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New to PPC (AdWords)

by jgill
73 replies
  • PPC/SEM
    • |
Hi there,

As mentioned above I am somewhat new to AdWords. My company has shifted me into the role of PPC analyst. The last employee in this position had resigned months ago and it is up to me to play catch-up. After looking at the current campaigns (5 separate campaigns in different metropolitan areas), I decided to analyze some of the issues. As of January 1st, 2015 the CTR is 27.09% (seems a bit high?), with 1646 clicks and 6077 impressions. Hardly any of those clicks are converting (162).

Some of the campaigns in the high volume regions have 4 ad groups while others have 2. Also, these high volume region ad groups have upwards of 75 keywords per ad group. I figure this may be hurting the individual CTR and QS. After doing some more research I noticed that the previous employee had chosen "broad match" for every keyword. There is little to no usage of negative keywords.

After doing some research I am leaning towards restructuring the account to where each geo-targeted campaign is identical. Each ad group will contain the same keywords but the location filter will reduce cross-competition. Also, I have found that keeping each ad group to 10-15 relevant keywords is ideal.

It is my job to clean up the account and get the ball rolling. Let me know what other information you need and I will see if I can provide. Thanks for all your help in advance!
#adwords #ppc
  • Profile picture of the author dburk
    Hi jgill,

    High CTR is usually a good sign, and generally leads to good Quality Scores. What constitutes a good CTR varies for each niche and each keyword within the niche, but 27% is much higher than average for most niches.

    162 conversions out of 1642 clicks is about 9.9% conversions, again better than average for most eCommerce websites, however your niche might be far different then the average niche.

    If you currently have nothing but broad match keywords, and very few ad groups, there does seem to be plenty of room for improvement. However it might be a good ideal to setup an experiment to split test any changes you make to confirm that they actually lift conversions before fully committing to the new structure.

    My advice to you is don't look so much at the aggregate data, instead dig deeply into segments of your data to find insights into what your audience is responding to and why one thing works better than another. Those insights are what should guide your strategy going forward,
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  • Profile picture of the author jgill
    If you currently have nothing but broad match keywords, and very few ad groups, there does seem to be plenty of room for improvement. However it might be a good ideal to setup an experiment to split test any changes you make to confirm that they actually lift conversions before fully committing to the new structure.

    What changes would be best to try first? Add in negatives? Add in broad match modifiers? Delete some of the keywords with high impressions and low (or zero) clicks?

    And do I duplicate the campaigns when comparing OR do I run the campaign as a baseline, make changes, and then compare? How long (days, weeks, etc.) is necessary to yield significant results?

    My advice to you is don't look so much at the aggregate data, instead dig deeply into segments of your data to find insights into what your audience is responding to and why one thing works better than another. Those insights are what should guide your strategy going forward,

    I have analyzed some of the search term report queries to see what my target audience is searching prior to coming to the page. There are variations between what they search and what my keywords are. Should I structure my campaign based on a hybrid between what is searched and what is working as off now?


    Also, I have noticed that there are multiple CTR's that are about 100%. I'm not sure I understand the reasoning behind this. Is there any way to eliminate those numbers from effecting the true average?

    Thanks.
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Originally Posted by jgill View Post

      If you currently have nothing but broad match keywords, and very few ad groups, there does seem to be plenty of room for improvement. However it might be a good ideal to setup an experiment to split test any changes you make to confirm that they actually lift conversions before fully committing to the new structure.

      What changes would be best to try first? Add in negatives? Add in broad match modifiers? Delete some of the keywords with high impressions and low (or zero) clicks?

      And do I duplicate the campaigns when comparing OR do I run the campaign as a baseline, make changes, and then compare? How long (days, weeks, etc.) is necessary to yield significant results?

      My advice to you is don't look so much at the aggregate data, instead dig deeply into segments of your data to find insights into what your audience is responding to and why one thing works better than another. Those insights are what should guide your strategy going forward,

      I have analyzed some of the search term report queries to see what my target audience is searching prior to coming to the page. There are variations between what they search and what my keywords are. Should I structure my campaign based on a hybrid between what is searched and what is working as off now?


      Also, I have noticed that there are multiple CTR's that are about 100%. I'm not sure I understand the reasoning behind this. Is there any way to eliminate those numbers from effecting the true average?

      Thanks.
      Hi jgill,

      Analyse your Search terms report and look for any search terms that are not relevant and add those as negative match keywords.

      Next, add any search terms that are triggering multiple ad impressions, if not already added, to your campaign. Be sure to add both exact and phrase match keywords for any terms that get frequent searches, creating new ad groups where necessary.

      If you have keywords getting high impressions, but few or no clicks, pause them and examine the ads for the ad group they are contained within. You might need to split those keywords into separate ad groups and write ads that are specific to the searcher's intent when searching terms triggered by that keyword.

      Don't try to create hybrid ad groups, you want each ad group to be highly specific, each ad within an ad group highly specific to the keywords within.

      The trouble with broad match keywords is that you get too many related keywords that aren't highly specific to your ads, don't rely on broad match keywords. Instead look for all those terms and add them into ad groups of very similar keywords so that each ad group can have ad text that exactly matches the intent of the searcher.

      Try to use the Campaign Experiments feature wherever practical, it allows you to test changes to your account on a portion of the auctions that your ads participate in. Run your experiments long enough to see a statistically significant difference, or until it is obvious that there is no significant difference.

      Don't be too concerned about those 100% CTR stats, those are typically only seen on keywords with a very small number of clicks. If you want to remove them from your reports during analysis, just apply a filter to only show data from keywords with say 50 or more clicks and that should make for a more valid set of data. You shouldn't be making decisions based on extremely small data sets anyway, so that is generally a good practice.

      HTH,
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  • Profile picture of the author LucidWebMarketing
    Originally Posted by jgill View Post

    the CTR is 27.09% (seems a bit high?), with 1646 clicks and 6077 impressions. Hardly any of those clicks are converting (162).
    Seems high??? The whole point of advertising is to get as many people as possible through the door. All else being equal, that means more sales. If you only want 13.5% CTR, you'll have about half the number of sales.

    Also, since Quality Score is heavily tied to CTR, it improves your QS. That in turn helps improve your ad position and reduces or keeps in check your CPC.

    As for "hardly any conversions", 162 over 1646 is almost a 10% conversion rate. I don't know what a conversion for you is but if it's a physical product, that is great. I've got a client over 6% last month for first time. That's starting from about 1% four years ago and improving the campaign as well as the site, we reached that level. The goal at first was doubling (wasn't too hard to do) then 4% in 2013 (met) and 5% last year (also met) so I'm tempted to make 6% the goal this year.

    Now if these are signups of some kind, yeah, could be low.

    You mention only the use of broad match. Yes, I'd change that. Don't know about your QS or that you have 75 keywords, I don't know the details. But seems there's room for improvement. There always is, or at least you should try to improve even for a campaign doing well. That does not mean you have to start from scratch. Seems the previous guy or gal did a few things right, you have to learn from that, dig deep.
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  • Profile picture of the author jgill
    I am with you that a 27.09% CTR is good. I am just not sure if that number is true or if I am getting some false readings (noted above with 200% CTR on certain keywords.

