Adwords expert- insight needed

2 replies
  • SEO
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I admit, I am NOT an adwords gal. I need some help understanding some things.

I'm attaching a screenshot for reference.

First row at top (keywords removed, obviously).. it says my estimated top page bid is $1.75. So, why is the avg cpc $4.62?

Also, phrase, broad, exact- what do y'all mostly target?

In addition, the QS- some have great QS, some don't. I'm stumped, because the keywords couldn't be more relevant.

Also, enhanced, etc. Explanation, ANYTHING- throw me a bone!

Insight is MUCH appreciated.
#adwords #expert #insight #needed
  • Profile picture of the author dburk
    Hi digidoodles,

    The estimated top page bid is based on historical bids. If your competitors have higher QS then their bids will be lower. If there has been a recent influx of competition that can easily drive CPC higher than the data used for estimates.

    Your quality score is made up of performance metrics as well as relevancy scores. The bulk of QS comes from your CTR (aprox. 65%). If your CTR is below average for that keyword then your QS will take a hit. If you can get a higher than average CTR you can get a higher QS.

    I also noticed that you are using enhanced bidding. That may drive you CPC much higher for certain clicks that stand a better chance of converting. This is sometimes a good thing if it increases profits.

    What I can't see is the match type you are using, certain phrase match and broad match keywords will compete with other keywords that vary a great deal in average CPC. If your competitors, that use this same keyword, have effective use of negative match keywords they may have lower average CPC and that data has influenced the numbers you get from the estimate.

    One thing is certain, there seems to be some opportunities to improve your campaign to achieve better CPC. More compelling ad text will boost your CTR which in turn increases you QS and lowers you average CPC. Using exact match keywords and negative match keywords paired with phrase match keywords may improve CTR, QS and CPC. Generally speaking you should limit the use of broad match keywords as they are difficult to achieve good CTR, QS, CPC averages and conversion rates.

    Another thing I should say is that the amount of data represented in you screenshot isn't enough to make any reliable predictions from, it is just too little. Also, I should mention that the competition can vary a great deal based on geographic locations. So you may be targeting locations with high competition while the data used for estimates could include a lot of data from geographic regions with far less competition.
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  • Profile picture of the author petzergling
    The information above is good, just a few things I want to add in.

    With regards to keyword types (phrase, broad, exact), you want to experiment with all of them and see what works. Your best bet is to start with some phrase and some exact, and not mess with broad too much until you have a very strong list of negative keywords built up. Depending on how much traffic your keywords bring, you'll be able to narrow down your keywords to only using exact matches in some scenarios in which they earn a higher CTR or simply just convert better.

    With regards to quality score, when starting a new campaign, the three biggest influences are landing page relevancy, ad text relevancy, and CTR.
    CTR is pretty self explainitory, and with landing pages just make sure the keywords you use are mentioned on the site(landing page especially) atleast a couple times. If your site is mainly a catalog site selling products, be sure your images include alt text so that google can interpret your images as relevant. With ad text, when you begin showing an ad you want the specific ad text to be targeted to your exact keyword. Almost always with a new campaign, until you start messing with display network stuff and other very good ads, you want your ad title to completely match your exact keyword or be very close. This means if you are bidding on keywords "benefits of xyz" , "xyz household products", and "xyz safety", you want three different ad groups with different ad's titled for each keyword.

    GL with your ad campaign, I'm sorry im not too familiar with enhanced bidding, but if you are just starting off with a new campaign I would probably recommend individual manual bids for each specific keywords anyway
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