Green_Grass
msg:1134130 | 4:03 pm on Jul 1, 2006 (gmt 0) |
Welcome to WW . May I suggest you keep a small daily budget and let the 30% CTR register with G for a while. As your ads perform well, your bid prices should start falling. Try the content network. Reduce bid prices to what you think is affordable, you should get hundreds of impressions and hopefully clicks also. (You do know, that you can bid for 'content' and 'search' seperately.) The seniors will guide you better.. Just my way of working..
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homenotion
msg:1134131 | 4:44 pm on Jul 1, 2006 (gmt 0) |
Yes, I do use content ads, just still wondering how to get my keywords to work and how to find out what my quality score is. Do you by any chance know how long I'd have to keep my keywords at .50 for the bids to go down? Thanks,
Elizabeth
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Green_Grass
msg:1134132 | 4:58 pm on Jul 1, 2006 (gmt 0) |
There is no real way to know your quality score.
It is kept secret by G like everything else. Try keeping a small budget for a few days and track carefully. There is no fixed 'time' as such.. However, do make sure your keywords accurately descibe your website. A totally unrelated keyword may not help increase your 'quality score'...
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Nancy99
msg:1134133 | 7:09 pm on Jul 1, 2006 (gmt 0) |
When I have a problem like this, the first thing that we do is to create a custom landing page targeting each adgroup theme and specific keywords. You will find that if your keywords are being disabled it is one or both of two problems 1. Your quality score based on your ad text and landing page are low causing you to pay more 2. Your CPC and even possibly your daily budget are too low for your market competition.
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homenotion
msg:1134134 | 3:33 pm on Jul 2, 2006 (gmt 0) |
I realize that my cpc is too low so I did raise it to .50 which is high for me but I just wanted to try it. When I did this it put my ad at #1. I don't want to be #1. I would be happy with #2 or 3 or maybe even 4, but bidding anything lower than .50 puts me out of the running. It's #1 or nothing. I don't think anyone knows why it works this way but it seems like all the changes Google has made has caused some problems in certain areas. I'm checking with Google but they are slow to respond. Elizabeth
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Israel
msg:1134135 | 3:51 pm on Jul 2, 2006 (gmt 0) |
I've always found that ironic. At 49 cents, you don't even deserve to show in last place. For another penny, you're in the hot spot, best ad of all according to the scoring! Think that was really how they intended it to run? Israel
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Nancy99
msg:1134136 | 8:06 pm on Jul 2, 2006 (gmt 0) |
If you do not want to be in the number one position, go to campaign settings and enable position preference then click to edit all your keywords and set your position to #2 to 10+ and click the magic yellow carat to fill the whole page. Then you kick in Google's smart pricing and pay only one cent more above what the #3 position is paying even though you have said you will pay $.50 you will not with these setting.
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poster_boy
msg:1134137 | 1:19 am on Jul 3, 2006 (gmt 0) |
Nancy, I wish position preference worked that way - but, for now, it doesn't. Google has acknowledged as much... so, I've disabled this feature after having results that did not (at all) follow the preferences that I had set.
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bbcarter
msg:1134138 | 6:47 pm on Jul 3, 2006 (gmt 0) |
poster_boy, where did they acknowledge this? In my correspondence with them a month ago they told me differently- so it's not working right? I haven't checked it.
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rkhare
msg:1134139 | 7:50 pm on Jul 3, 2006 (gmt 0) |
| Nancy, I wish position preference worked that way - but, for now, it doesn't. |
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position preference is a great tool, but it takes time to adjust to your preference. for me desired result is achieved only 4-5 days after preference is used.
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poster_boy
msg:1134140 | 8:45 pm on Jul 3, 2006 (gmt 0) |
| ...where did they acknowledge this? |
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In correspondence with me. They are aware of the "issue" of ads showing up higher than their preferred position and they "don't have an "estimated time for a fix." Based on this, Google really ought to post a warning about using this feature.
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Nancy99
msg:1134141 | 8:56 pm on Jul 3, 2006 (gmt 0) |
I am getting valid position results with the Google position preference on my accounts.
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Israel
msg:1134142 | 9:09 am on Jul 4, 2006 (gmt 0) |
Nancy, Are those successes with formerly "Inactive" keywords though? I hadn't thought of using Position Preference until you mentioned it so I did a test on a small campaign which wasn't doing well anyway. Google wanted 20 cents for the keyword. When I did raise it to 20 cents earlier, it was always getting charged the full 20 cents and was in the #1-2 position. I didn't want that, too many curiousity seekers on that first ad. Now the keyword had been around for 2 years, accumulated 17000 impressions with an all-time CTR of 4.59 and an average cost of 14 cents in the 4th position overall before it was suddenly "Inactive". Not shabby performance, IMHO. When I enabled Position Preference, I went as far as to raise the bid to 19 cents (a penny shy of what was requested). I said I'd settle for positions 9 - 10+. Still wouldn't show, still wouldn't go active. Even though currently there are only 2 ads showing for the keyword, one for an auction house that couldn't possibly provide the service. The other ad, I have no clue why it's showing. That ad is a textbook case of being irrelevant for a keyword! ---
Does my strategy appear sound? BTW, I also tried higher positions since there were only 2 ads anyway. A penny below the requested bid and asking for dead last I would think was enough for the darn word to qualify. Even assuming one says they'll settle for 9+, if there were only 2 ads showing, one would think they'd place me third. Or would I have to wait for more advertisers to arrive to guarantee at least 9 ads showing? Keep in mind that I had already tested higher positions with no success too. ---- I'm glad it's working out for you of course. However, that was enough to discourage me from wasting more time on Position Preference. -- I'm generally wary of new Google enhancements unless I hear tons of rave reviews first. In fact, I think it was unwise of Google to roll out major interface revisions (and who knows what else behind the scenes) on the cusp of a major holiday in the US, when they're no doubt understaffed. No shop I ever worked in would dream of unleashing potential disaster by taking risks like that! Thanks for the idea though! Israel
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mike_ppc
msg:1134143 | 2:49 pm on Jul 4, 2006 (gmt 0) |
Just a note.
Remember that the CTR is obtained in G+Search network (if you have Search activated - usually it is). And the quality score is based only on Google.
So a CTR of 30% could be in fact an average of 0,4% on G and 50% in a Searchbox "partner"
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Israel
msg:1134144 | 6:35 pm on Jul 4, 2006 (gmt 0) |
Yes Mike, just recently realized that those "Search Boxes" make one a partner! I believe few are aware of that. Was never on Content though! Still, it was converting very profitably until the disabling started. And being just a penny short of the "Requested" bid should have gotten me something, IMHO. Israel
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