    Another problem I am having is deciphering the conversion tracking method. Is there a way to simplify this information? 22 of conversion actions are either unverified or are noted as "no activity recorded within 30 days." Only two metrics are reporting: calls (lead category) and a web search pertaining to the company's webpage (tracked by google analytics). Since my company considers signups/calls/inquiries and does not sell physical products, what do you think I should do?

    After more research I have found that the low budget is affecting the ability to run the campaigns throughout the day. Should I reset the max CPC bid and let google automatically bid on these keywords?

    Thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author LucidWebMarketing
    CTRs above 100% are a fairly common occurrence and by that I mean once in 100,000. You notice them of course when there's only one impression. I think you may find a discussion here way back when about this phenomenon. You can trust the numbers to be as accurate as they can be. There's millions of impressions each minute and I don't expect even Google to have 100% accuracy. But it's probably 99.99999% accurate.

    What's more fun is seeing an impression with no clicks (and no cost) with a conversion. I've seen those too a couple of times and I've seen a conversion with no clicks as well. Yes, it was legitimate and there was indeed a conversion. Basically, a cost-free sale, at least according to the Adwords data.

    As I don't know any specifics, I can't really advise on what to do about conversions. Each situation can be different. All I can say is, what is the most important action that should be tracked. Typically, that's an actual sale that brings in revenues. Some businesses don't sell physical products that you can buy online so you have to figure out what the next best thing is. One client has nationwide franchises with basically one page for all with a "find closest dealer by entering zip code" and that's what we track.

    If the campaign is profitable, my suggestion is always to have a budget that will ensure that 100% of searches for all keywords will be reached. There's no reason to have ads showing less than that. So if you show only 50% of the time, double your budget.
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  • Profile picture of the author jgill
    I have been using some other tools and websites to help in auditing my campaign. Currently OPTMYZR has provided me with some interesting findings. My impression share throughout the week (on an hour-by-hour basis) has an extreme amount of variation. It is my understanding that you want your impression shares to remain steady throughout the day. I would post a picture of the graph is y'all would like (and notify me how).

    Also, I have noticed that some of my display URL's are broken (404 Error). Does this mean I need to set up a re-direct so that the link works again? The destination URL's are fine.
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    • Profile picture of the author LucidWebMarketing
      Originally Posted by jgill View Post

      My impression share throughout the week (on an hour-by-hour basis) has an extreme amount of variation
      I would not worry about that. It's likely normal. But do go by numbers reported in your Adwords account, not a third party.

      What are your Delivery method settings? My guess is you probably have it at accelerated which would contribute to that in part.

      >> my display URL's are broken (404 Error)

      Sounds like the previous manager added a dummy page to the display URL. In other words, in order to highlight the keyword, it was tacked on to the display URL such as www.example.com/keyword. But there is no such page on that domain. I assume you happened to type or copy it in your browser to discover this.

      This is legal (for now) but I do suggest to either create such a page in case someone types that URL in themselves or not use that tactic which may or not not work. Chances of someone typing it in are low however.
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  • Profile picture of the author jgill
    LucidWeb and dburk,

    What are your Delivery method settings? My guess is you probably have it at accelerated which would contribute to that in part.

    The delivery setting methods are set on standard for now. Ad scheduling however, is limited on some campaigns. Mostly to the 8am-7pm time frames. With weekends running all 24 hours (except for a campaign that is paused during weekends).

    The trouble with broad match keywords is that you get too many related keywords that aren't highly specific to your ads, don't rely on broad match keywords. Instead look for all those terms and add them into ad groups of very similar keywords so that each ad group can have ad text that exactly matches the intent of the searcher.

    Are you saying that I should make multiple ad groups with 5-10 closely keywords (exact match)? Trying to narrow down these keywords is tough.

    Thanks
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Hi jgill,

      Yes, create ad groups with closely related keywords, in fact make sure the keywords in the ad group are so close in meaning that they are barely distinguishable from each other.

      Don't get hung up on the exact number of keywords that should be in an ad group, in some cases it might be a single keyword, in others it might be a dozen of more keywords that are nearly identical. Your goal isn't the number of keywords, your goal is to have keywords that all mean exactly the same thing and that you have written ad text tailored to the exact intent of the search term that triggers the ad impression.

      And yes, creating all of those extra ad groups can be a lot of work, but you must realize you are in a competition for ad space, and you are competing not only based on bids, but also based on keyword Quality Scores. A highly granular campaign structure is crucial for top performance.
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  • Profile picture of the author jgill
    I am trying to conduct an A/B test with the ACE feature on AdWords. However, my ads are not showing because "Your ad isn't being shown for this keyword because there may be other ads within your account that are ranked higher and have similar keywords."

    This does not make ANY sense to me at all.
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  • Profile picture of the author jgill
    Just as an aside, my campaign is set up into 4 geotargeted campaigns. Each campaign has identical ad groups, just different targets. Ad copy is tailored to specific city but content is the same.
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Hi jgill,

      You could be getting that message because you are using various match types for the same keyword, If so, make sure that your exact match bids are higher than your phrase match bids for the same keyword, and also make sure that your phrase match bids are higher than your broad match keywords. also, consider using extended broad match rather than regular broad match keywords.

      Personally, I like to separate my match types into separate ad groups and add negative phrase match to the broad match group and negative exact to the phrase match ad group. It's a lot more work to setup initially, but makes it easy to prevent match types from competing with each other.

      Also, you may want to check your campaigns for accidentally duplicated keywords, the AdWords Editor has a duplicate keyword finder.
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      • Profile picture of the author jgill
        So in this case. Say I have 4 geo-targeted campaigns with 4 ad groups each. Currently giving me 16 ad groups per campaign. If I were to create a new file for each existing ad group (based on match types - Exact, Phrase, Broad) then I would now have 48 groups? And there can be duplicate keywords between the Exact and Broad?

        Would the new ad groups need mutually exclusive adds or can there be overlap?
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  • Profile picture of the author jgill
    Disregard this post.
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    • Profile picture of the author reln
      What do you mean by "converted"?

      Users signed up for the option to win a free iPad or users came to your site and made a purchase?
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  • Profile picture of the author jgill
    So I took each ad group that I had and broke those up into subgroups based on match type.

    Example:
    Campaign New York Geo-target
    Ad Group Office Space - Exact
    Ad Group Office Space - Broad (including modifiers)
    Ad Group Office Space - Phrase Match

    Each ad group has the exact same keywords. I have noticed that the QS on each of these keywords has dropped, however. Anyone know why?

    I also have the exact same 3-4 ad copies for each ad group.

    Thanks,
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Originally Posted by jgill View Post

      So I took each ad group that I had and broke those up into subgroups based on match type.

      Example:
      Campaign New York Geo-target
      Ad Group Office Space - Exact
      Ad Group Office Space - Broad (including modifiers)
      Ad Group Office Space - Phrase Match

      Each ad group has the exact same keywords. I have noticed that the QS on each of these keywords has dropped, however. Anyone know why?

      I also have the exact same 3-4 ad copies for each ad group.

      Thanks,
      Hi jgill,

      When I split my ad groups by match type I also include negative phase match keywords in the Broad group, and negative exact in the Phrase group. That is done to prevent the ad groups from competing with each other for the same search terms.

