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When to Kill Your PPC Ad?

by kenspohn
17 replies
  • SEO
    • |
When is a good rule of thumb to kill your ppc ad? I have a couple approaching 10k impressions with 0 clicks...

Would just like everyone view point on your search and content ads.


Thanks

-K
#kill #ppc #ppc ads #ppc advertising #ppc campaigns
  • Profile picture of the author dburk
    Hi kenspohn,

    There are a lot of varibles, so each scenario is different.

    If these impression are mostly from the content network, then I wouldn't be concerned with deleting the keyword. However, if these are mostly from the Search Network it could be a problem if you Quality Score has been affected.

    What is your Quality Score on these?
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    • Profile picture of the author kenspohn
      The question was meant to see what every one else does. So when I do start running Search ads I have some things to go by.

      Maybe I did phrase the question properly? or put it in the wrong thread?

      My current ads are from Content and as of this morning I've had 20k imp and 2 clicks. Not actually burning up my server.

      Thanks for asking

      -K
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      • Profile picture of the author charles jackson
        i don't think too many impressions are a problem. if the search clicks are racking up and you have no sales then take your ad down. i've had 200000 impressions with 4 clicks, then i took the content network offf. now i've had like 500 search impressions with 5 clicks, much more realistic. oh and one sale
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  • Profile picture of the author Miguel Oliveira
    Take it down when you get clicks but no buys. Impressions don't cost money, so there is no reason to shut it down. However, you may want to review your ads and keywords to get a better CTR.
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  • Profile picture of the author onlineleben
    Impressions don't cost money
    Not always right - if you have CPM switched on in the content network, impressions do cost money.
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Originally Posted by onlineleben View Post

      Not always right - if you have CPM switched on in the content network, impressions do cost money.

      Hi onlineleben,

      I will have to side with Miguel on this one. The OP was clearly about PPC and not CPM.

      The only concern here would be if you are getting a poor quality score as a result of low CTR. If these impressions are primarily on the content network then there is probably no reason to take it down. Low CTR on the content network is common and not necessarily a problem.
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  • Profile picture of the author onlineleben
    Don,
    my mistake - I was so focused on content network (which I mainly use on a CPM basis) that I didn't read the OP correctly.
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  • Profile picture of the author Vision888
    Depends - are you talking about content network or search network?

    On the content network, CTRs are typically low for various reasons. For example, you ad may be appearing on the bottom of webpages, and the visitors may not scroll down that far. So even though most visitors never even saw your ad, Google still counts them as impressions. So I wouldn't sweat it.

    For search network, if you get 10k impressions and 0 clicks, it's time to kill the ad. Either you're targeting the wrong keywords, or your ad sucks and you have to rewrite it.
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    • Profile picture of the author gregdolday
      Hi Ken,

      I always run separate campaigns - one for search network and then one for content network per region as then the low search network click through rate doesn't affect the search network clickthrough rate.

      I pretty much always start with the search network campaign and try to be as specific as I can with the adgroups as in one keyword becomes one adgroup. I've been running broad, "phrase" and [exact] matches for every keyword, but I saw something interesting from Armand Morin recently about not using broad keywords. I have now adopted this for my campaigns also - It results in less clicks but the traffic you get is far more targetted.

      Once the search network campaign is performing i'll use adwords editor to copy it and change it to be for the content network. I recommend setting up conversion tracking to put the science in it and then only turn off the campaigns or adgroups that aren't profitable.
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      • Profile picture of the author clairejarrett
        Originally Posted by gregdolday View Post

        I pretty much always start with the search network campaign and try to be as specific as I can with the adgroups as in one keyword becomes one adgroup. I've been running broad, "phrase" and [exact] matches for every keyword, but I saw something interesting from Armand Morin recently about not using broad keywords. I have now adopted this for my campaigns also - It results in less clicks but the traffic you get is far more targetted.
        I always use broad keywords as well as phrase and exact as you can never guess exactly what bizarre phrases people will type in. I have found people who are target prospects typing in phrases I could never have guessed in an exact match!
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  • Profile picture of the author X
    PPC does not equal CPC, so if
    you're paying CPM then I'd kill
    it yesterday.

    Obviously the ad isn't working -
    I wouldn't kill the ad, but create
    a new one.

    See if you can find some pages
    your ad is running on (just do a
    search in Google for one of your
    KW phrases and look for sites
    with Google ads on them)

    You want to write an ad that
    stands out and contrasts with the
    other ads.

    Your low/no CTR could be a
    function of poor ad placement on
    the publisher's sites - so that could
    be the problem too.

    I'd recommend doing some page
    targeting where you know that your
    ads should be specific to the page
    they're on - if your not getting clicks
    there then you know your ad is the
    problem.

    Unless you can isolate some variables
    there are too many to be able to
    know *specifically* what the problem
    is - always try to start with the most
    targeted ad spots you can, then work
    towards more traffic and more impressions
    when you have some proof of concept.

    X
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  • Profile picture of the author Saito
    After how many impressions in the Content Network would you kill an ad or not?

    10,000? 20,000?
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Originally Posted by Saito View Post

      After how many impressions in the Content Network would you kill an ad or not?

      10,000? 20,000?
      Hi Saito,

      Wow, you dug up a thread that is more than 3 years old.

      A lot has changed in 3 years. The "Content Network" is no longer called the "Content network", it has been renamed the "Display Network". Back when this thread was originally created there were no Quality Scores for the content network, now there are quality scores for the display network and you need to manage low CTR ads in the display network to protect your account's Quality Score.

      I would definitely kill an ad that has received no clicks after 3000 impressions, perhaps even after only 1000-2000 impressions.
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  • Profile picture of the author tryinhere
    search = 100
    content = 1000

    tops
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  • Profile picture of the author Threaver
    yeah nice find, at least you are getting impressions and not clicks instead of clicks with no conversion, that is what can hurt.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jeremiah L
    kill your PPC ad if you make no conversions !
    Obviously, if you have impression and no clicks it's because ppl are not interested; if you have clicks and no conversions it's because your product does not interest them; you need to have clicks & conversions in order to say I killed it ! =D
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  • Profile picture of the author Saito
    Thank you for the specific information. Yes, I didn't want to waste time getting more impressions (and some clicks and therefore wasted $ for testing ads purposes) for an ad when I can pause it and let the next ad get enough impressions for me to know to work with or not.

    I will go up to 1,000 on Display Network.

    I have been going up to 1,000 impressions in the Search network based on what a few guys said. 100 seems kind of low, as I have heard it said that 50-100 clicks is enough and I thought 1000 impressions (and therefore usually fewer than 30 clicks) seemed kind of low if it was to be statistically significant.
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