So you have a great landing page, and all of your keywords are tightly grouped, but we have several keywords that are inactive for search and many that are active but have a poor quality score. Before I go on, let me explain a few things about adwords accounts first.
Google views you as an advertiser based on your overall quality score. For example, if you have advertised in an account for 6 months and all of your campaigns have most of their keywords as "ok" to "great", then google will assume that you are a good advertiser and everything you do is relevant. This means that your account has a good history of high ctr's, good landing pages, and people are finding you relevant. This means that you now have history on your side and you could add any keyword you want, even if it is irrelevant to your campaign, and google will assume, based on past history, that it too is relevant(even if it isn't) and thus will assign that keyword an "ok" or "great" quality score.
But what if you are brand new? Well, you don't have that history behind you, so google has to look at other advertisers for those similar keywords and landing pages and assumes that you will do similar to what others are doing. Since most advertisers that stick around know the system, they have good standing accounts. So this means that you have a tiny bit of flexiblity with your account, if it's brand new(when you see the words "since your account is recent, we have based estimates on system wide performance", that is what this means). However, this won't last long. Immediately google begins keeping track of how you do, so when your account is brand new, I highly recommend watching it closely for a few days, or even a few weeks.
So, what to do about those nasty inactive keywords or poor quality scores?
Since you should have most bids at around 30 cents, almost all your keywords should be activated. But those keywords that require 30 cents to activate probably have a quality score of "poor". Now we need to find out why they are poor.
If you look to the left of the keyword, you will see a little magnifying glass. If you hover your mouse over it, it will say some stuff about quality score and is your ad showing. What you want is to click on the "details and recommendation". Once in that window, click on the quality score tab and scroll to the bottom, where the words "keyword relevancy" "landing page relevancy" and "landing page load time" are. If you see a green check next to all three of those, this means that google thinks that everything is ok, but the word needs some CTR history to judge how relevant it is. (Which is why google placed it as poor, but still thinks it is ok in the details section). What you need to do is raise your bids for those keywords that are poor but relevant to 50% higher than what is expected to activate. This means that if it requires 30 cents, then raise it to 45 cents (30*50%=15 30=45). This will equal higher ad spot, google will think you consider this keyword more important, and after a few days this keyword's max activation bid should go down. (I've had them go down within hours, from 30 cents all the way down to 5 cents, which is a great quality score.) Also, you want to make sure that all of your ad's are appearing on the first page of search results. You can hover your mouse over the magnifying glass to see if it is. If it is not, increase the bid enough to get it there.
What about 40 cents or higher? If you check the details, and it says "This keyword is highly irrelevant" DELETE THAT KEYWORD IMMEDIATELY! I don't care if it converts the best, if you don't get rid of it soon, google will begin to think that all your keywords that have similar words as this keyword are irrelevant and soon you will be dealing with 10 dollar activation bids across your entire account. Then your account will be marked as irrelevant and you will have to start all over. Do not ever raise the bids on these keywords to activate them. What you will do is after a few days of good history, add those keywords that were marked as "irrelevant" back and they should be ok.
Next up is the "mature" campaign.
Google views you as an advertiser based on your overall quality score. For example, if you have advertised in an account for 6 months and all of your campaigns have most of their keywords as "ok" to "great", then google will assume that you are a good advertiser and everything you do is relevant. This means that your account has a good history of high ctr's, good landing pages, and people are finding you relevant. This means that you now have history on your side and you could add any keyword you want, even if it is irrelevant to your campaign, and google will assume, based on past history, that it too is relevant(even if it isn't) and thus will assign that keyword an "ok" or "great" quality score.
But what if you are brand new? Well, you don't have that history behind you, so google has to look at other advertisers for those similar keywords and landing pages and assumes that you will do similar to what others are doing. Since most advertisers that stick around know the system, they have good standing accounts. So this means that you have a tiny bit of flexiblity with your account, if it's brand new(when you see the words "since your account is recent, we have based estimates on system wide performance", that is what this means). However, this won't last long. Immediately google begins keeping track of how you do, so when your account is brand new, I highly recommend watching it closely for a few days, or even a few weeks.
So, what to do about those nasty inactive keywords or poor quality scores?
Since you should have most bids at around 30 cents, almost all your keywords should be activated. But those keywords that require 30 cents to activate probably have a quality score of "poor". Now we need to find out why they are poor.
If you look to the left of the keyword, you will see a little magnifying glass. If you hover your mouse over it, it will say some stuff about quality score and is your ad showing. What you want is to click on the "details and recommendation". Once in that window, click on the quality score tab and scroll to the bottom, where the words "keyword relevancy" "landing page relevancy" and "landing page load time" are. If you see a green check next to all three of those, this means that google thinks that everything is ok, but the word needs some CTR history to judge how relevant it is. (Which is why google placed it as poor, but still thinks it is ok in the details section). What you need to do is raise your bids for those keywords that are poor but relevant to 50% higher than what is expected to activate. This means that if it requires 30 cents, then raise it to 45 cents (30*50%=15 30=45). This will equal higher ad spot, google will think you consider this keyword more important, and after a few days this keyword's max activation bid should go down. (I've had them go down within hours, from 30 cents all the way down to 5 cents, which is a great quality score.) Also, you want to make sure that all of your ad's are appearing on the first page of search results. You can hover your mouse over the magnifying glass to see if it is. If it is not, increase the bid enough to get it there.
What about 40 cents or higher? If you check the details, and it says "This keyword is highly irrelevant" DELETE THAT KEYWORD IMMEDIATELY! I don't care if it converts the best, if you don't get rid of it soon, google will begin to think that all your keywords that have similar words as this keyword are irrelevant and soon you will be dealing with 10 dollar activation bids across your entire account. Then your account will be marked as irrelevant and you will have to start all over. Do not ever raise the bids on these keywords to activate them. What you will do is after a few days of good history, add those keywords that were marked as "irrelevant" back and they should be ok.
Next up is the "mature" campaign.
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ccmusicman
Premium
No problem! I've worked with google off and on for six frustrating months trying to figure out how to handle it and now that I've gotten into this "system", google no longer gives me troubles.
The hardest part to all of this is writing compelling ad text that gets the clicks. Once you get that down, the rest is a breeze!
The hardest part to all of this is writing compelling ad text that gets the clicks. Once you get that down, the rest is a breeze!
geo96929
Premium
No problem! I've worked with google off and on for six frustrating months trying to figure out how to handle it and now that I've gotten into this "system", google no longer gives me troubles.
The hardest part to all of this is writing compelling ad text that gets the clicks. Once you get that down, the rest is a breeze!
The hardest part to all of this is writing compelling ad text that gets the clicks. Once you get that down, the rest is a breeze!
EdgeRunner
Premium
Hi ccmusicman
Thanks for the great tips! I was just working on some adwords stuff this morning and got the $10 bid (which I don't usually get) and was wondering what to do! Here's a piece of gold! Thanks again!
Candice
Thanks for the great tips! I was just working on some adwords stuff this morning and got the $10 bid (which I don't usually get) and was wondering what to do! Here's a piece of gold! Thanks again!
Candice