      Example:
      Campaign New York Geo-target
      Ad Group Office Space - Exact
      Keywords: [new york office space], [office space in new york]

      Ad Group Office Space - Broad (including modifiers)
      Keywords: +new +york +office +space, -"new york office space", -"office space in new york"

      Ad Group Office Space - Phrase Match
      Keywords: "new york office space", "office space in new york", -[new york office space], -[office space in new york]

      You see? This way none of the ad groups will compete with the other in the same auction.

      About your drop in Quality Score, the most likely reason for that is a drop in relative CTR. That could be due to not having the proper negative match keywords listed, or ad text that is less compelling to your audience, or it could simply be that your competitors have improved their CTR quicker then you have.
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  • Profile picture of the author LucidWebMarketing
    I don't split groups into match types. If you want to structure this way, have at it. But I don't see that there is any benefits at all.

    For one thing, the Adwords system will use the best matching option. It just doesn't randomly choose which keyword to trigger your ads on. There's a specific sequence starting with exact, then phrase then broad match. It doesn't matter if you've split your groups that way or if the keywords are in the same group.

    Effectively in your example, these are all the same keywords. Your groups don't "compete" against each other since the system will choose the closest best option. Having the negatives really is not necessary and I don't think does much of anything useful. So "new york office space" is not competing with [new york office space], no matter the group or negatives you may have.

    It's not groups or keywords that "compete", it's the ads. And since jgill says he uses the same ads in all groups, this is no different then if there was one group with all match types in it. At the very least, take advantage that you split groups by match types and have different ads in each. It is my experience that most advertisers will gravitate to the same better performing ad or two in these groups so splitting this way becomes moot. As I said, they are in effect the same keywords so the same ads will tend to be the best performers in each group.

    You say you use the same 3-4 ads in each group. I take that as meaning you have 3-4 active ads. I suggest testing only 2 ads at a time. Also, don't copy and test different ads in each group. Take advantage of the way you are structuring your campaign and learn from it. You won't if you simply copy stuff. I don't structure this way and no real harm in doing so, although I find it's more work and complicates doing analysis but mostly that there's no major benefit.

    QS is not static. Your QS is influenced by your results as well as those of competitors and each changes after every search, even by a little bit but over time, lots of little bits add up to a big bit. Smart advertisers are not standing still and neither should you.
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Hi Lucid,

      I do agree with some of what you said but not all of it.

      For one thing, the Adwords system will use the best matching option. It just doesn't randomly choose which keyword to trigger your ads on. There's a specific sequence starting with exact, then phrase then broad match. It doesn't matter if you've split your groups that way or if the keywords are in the same group.
      I have tested that theory and found that AdWords will always use the keyword with the highest ad rank, regardless of match type. It is easy to see evidence of this by examining your Search Terms report. While it is true that AdWords doesn't select randomly, it does always select the option that makes the most money for AdWords, and not necessarily the keyword match type you would have preferred. Not splitting by match type reduces the granularity of your individual keyword bidding strategy, albeit only slightly.

      I agree that you do not need to split the ad groups up by match type, as long as the various match types of the same keyword are contained within the same ad group they do not compete with each other, at least not in regards to driving up CPC within the auction. However I do see phrase and broad match keywords get selected over exact match keywords on occasion so that can have a minor effect on CTR and the resulting Quality Scores for individual keywords, often driving the QS for broad match keywords slightly higher than it would merit when separated. This tends to level out the quality scores for the various match types, while separating them will allow the exact match keywords to achieve slightly higher quality scores when merited.

      So, it tends to be a complex strategy, with marginal improvements, and as such I only recommend it in intensely competitive niches where a lot of volume and profit are at stake. Otherwise, it is just too much extra work. Not so much for me as I have developed tools that automatically build-out campaigns the exact way I need them.

      In any event, if you do decide to split keywords by match type into separate ad groups, you do need to add the appropriate negative match keywords to prevent them from competing. In AdWords the ads are limited in scope to the ad group container, as a result the same ad id cannot exist in more than one ad group. While you can use the exact same ad text, AdWords sees the ad as a separate and unique ad, and the separate ad groups do in fact compete with each other if they can be triggered by the same search term. And while the losing ad is filtered from displaying, you are indeed driving up your CPC unnecessarily. I have performed tests that validate this conclusion.
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  • Profile picture of the author LucidWebMarketing
    Hi Don.

    Adwords has said that the same keyword in all match types are treated the same. They therefore all have the same QS, at least if they are all in the same ad group. There may be differences because they are in different groups but using the same ads, they essentially should have the same QS.

    They have also said that there's a priority in why keyword will trigger the ad. That's as I said from exact to broad. The system is trying to find the closest and best match of your keyword to the search term. I don't see any evidence in the search term reports to the contrary so we are not seeing the same thing and coming to different conclusions.

    When I look at the search term report of a phrase match keyword, there is no evidence that it triggered on an exact match search. Same for the exact match type: the search term used is an exact match and there's no impressions on a term that should be a phrase match. Same for the broad match. The keyword that triggered the ad is working exactly as they said and as expected as I see it.

    Even on the one campaign I have where the client insisted on splitting campaigns along match types, I see no evidence in the search term report. There are no exact and broad match negatives either and this for two-word keywords. Again, my conclusion is that the system is working just as intended. Not saying however that's always been the case but right now it is.
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Originally Posted by LucidWebMarketing View Post

      Hi Don.

      Adwords has said that the same keyword in all match types are treated the same. They therefore all have the same QS, at least if they are all in the same ad group. There may be differences because they are in different groups but using the same ads, they essentially should have the same QS.
      Hi Lucid,

      That is exactly the point that prompted me to experiment with separating keywords by match type. Why settle for an average QS when you can split them and optimize bids at a more granular level, not only for improving QS, but also for increased conversion efficiency?

      Originally Posted by LucidWebMarketing View Post

      They have also said that there's a priority in why keyword will trigger the ad. That's as I said from exact to broad. The system is trying to find the closest and best match of your keyword to the search term. I don't see any evidence in the search term reports to the contrary so we are not seeing the same thing and coming to different conclusions.
      As long as the Quality Scores are the same for each match type then yes, the order of priority will prevail. You are not going to see any differences until you have ran the keywords in separate ad groups long enough for unique match type CTRs to vary Quality Scores.


      Originally Posted by LucidWebMarketing View Post

      When I look at the search term report of a phrase match keyword, there is no evidence that it triggered on an exact match search. Same for the exact match type: the search term used is an exact match and there's no impressions on a term that should be a phrase match. Same for the broad match. The keyword that triggered the ad is working exactly as they said and as expected as I see it.

      Even on the one campaign I have where the client insisted on splitting campaigns along match types, I see no evidence in the search term report. There are no exact and broad match negatives either and this for two-word keywords. Again, my conclusion is that the system is working just as intended. Not saying however that's always been the case but right now it is.
      The keyword column is disabled by default in the search terms report, if you use the Custom Columns feature to enable the keyword column you can see precisely which keyword triggered impressions for the search terms listed.

      Also note that the Quality Scores generally vary on only 10-20% of the different keyword match types, however the CTRs and Conversion rates tend to vary on most all of the keyword match types, which presents an opportunity for more granular bid optimizations, which is possible with ad groups that include all match types. However you are losing out on a slightly more granular method when keyword match types earn differing Quality Scores.

