Something very ODD with AdWords Keyword Tool

[GeorgR.]

By coincedence i discovered a very good keyword, in a very saturated niche.

The keyword is a phrase with 6 words.

This is a phrase where NO ONE would expect low competition and low bids, figure "how can i make money" <---- EXAMPLE (not the actual phrase) so i was very surprised seeing the data keyword tool spit out.

I entered my phrase (phrase match!)

and it says avg search volume for phrase match 8100/month, NO competition and bis as low as it can get!

But the puzzling thing about this keyword is that it shows "not enough data" for the other monthly rows




So..i made a campaign, and i will monitor the ACTUAL impressions/clicks.

It is unlikely that this specific phrase has a LOW search volume since MANY searches would trigger this phrase, for sure.

I am just wondering why adwords keyword tool gives such odd data?

G.

Edit: this is NOT a "seasonal keyword"

Edit2: Did i find the holy adwords grail?

[lansing]

When you see "Not enough data" in one of the volume columns, then the corresponding Advertiser Competion graph, Avg CPC and the Ad Position numbers are often useless (I do not think they are not even calculated in most cases - adwords simply defaults to "1-3", ".05" and "none"). Sometimes the Competition column gets calculated and the others just get the default value.

Just my experience, I'm sure there are exceptions - I hope you found one. A six word phrase should be good for a few clicks

[ebuyer123]

Could that 8,100 KEYWORD search volume was contributed by only a couple of unique search (extreme example, all from 1 IP addpress... )?

[Bruce Hearder]

I have found that changing the match type to exact seems to bring back quite different numbers. Both in terms of searches and competition..

Worth trying and see what it says..

Bruce

[alby]

I would agree with bruce, change the parameter to an exact match and that should give you a more accurate picture of actual numbers. Phrase match means any search that contains that phrase, which, not knowing your the keywords, could be generic and not related to your website.

[dburk]

Hi GeorgR,

The "Phrase Match" option does not return the number of searches you would get if you were using that keyword phrase in AdWords campaign with phrase match keyword type.

Must people expect these numbers to match, but they don't. You can see the data you are looking for if you select the "Exact Match" option instead.

The Exact match option will show you the number searches that include that phrase. I know this is confusing, but this is how this tool works.

[IowaGal]

Based on the screenshot above, my first thought is that for some reason in the previous month is that a high-profile blog or website mentioned the phrase, it was a news story, or something to that effect.

Being as there is no history to it, and there are few if any advertisers competing for that phrase (which is a good indication that even though it might get searched on, it doesn't convert), I would probably test it out just to see what happens but I wouldn't have a lot of hope for the phrase.

- Kristine

[Nick.A]

Yes, the absence of any history does make the Search Volume figure of 8,100 a little suspect. But, you never know, you might have stumbled on a winner!

Check your 'Language' and 'Countries and Territories' settings too. These can influence the results considerably.

I would agree with others that the 'Match Type:' should be set to 'Exact' to give you a true figure for the number of searches made for that particular keyword phrase, or any other phrase you want to research.

I sometimes wonder whether the Google keyword tool's results include searches made via its API by 'PPC spying apps' such as SpyFu and the like. If that is the case, the figures given by the tool would be quite meaningless. Just a thought.