr of at least 2%. force the Ctr up by dropping low Ctr keywords, this will bring your quality score up and so lower your cpc.
Which should lower your CPA!

Phew!

[MrWonton]

Smorse1 is absolutely correct, keywords near the top of the conversion funnel can be very important for driving awareness/consideration without directly driving conversions themselves.

The best way to determine what works and what doesn't is to test! Pause high cost, low conversion KWs and see if your conversions drop!

[gmartins]

@linkwhizz interesting, I've heard that it's true a higher CTR will reduce CPC, great idea dropping low CTR keywords to force the overall CTR thanks!


@mrwonton word, thanks will have to test it for sure