      As I pointed out in my previous reply, the improvements are only marginal, however small incremental improvements do tend to accumulate into significant advantages over long periods of time. I attribute this advanced technique as one of the things that has to helped me achieve weighted average QS of 9/10 for accounts with hundreds of thousands of keywords. though for a smaller, younger account your time is better spent focused on improving ad text, checkout funnels, and other conversion rate optimization efforts on your website content.
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  • Profile picture of the author jgill
    Last Friday I had expanded one of my geo-targeted ad groups into 4 different ad groups: original (including all match types and old keywords), broad match only, exact match only, and phrase match only. I feel as though my results are inconclusive.

    -The original group accumulated 918 impressions, 19 clicks, and 2 conversions.
    -The broad match group accrued 23 impressions and 0 clicks.
    -The exact match group accrued 1 impression and 0 clicks.
    -The phrase match group accrued 1 impression and 0 clicks.

    Obviously, I am not satisfied with these numbers. I am curious if there is anything I am doing wrong?
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    • Profile picture of the author jgill
      My broad match type campaign is doing just as well (click-wise) as the original campaign. However, the exact match and phrase match have no clicks. Any advice?
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Originally Posted by jgill View Post

      Last Friday I had expanded one of my geo-targeted ad groups into 4 different ad groups: original (including all match types and old keywords), broad match only, exact match only, and phrase match only. I feel as though my results are inconclusive.

      -The original group accumulated 918 impressions, 19 clicks, and 2 conversions.
      -The broad match group accrued 23 impressions and 0 clicks.
      -The exact match group accrued 1 impression and 0 clicks.
      -The phrase match group accrued 1 impression and 0 clicks.

      Obviously, I am not satisfied with these numbers. I am curious if there is anything I am doing wrong?
      Hi jgill,

      Yes, I would say something is wrong when only 25 impressions have been generated since you restructured the account. The drop in impressions may be due to a drop in Quality Scores, or an issue with your bidding and budgeting.

      Share your daily budget setting, your ad group and/or individual keyword Max CPC bids and we'll give advice on those as potential issues.

      Also, please check and share your keyword Quality Scores, so we can rule that out, or in, as the culprit. Since Quality Scores seem to adjust after about 1000 impressions I suspect that you have a Quality Score issue.
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      • Profile picture of the author jgill
        Daily Budget - $75/day, focus on clicks - use maximum CPC (set $15.50)

        Original ad group quality scores:
        QS8 = 1
        QS7 = 20
        QS6 = 45
        QS5= 56
        QS4= 5

        New ad group (broad match only) quality scores:
        QS7 = 13
        QS6 = 5
        QS5 = 2
        QS4 = 2

        New ad group (phrase match only) quality scores:
        QS9 = 1
        QS7 = 14
        QS6 = 6

        New ad group (exact match only) quality scores:
        QS9 = 1
        QS7 = 14
        QS6 = 6
        QS4 = 1


        So far the impressions and clicks between the three new groups have surmounted to 5,0 (exact match), 15,0 (phrase match), 281,6 (broad match).

        Seeing as how the ads have only ran a few day I am surprised out how much the broad match type group has outpaced the other two groups. Insights greatly appreciated.
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        • Profile picture of the author dburk
          Originally Posted by jgill View Post

          Daily Budget - $75/day, focus on clicks - use maximum CPC (set $15.50)

          Original ad group quality scores:
          QS8 = 1
          QS7 = 20
          QS6 = 45
          QS5= 56
          QS4= 5

          New ad group (broad match only) quality scores:
          QS7 = 13
          QS6 = 5
          QS5 = 2
          QS4 = 2

          New ad group (phrase match only) quality scores:
          QS9 = 1
          QS7 = 14
          QS6 = 6

          New ad group (exact match only) quality scores:
          QS9 = 1
          QS7 = 14
          QS6 = 6
          QS4 = 1


          So far the impressions and clicks between the three new groups have surmounted to 5,0 (exact match), 15,0 (phrase match), 281,6 (broad match).

          Seeing as how the ads have only ran a few day I am surprised out how much the broad match type group has outpaced the other two groups. Insights greatly appreciated.
          Hi jgill,

          I think you may have a slight misconception of how Quality Scores are displayed in your account. QS is assigned to the individual keyword, not the ad group. It doesn't matter if you move the keyword to a different ad group the QS travels with the keyword. Comparing QS on the same keyword, in different ad groups, is futile, since they are one and the same.

          Also, an important thing to understand is that the AdWords interface shows you the current QS for the keyword, not what it used to be. The historical QS is not stored in AdWords, so it cannot be displayed in reports generated within the AdWords system becasue they do not store historical QS data.

          What that means in your case is that you could have suffered a drop in QS, and not be aware that it happened, unless you have been recording and storing your historical QS data, you have no way to know, unless you have a photographic memory.

          The fact that most of your traffic is being generated by your broad match keywords points to significant optimization opportunities within your account. Many of those search terms being triggered by your broad match keywords will need to be added as phrase and exact keywords if relevant, or as negative match keywords if irrelevant. That should be your primary focus for optimization. Not that there aren't many other things that may need to be optimized, just you need to get the keywords right before spending too much time on other issues.
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          • Profile picture of the author jgill
            dburk and LucidWeb,


            I have deleted all keyword-related landing pages. Thanks for that tidbit of advice!


            I think you may have a slight misconception of how Quality Scores are displayed in your account. QS is assigned to the individual keyword, not the ad group. It doesn't matter if you move the keyword to a different ad group the QS travels with the keyword. Comparing QS on the same keyword, in different ad groups, is futile, since they are one and the same.

            Yes, my keywords have the same quality score across campaigns (given that the match type is the same. However, keywords within my campaigns have varying QS. I am assuming this is due to the match type? For example, office rental = 7/10, [office rental] = 6/10, and "office rental" = 6/10. So there is some variation depending upon match type. Or at least that is my interpretation of the account.


            Also, an important thing to understand is that the AdWords interface shows you the current QS for the keyword, not what it used to be. The historical QS is not stored in AdWords, so it cannot be displayed in reports generated within the AdWords system becasue they do not store historical QS data.

            I have downloaded excel reports prior to making any bulk keywords changes within my account. I am using those numbers as my baseline. I have noticed some variation. But these changes have not even been on my page for a week yet. From what research I have done, Google does not make changes to QS until 1000 impressions have accrued. Also, Google bases QS and CPC off of historical data. So in that case I just need to wait, I assume.


            The fact that most of your traffic is being generated by your broad match keywords points to significant optimization opportunities within your account. Many of those search terms being triggered by your broad match keywords will need to be added as phrase and exact keywords if relevant, or as negative match keywords if irrelevant. That should be your primary focus for optimization.

            Just so I understand. You are suggesting that I create a search term report within the broad match ad group and review the queries. If relevant to my business, ad them to my exact/phrase match ad groups, and if not, nix them?

            Thank you both for all of your help!
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            • Profile picture of the author dburk
              Originally Posted by jgill View Post

              Just so I understand. You are suggesting that I create a search term report within the broad match ad group and review the queries. If relevant to my business, ad them to my exact/phrase match ad groups, and if not, nix them?
              Hi jgill,

              If by "nix them" you mean add the irrelevant keywords as a negative match keyword, at the campaign or ad group level, then yes, that is exactly what I mean.

