Here's the puzzle I'm having: A while back I created an ad, and had just 2 or 3 very closely related exact match keywords in it. These words instantly came through with a QS of 7. A few other keywords that were used returned having low search volume, and last time i deleted them because of that. Now we deleted that ad because we thought we weren't going to be selling the product for that ad anymore, but now a couple weeks later, my bosses decided to go the exact opposite direction and want to market for this product very aggressively. So I rewrote the ad practically identically, making sure the keyword displays in the headline, the ad copy, and the display URL, and this time put in some more keywords, again, still very very tight, and this time I also am keeping the low search volume keywords. I am targeting the same landing page. I'm using some exact match keywords but also some modified broad match keywords. This time around though, I can't get any of the keywords to rank higher than a QS of 5, even though some of these were the same keywords used before, for the same landing page, for an almost identical ad copy. The only differences between then and now is I am now doing ad copy split testing, having the one identical ad copy, and a 2nd ad copy that's totally different, and I am keeping the low search volume keywords. I highly doubt that the 2 ads are what is killing my QS. So is keeping the low search volume keywords having some impact on my quality score even for the other keywords? Is Google looking down on my account for keeping those keywords in there? I would kill them, but I tested the keywords and the ads are still actually displaying despite what Google says, so it doesn't make sense to kill the keywords. If I kill these words, what kind of effect can I expect it to have on the ad group, if any?
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Question on Low Volume Search Keywords
- Thread starter likwidneo
- Start date
Its really hard to say there are so many variables involved but, I'll do my best to try and help you out a bit...
When you first fire up a new adwords account it isn't at all uncommon to see great quality scores initially (given the website is flagged for being spam or malicious). Adwords accounts build accumulative quality scores throughout the account history, new accounts start out in a neutral/positive status.
During this period of time adwords is going to evaluate a few aspects of your account, relevancy of your keywords/ads/landing pages in respect to the adgroup you have them placed in.
What are the quality scores of the low search keywords? Do they get impressions? I would say regardless of what the quality score is on the keywords if they arent getting any impressions its best to kill them. I mean, whats the point if your not getting any value? [local store to buy midol because im about to choke-a-#$% soon]. If they are getting impression and they have a relatively good quality score, keep them. I have had several keywords that google said were low search volume and adwords changed its mind after a while.
Here are some golden rules to live by:
1.Make sure you have a sufficient budget. If you have a campaign budget of 10/per day and your bids are 2.50 you wont get any impressions.
2. Make sure your geo targeting is right by default its country wide.
3. Be very specific with your adgroups. adgroup/keywords/ads
4. Always split test ads. When you setup an account create 3 ads make sure at least one of them is using dynamic keyword insertion in the title, after a month or two go back and kill the no performing ads.
5. Use negatives!
My hypothesis:
1. You're doing it wrong.
2. Your keywords are way too narrow and/or you're not properly utilizing negatives.
3. You have low ctr's either because your ads are bad or you're not bidding competitively enough... remember I said these quality scores are cumulative.
4. Your landing page is garbage. Your bounce rate is being watched.
When you first fire up a new adwords account it isn't at all uncommon to see great quality scores initially (given the website is flagged for being spam or malicious). Adwords accounts build accumulative quality scores throughout the account history, new accounts start out in a neutral/positive status.
During this period of time adwords is going to evaluate a few aspects of your account, relevancy of your keywords/ads/landing pages in respect to the adgroup you have them placed in.
What are the quality scores of the low search keywords? Do they get impressions? I would say regardless of what the quality score is on the keywords if they arent getting any impressions its best to kill them. I mean, whats the point if your not getting any value? [local store to buy midol because im about to choke-a-#$% soon]. If they are getting impression and they have a relatively good quality score, keep them. I have had several keywords that google said were low search volume and adwords changed its mind after a while.
Here are some golden rules to live by:
1.Make sure you have a sufficient budget. If you have a campaign budget of 10/per day and your bids are 2.50 you wont get any impressions.
2. Make sure your geo targeting is right by default its country wide.
3. Be very specific with your adgroups. adgroup/keywords/ads
4. Always split test ads. When you setup an account create 3 ads make sure at least one of them is using dynamic keyword insertion in the title, after a month or two go back and kill the no performing ads.
5. Use negatives!
My hypothesis:
1. You're doing it wrong.
2. Your keywords are way too narrow and/or you're not properly utilizing negatives.
3. You have low ctr's either because your ads are bad or you're not bidding competitively enough... remember I said these quality scores are cumulative.
4. Your landing page is garbage. Your bounce rate is being watched.
Our whole operation is a mess and the worse part is there are parts of it that management swears are working as they should be and are not allowing me to correct. So your hypothesis is mostly correct, at least on points 1, 3, and 4. Keywords aren't too narrow, though. On the contrary, I don't have a single keyword in the campaign that is more than 3 words long, most are 2. But those words are returning as blanks for global/local monthly searches on the Adwords Keyword Tool. They weren't registering any impressions on the keyword itself, but testing the keyword did indeed display the ad for me. So I can only assume another one of my keywords had triggered it in its place. But yes, the low search volume keywords all had QS of 3 or 4. I had already killed them, but now I'm a little more relieved that I did the right thing. Thanks for the input.
D
Deleted member 129536
Guest
I am having a similar problem to you and I also cannot find the culprit. I thought it might have something to do with foreign language keywords but I checked the google help page and everything was ok. No idea, maybe they really have a bug for low search volume keywords.
I am having a similar problem to you and I also cannot find the culprit. I thought it might have something to do with foreign language keywords but I checked the google help page and everything was ok. No idea, maybe they really have a bug for low search volume keywords.
One thing to remember, the longer you run your campaign, the higher you will rank. Google likes to see ads run for a significant amount of time. You may start off at 10th place and slowly move up to 2nd or 3rd with the same bid even if your CTR is only mediocre.
Another thing about low search volume keywords, they are very variable.