              That is a fundamental task of campaign management and should be done on a scheduled routine for proper campaign management.

              This video explains and shows you how to use the search terms report:

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  • Profile picture of the author LucidWebMarketing
    Hi Don.

    Do you really think that the QS between the "office space new york" and [office space new york] groups to be that much different? I don't think it will.

    >> As long as the Quality Scores are the same for each match type then yes, the order of priority will prevail.

    So why would it not if they were in separate groups? This would mean that the system's logic is out the window just because you split groups based on match types. I don't think so.
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Originally Posted by LucidWebMarketing View Post

      Hi Don.

      Do you really think that the QS between the "office space new york" and [office space new york] groups to be that much different? I don't think it will.

      >> As long as the Quality Scores are the same for each match type then yes, the order of priority will prevail.

      So why would it not if they were in separate groups? This would mean that the system's logic is out the window just because you split groups based on match types. I don't think so.
      Hi Lucid,

      Yes, indeed. I would expect the Quality Score to differ for those two different match types. The reason they will likely vary is because those 2 different match types will trigger different sets of search terms, and those different sets of search terms will have differing levels of competition, and different CTRs. So the QS earned for each keyword will be independant from the other. Sure it might be the same in some cases, but in others it will be different. I have loads of data that have proven that to me.

      Don't take my word for it, test the hypothesis for yourself. It is relatively easy to confirm. However, you must use a large enough dataset to get a valid conclusion from your test. Perhaps that is why you have yet to see what I am referring too?
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  • Profile picture of the author LucidWebMarketing
    jgill, there could be many reasons your impressions went down.

    You say you made the change on Friday and reported on Monday. Could your niche be the type that there are naturally less searches on the weekends?

    I'm assuming you did not change any settings but it would be good to know if you did. Maybe you did so inadvertently.

    The likely reason your broad gets more impressions is that people search in your niche in varied and likely unusual fashions. They rarely use the phrase or exact match. Of course, without knowing more details, this is all speculation but based on assumptions and experience.

    What I'm concerned however is your last post of wildly different QS from 4s to 9s within groups. This to me suggests your keywords are probably not segmented enough and that you have different themed keywords.
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    • Profile picture of the author jgill
      Lucid,

      I have previously looked into the daily time-series differences over that last few years of the AdWords campaign. It seems as though weekends, albeit not as high, do yield some impressions.

      As for changes, I have paused a few keywords that could be classified as historical under-performers.
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  • Profile picture of the author jgill
    Back again with another question for you guys.

    I recently optimized some of my landing pages with keywords relevant/identical to those within my campaigns. However, when I go to the Keywords tab,customize columns, add "landing page" there are some very old web pages that are not relevant to the company anymore. In fact, a lot of these web pages are 404. Must I go into each keyword landing page and manually edit these changes? Please let me know.

    I am confused as to what the difference is between the landing page/destination url within the Ad and the landing page listed under specific keywords.

    Thanks.
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Originally Posted by jgill View Post

      Back again with another question for you guys.

      I recently optimized some of my landing pages with keywords relevant/identical to those within my campaigns. However, when I go to the Keywords tab,customize columns, add "landing page" there are some very old web pages that are not relevant to the company anymore. In fact, a lot of these web pages are 404. Must I go into each keyword landing page and manually edit these changes? Please let me know.

      I am confused as to what the difference is between the landing page/destination url within the Ad and the landing page listed under specific keywords.

      Thanks.
      Hi Again jgill,

      Each ad has a destination URL (or Final URL), and optionally you can designate a different landing page URL for specific keywords within the ad group. If you have a well structured account you generally will not need to specify unique landing pages at the individual keyword level.

      If you have invalid landing page URLs you should definitely fix those. I recommend using the AdWords Editor desktop app to make bulk changes of that type. If you no longer need to use keyword specific landing pages you can remove them all in less than 2 minutes using the AdWords Editor tool.
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  • Profile picture of the author LucidWebMarketing
    Keyword landing page URL overrides the ad landing page URL. I never use the keyword LP. That should be driven by the ad, except if there's a really, really good reason to do so and that's never happened. I'm surprised you did not get a message from Google telling you your pages were 404.

    My suggestion is to delete the URL on each keyword. That will reset everything I believe but seems at this point, you have no choice and you are rebuilding anyway.

    To Don:

    Yes, I agree except for two things. Google has said that a keyword's QS is based on it matching the search exactly. They've always been vague and can take a minute to get your head around this (and I still sometimes have difficulty) but I always took it as, your "office space new york" keyword will be compared to historical click rates when the search term is exactly that. So even if the search term was "1000 sf office space new york", your CTR (and thus QS) is compared to the results when people searched exactly "office space new york". Therefore, I don't expect the QS to be different in each group, provided the ads are the same. That last part is important: you need to compare the same ads. QS is dependent on the keyword-ad combination, not just the keyword.

    Of course, if you use the same ads in both groups, what's the point? I do have such a campaign, created that way on client's insistence. Yep, the QS are different (7 and 8) but the ads are not at all the same, those in one group getting nearly twice the click rate (relatively same position). A small campaign is not so bad but I certainly would not do that with another with nearly 20,000 products.
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  • Profile picture of the author jgill
    Thanks, dburk!

    I have added plenty of irrelevant keywords to my negative keywords group.

    The only two remaining issues I have:

    1) I separated my main campaign into three "subcampaigns" based upon their match type. The exact and phrase match do not seem to be generating any clicks at all. However, the broad match is generating more than the original.

    2) The analytics conversion tracking is not working correctly. I have no way of tracking conversions and therefore, cannot tell if the clicks I am acquiring are of any benefit to the company. I will be speaking with an adwords consultant from Google about this issue. Our guess is that the launch of out new website has lead to faulty placement of URLs (wrong position, duplicate implants, etc.)


    Thanks!
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  • Profile picture of the author jgill
    Would one of you be willing to show me an example structure of a successful campaign/ad group?

    I still feel as though having 25-50 keywords per ad group is too many and having a negative impact on my quality score due to the broad scope of the campaign.
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Originally Posted by jgill View Post

      Would one of you be willing to show me an example structure of a successful campaign/ad group?

      I still feel as though having 25-50 keywords per ad group is too many and having a negative impact on my quality score due to the broad scope of the campaign.
      I agree, having 25-50 keywords per ad group is usually way too many for a search network campaign, in my opinion. You need smaller more tightly focused ad groups so that you can write very specific ad text that speaks to the intent of the searcher using the exact language of the searcher.

      25-50 keywords is the general recommended number for Display Network campaigns, Perhaps you have confused Display with Search for ad group size?

      Here are a couple examples of how I might structure ad groups with keywords separated by match types:

      Match types separated by ad group
      =======================================
      Campaign Name Ad Group Name Keyword KW Match Type
      =======================================
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Broad) +new +york + city +office +space Broad
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Broad) new york city office space Negative Phrase
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Phrase) new york city office space Phrase
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Phrase) new york city office space Negative Exact
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Exact) new york city office space Exact
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Broad) +new +york +office +space Broad
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Broad) new york office space Negative Phrase
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Phrase) new york office space Phrase
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Phrase) new york office space Negative Exact
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Exact) new york office space Exact
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Broad) +nyc +office +space Broad
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Broad) nyc office space Negative Phrase
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Phrase) nyc office space Phrase
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Phrase) nyc office space Negative Exact
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Exact) nyc office space Exact
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Broad) office space nyc Negative Phrase
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Phrase) office space nyc Phrase
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Phrase) office space nyc Negative Exact
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Exact) office space nyc Exact
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Broad) office space in nyc Negative Phrase
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Phrase) office space in nyc Phrase
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Phrase) office space in nyc Negative Exact
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Exact) office space in nyc Exact
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Broad) office space in new york Negative Phrase
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Phrase) office space in new york Phrase
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Phrase) office space in new york Negative Exact
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Exact) office space in new york Exact
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Broad) office space in new york city Negative Phrase
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Phrase) office space in new york city Phrase
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Phrase) office space in new york city Negative Exact
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Exact) office space in new york city Exact
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Broad) office space new york city Negative Phrase
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Phrase) office space new york city Phrase
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Phrase) office space new york city Negative Exact
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Exact) office space new york city Exact
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Broad) office space nyc Negative Phrase
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Phrase) office space nyc Phrase
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Phrase) office space nyc Negative Exact
      New York Office Space NYC Office Space (Exact) office space nyc Exact

      This is one ad group split into 3, by keyword match type. I pulled this data from a tool I use to create ad group data for import into AdWords Editor. You can simply copy and paste the text above to import same into you AdWords Editor to view it there.
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      • Profile picture of the author jgill
        dburk,

        I noticed in your example of keyword structure (which I highly appreciate) you only had 3 broad match modifier keywords within that ad group. Do you have an explanation as to why? Is fewer better when it comes to broad match?
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        • Profile picture of the author dburk
          Hi Jgill,

          Yes, I have tried using standard broad match and modified broad match. We always get lots of irrelevant search terms triggering ads when using standard broad match. By using modified broad match we get much closer to mostly relevant search terms. Since all of the appropriate keywords for the this particular ad group is covered by those 3 modified broad match keywords the redundant keywords were dropped.

          One of the objectives we work towards is getting nearly all ads triggered by exact or phrase match keywords, and as many as practical to be triggered by exact match keywords. The broad match keywords just serve to help us discover any search terms that we have missed so that we can add those to the campaign. The phrase match keywords helps us to discover longer phrases that are commonly searched and to catch the uncommon terms that are searched infrequently. If we see a term getting multiple searches per week we usually go ahead and add it to the campaign. This allows for more granular optimization of individual search terms.
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  • Profile picture of the author mystechdynamics
    Hi Jgill,

    Please take note that the monthly average searches of keywords will differ from one region to another. Make sure to bid on keywords that have higher monthly searches. It's not necessary to have the same keywords in all regions.

    Take note of the negative keywords too.

    Originally Posted by jgill View Post

    Hi there,

    As mentioned above I am somewhat new to AdWords. My company has shifted me into the role of PPC analyst. The last employee in this position had resigned months ago and it is up to me to play catch-up. After looking at the current campaigns (5 separate campaigns in different metropolitan areas), I decided to analyze some of the issues. As of January 1st, 2015 the CTR is 27.09% (seems a bit high?), with 1646 clicks and 6077 impressions. Hardly any of those clicks are converting (162).

    Some of the campaigns in the high volume regions have 4 ad groups while others have 2. Also, these high volume region ad groups have upwards of 75 keywords per ad group. I figure this may be hurting the individual CTR and QS. After doing some more research I noticed that the previous employee had chosen "broad match" for every keyword. There is little to no usage of negative keywords.

    After doing some research I am leaning towards restructuring the account to where each geo-targeted campaign is identical. Each ad group will contain the same keywords but the location filter will reduce cross-competition. Also, I have found that keeping each ad group to 10-15 relevant keywords is ideal.

    It is my job to clean up the account and get the ball rolling. Let me know what other information you need and I will see if I can provide. Thanks for all your help in advance!
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  • Profile picture of the author jgill
    dburk,

    Given the above example.

    Would you create new and mutually exclusive ad groups for keywords such as "NYC Office Space for Lease" (and variants), "NYC Office Space for Rent" (and variants), "NYC Commercial Property" (and variants), "NYC Shared Office Space" (and variants), etc.?

    I feel as though those keywords are distinct enough to have their own ad group. However, I am curious about your thoughts (and others') on the matter. Currently all of these keywords are within a single ad group.
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    • Profile picture of the author Harry B
      Hey OP, just wanted to say I'm in a similar situation, hang in there!
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Originally Posted by jgill View Post

      dburk,

      Given the above example.

      Would you create new and mutually exclusive ad groups for keywords such as "NYC Office Space for Lease" (and variants), "NYC Office Space for Rent" (and variants), "NYC Commercial Property" (and variants), "NYC Shared Office Space" (and variants), etc.?

      I feel as though those keywords are distinct enough to have their own ad group. However, I am curious about your thoughts (and others') on the matter. Currently all of these keywords are within a single ad group.
      Hi jgill,

      Yes, absolutely, I always do that for a couple of reasons.
      1. Users tend to click ads that use the exact same language they use.
      2. Google will reward you by using bold text to highlight the term in your ad whenever it matches the search term exactly, making it more prominent than competing ads that do not use the users' exact terms.
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  • Profile picture of the author leilapearse
    Banned
    It would also help if you create some other variations for your existing keywords. Let's say, your original keyword from a broad match can also have a variation of an exact and phrase match.

    Changing your keywords match types can also help and drive drive traffic and conversions as well.
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    • Profile picture of the author jgill
      Originally Posted by Harry B View Post

      Hey OP, just wanted to say I'm in a similar situation, hang in there!
      Thanks! I hope you find a solution as well!

      Originally Posted by dburk View Post

      Hi jgill,

      Yes, absolutely, I always do that for a couple of reasons.
      1. Users tend to click ads that use the exact same language they use.
      2. Google will reward you by using bold text to highlight the term in your ad whenever it matches the search term exactly, making it more prominent than competing ads that do not use the users' exact terms.

      Awesome. I separated this keywords into mutually exclusive groups and the CTR has dramatically increased. Campaign wide I have an average CTR of 2.12% and the new ad groups are carrying CTR's of 6-7%.

      I expect my clicks to drop due to the relevancy of my ad groups (restrict scope of impressions to quality users). And with that my clicks have also dropped. However, some of these keywords are costing an arm and a leg. My budget is running out quickly. I thought that if I put these keywords into a defined ad group that my CPC would decrease. In fact some of my QS dropped and raised my CPC. Why is this?




      Originally Posted by leilapearse View Post

      It would also help if you create some other variations for your existing keywords. Let's say, your original keyword from a broad match can also have a variation of an exact and phrase match.

      Changing your keywords match types can also help and drive drive traffic and conversions as well.
      Will do. Thanks!
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  • Profile picture of the author jgill
    Hey all,

    I have made restructuring changes to my adwords account over the past 5-10 days. This includes creating more ad groups per campaign in order to filter and create relevant ad groups. I have noticed that I have a lot more keywords with QS of 7+ but that I also have a lot of QS around the 4-5 range. I am obviously pleased with the higher ranked keywords but a little set back by the low quality keywords. Should I pause these keywords? They are not creating any impression, how can I optimize them?

    Also, I have noticed a huge jump in CTR per campaigns. Prior to changes I had CTR's of 2%, 2.04%, 2.24% and after changes 4.76%, 2.5%, and 5.54% respectively. Are these numbers just a fluke or can I expect these to remain? If so, I am contemplating increasing my budget in order to increase traffic and capture more clicks/conversions.

    Thanks.
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Hi jgill,

      Sounds like you are on the right track, improved CTR is always a good sign.

      If the keywords with poor QS are keywords that have been active in the campaign for a while then it might just be your CTR history that is holding them back. You can likely get impressions going by increasing the max CPC bid. If after 1000 new impressions and they don't improve then you should pause them til you figure out what is wrong.

      It could be that the keywords themselves are a poor choice, if they are too vague, ambiguous, or just not specific enough then you may want to remove them, or add negative match keywords to give them more precision.

      Be sure to write multiple ads for each ad group to discover the most compelling ad text.
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  • Profile picture of the author LucidWebMarketing
    Yes, you are on the right track.

    >> Are these numbers just a fluke or can I expect these to remain?

    There is really no such thing as a fluke. You made the recommended changes and seen the results yourself. If everything remains the same, you can expect the same numbers in the long run.

    However, you can't stand still and things never remain the same. Your position may vary over time which will affect your CTR. This is because competitors are not standing still. They try to improve themselves, their bid changes which affect you. Improve yourself with different ads and see what seems to click best.
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  • Profile picture of the author jgill
    So as far as keywords go I cannot and probably should not make any changes? Just monitor competitor bid adjustments and react? Also make lots of text ads for each ad group and optimize?
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  • Profile picture of the author LucidWebMarketing
    What you should be reacting to is the click rate and try to improve it. It's not about reacting to competitor bids. It's about getting more clicks, more quality traffic.

    I don't know about your keywords. You seem to be heading in the right direction based solely on what you write here and your stats improvement. But I don't have all the details, I don't see how you've put your campaign together.

    Assuming targeted keywords, you need to work on your ads. You should have only two active ads in a group at a time and A/B test them. Don't have more as it seems you are implying. Test, wait until you get a statistically significant number of clicks for each ad (I use 25) then pause the lesser performer and replace with another ad. Repeat the process.
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  • Profile picture of the author jgill
    Gotcha. I feel as though the restructuring of my campaigns/ad groups/keywords has been successful up to this point. I just need to know how to take it to the next step. I will tamper with the ads as you have suggested. Currently we just have multiple ad copies (6-10) per ad group and have them cycling through by AdWords optimization feature.

    Right now it would take weeks to get the suggested amount of clicks per ad copy. Our budget seems to run out way too fast. After restructuring the campaigns our CPC dropped dramatically so that will help but it still will take some time.

    Also, I don't know how well verse you are in SEO but our organic search is suffering badly. I'm not sure what kind of affect SEO has on Adwords but I am assuming it is significant. Our pages are not indexing so we are trying to fix that issue. I can only assume that if my landing pages are not indexing that the QS will be hampered because of that.

    Thanks again. I am very pleased with all of the results I have seen so far. I cannot thank you all enough.
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    • Profile picture of the author AK86
      Originally Posted by jgill View Post

      Currently we just have multiple ad copies (6-10) per ad group and have them cycling through by AdWords optimization feature.
      Depending on the volume you are dealing with- I would say 6 variations is too many. I typically split test 4 variations total: 2 Desktop & 2 Mobile.

      Also, by using the default "Optimize for Clicks" ad rotation setting, you are not effectively split testing your ad copies.

      Originally Posted by jgill View Post

      Our pages are not indexing so we are trying to fix that issue. I can only assume that if my landing pages are not indexing that the QS will be hampered because of that.
      Indexing of landing pages has nothing to do with Quality Score. I have several clients which I run their PPC completely separate from their website, and for this reason, explicitly noindex all of the landing pages since I don't want them to be found instead of their website, since they are crafted specifically for Paid Traffic, whereas website is crafted differently.

      That being said, if you are sending PPC traffic to their website pages as landing pages, and those aren't indexed, it won't hurt your PPC Quality Score but it is a BIG issue in terms of organic...
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  • Profile picture of the author AK86
    I'm guessing you have conversion tracking enabled, since you are able to tell us the number of conversions?

    Or are you just telling us the total number of conversions they've attributed to the PPC campaign, and conversion tracking isn't set up?

    Either way, make sure you have your own conversion tracking setup. With that information, you can identify poorly performing campaigns/adgroups and make adjustments to ad copy/landing page to improve conversions, or just pause them all together to reduce non-converting spend.

    Also, as another said, do a Search Terms report from the Dimensions tab and go through all 1600~ clicks to see which search terms were actually used to generate the clicks, then begin building out campaign & adgroup level negative keyword lists. This will also help reduce non-converting spend.

    When these are done, your spend should be reduced a bit, making room to improve and expand campaigns which are doing well (The easiest, and first step to this recommended, would be export the campaigns and import into Bing! Make sure to do bid adjustments when you do this though, because Bing CPC's tend to be a bit lower than Google so you don't want to overbid.)
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  • Profile picture of the author jgill
    Thanks for the feedback AK86!

    Conversion tracking was a mess when I first took over the account. However, after speaking with the development team it seems that all of our tracking codes are placed within the proper location of the source code. Over the past week I have been monitoring our conversions in Adwords and these numbers are similar to what is being reported within our ActOn and SalesForce reports.

    I have been constantly checking the Search Terms Report in order to identify search terms that are irrelevant to my campaigns. I then add these to my negative keywords. Question, should negative keywords be exact or broad?

    Okay. I will narrow down my ad groups to 3-4 and begin testing. In order to split test, I just set the ad rotation to "rotate evenly: 90 days, then optimize" correct? It may take a while to accrue enough information to yield a significant difference between the two.

    I am pleased with the results I have seen with the minimal changes I have already made. All 3 campaigns have had a CTR increase of 150% or more within the week preceding changes.

    Thanks for the insights into landing pages being indexed. My SEO specialist is working on get all pages to index and show up on the first page of Organic.
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Hi jgill,

      Congratulations on achieving measurable improvements through your account restructuring.

      Lucid offered some solid advice on limiting the number of ads that you are testing within an ad group. Having fewer ads will allow you to complete a round of testing faster, because you can reach the number of impressions required for each ad to make a valid conclusion. And this is a good approach for someone on a very limited budget.

      Having said that, I take a slightly different approach. I usually test 3-5 ads if it is a brand new campaign. This allows me to get a little data before deciding which two of those ads I want to run a more thorough test on. I call this "tournament testing" which increases the odds that the final testing is always against the 2 strongest contenders. The first round of tests is the qualifying elimination round for the final round which is against the 2 strongest contenders.

      What I do is test about 3-5 different types of selling points, across the entire campaign. As the initial data comes pouring in I look for the top two types of selling points across the entire campaign and as soon as they emerge, I pause the other ads and run a head-to-head test of those two top performing types. In the event of a close contest between 3 or more top performing ads, I will employ a double-elimination tournament test to ensure the top ad types are included in the final round of testing. I find this often gets me to the top type of selling point a little faster. Then we can move on to tweaking those winning selling point types with tests on varying headlines, descriptions, and CTAs.
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      *       Don Burk Advertising & Marketing - www.donburk.com

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  • Profile picture of the author jgill
    I've limited all campaigns but one seems to be a little out of whack. After adding exact match, phrase match, and restructuring the broad into broad match modified my impressions are still double that of any other campaign. This one campaign has more impressions than the other three combined. With a CTR of 1.79 it pulls the average CTR down to 2.55. Any other ideas on how to get the impressions down?
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Hi jgill,

      Looking at the averages of aggregate data is nearly useless. You need to look at the stats for each individual keyword within that campaign. Don't worry about the overall average CTR for the campaign, instead focus on each individual keyword, as that is what AdWords does when comparing your CTR to competitors for Quality Score metrics.

      Bear in mind that each keyword will have more, or less, relevancy than the next. Some keywords may have lower CTR than average even thought they still contribute to profitability.

      Run a search terms report for all the keywords in that campaign to see what search terms are generating impressions and which keywords are triggering those impressions. If there is an issue, you should be able to spot it in that report.
      Signature

      * Get Results - Outsource Your PPC Management |
      *       Don Burk Advertising & Marketing - www.donburk.com

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  • Profile picture of the author jgill
    Looked into STR and also which keywords were under performing in general (100+ impressions and 0 clicks).

    CTR is back up today. Guess it just takes daily grooming.
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  • Profile picture of the author xDbylka
    Who can give me some methodes to work online !! pleaaase
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    • Profile picture of the author jgill
      All,

      I am starting a Bing Ads campaign in addition to my AdWords campaign. I notice there is a feature within Bing that allows you to import your AdWords campaign. Is this a good route to take or should I start from scratch?

      Thanks.
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      • Profile picture of the author dburk
        Hi jgill,

        Yes, importing your AdWords search campaigns into Bing Ads is a big time saver for getting started. However, you must check all campaigns settings as some may not transfer over properly, and be prepared to make adjustments as the targeting is not nearly as precise in Bing Ads as is with AdWords. Avoid transferring mobile ads as those will often cause issues.

        Your time savings occurs during the setup process, not for the day-to-day management of your campaigns. Because the Bing Audience, and competitors, will usually be very different from your AdWords audience, you will need to manage and optimize those campaigns differently.

        As an aside, I think it generally inefficient to replicate an AdWords campaign over to Bing, unless you are already using budget-less campaign management within your AdWords campaign. It makes more sense to remove your ad budgets and expand the scale of your existing AdWords campaigns without taking on any extra campaign management duties, than to double the work load for a slight increase in business. I see people do this all the time, and makes no sense to me.
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        * Get Results - Outsource Your PPC Management |
        *         Don Burk Advertising & Marketing - www.donburk.com

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  • Profile picture of the author jgill
    I have around 5 ad groups per campaign Why is it that only 2 of these ad groups are attracting impressions and clicks?

    Ad Groups Breakdown
    1 - 3 clicks, 25 impressions, 12% CTR
    2 - 29 clicks, 682 impressions, 4.25% CTR
    3 - 1 click, 53 impressions, 1.89% CTR
    4 - 0 clicks, 0 impressions, 0.00% CTR
    5 - 0 clicks, 0 impressions, 0.00% CTR

    Ad groups have 10-25 keywords. Help?
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  • Profile picture of the author jgill
    The keyword planner tool had shown that these words would yield traffic. The majority of the quality scores are 7 and above.

    Only about half of the keywords have an average positioning listed. I am looking at the keywords over the past 7 days and half of the keywords have no impressions.

    All bids are competitive with first page bid estimates. Negative keywords are not limiting.

    The daily budget could be the issue. I'm not sure. One of my campaigns has a $75.00 limit. Within that campaign there are 5 ad groups. 1 ad group had 135 impressions and all 6 clicks surmounted to the budget. Only one other campaign had impressions (4). The other three had nothing. I also have noticed that the average CPC in this category has risen dramatically, from $8.50 to $13.00 within a couple of weeks.
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  • Profile picture of the author jgill
    Also,

    I have noticed a huge drop in converted clicks over the last two weeks. Last we I had accrued 22 converted clicks from Mon-Thurs and this week (Mon-Thurs) I have only accrued 6. Help?
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Hi jgill,

      Check your impression share data:

      https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2497703

      If your impressions share is at, or near, 100% then you have selected keywords with low search volume.

      If your impression share is low, then check the following metrics to see why:
      • Search Lost IS (budget) - this tells you how much you lost due to a low budget.
        • Increase your daily budget to reduce lost impression share due to budget.
      • Search Lost IS (rank) - this tells you how much impression share you lost due to low ad rank positions.
        • Increase your bid to reduce lost impressions due to rank.

      Let us know which issue it is.
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      *       Don Burk Advertising & Marketing - www.donburk.com

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  • Profile picture of the author jgill
    First Column = Search impression share
    Second Column = Search Lost is budget
    Third Column = Search Lost is rank


    Search Imp. Share Search Lost Budget Search Lost Rank
    Campaign 1 66.46% 7.39% 26.14%
    Campaign 2 34.34% 64.68% 0.98%
    Campaign 3 19.27% 72.97% 7.76%
    Campaign 4 42.44% 47.84% 9.72%


    Looks like my search impression share is quite high but nowhere near 100%. Based on the Search lost due to budget, it seems as though 3 of my campaigns would benefit significantly through an increase in budget whereas the 4th campaign needs better ad rank positioning. Is this a fair assumption to make?
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  • Profile picture of the author AadhyaMehra
    Banned
    Good going. Google Adwords is the best place to earn online money. Post attractive Ads always.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason121
    1. Do a keyword research and choose phrase match or exact match keywords to get more relevant traffic
    2. Restructure the account, reduce the keywords, check if ads are properly created(headline, description etc)
    3. Use Sitelinks on your ads
    4. Integrate Analytics to understand your traffic and define goals for conversions.
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    • Profile picture of the author jgill
      I've already done that. Now I'm trying to figure out the conversion side of Adwords.
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      • Profile picture of the author dburk
        Hi jgill,

        You are beginning to get the concept I believe.

        A campaign with well optimized bids and budgets will have little to no Lost IS (budget). All of your campaigns have room for improvement, and 3 of those 4 campaigns have room for very substantial improvement.

        The simplest way to reduce lost impression share, due to budget, is to increase your daily budget, However, you need to make sure the campaign is at break-even, or profitable, before doing that, else you will increase your total losses.

        To improve lost impression share due to rank, you can simply increase your bids, but do it selectively. Increase bids on profitable keywords only.

        A better approach for reducing lost impressions share due to rank is to focus on improving Quality Scores by creating more compelling ads. Doing that will allow you improve Ad Rank while simultaneously improving ROAS (Return On Ad Spend).

        In some cases, depending on your market niche, you can substantially improve CTR, Quality Scores, Ad Rank, and conversion Rates by waging effective branding and awareness campaigns. Do some testing to see if your niche is one of the many that do respond well to branding and awareness campaigns, as that is often where we see the largest lifts in total profits.
        Signature

        * Get Results - Outsource Your PPC Management |
        *         Don Burk Advertising & Marketing - www.donburk.com

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