426 impressions, get warning with not enough clicks

booooo...

[urameatball]

Well, I started trying out adwords last week!
didn't read up on anything and put up a whole bunch of keywords and got a warning like 5hrs later about not having enough clicks in 1000+ impressions. (actually, 0 clicks)

modded my keywords and reset. 1 day later... got the same letter after 1000+ impressions and only 0.1% clicks.

modded and reset again to a VERY specific set of keywords estimated for <100 impressions a day. I receive another letter today after 426 impressions that I don't have enough clicks after 1000 again.

[piramida]

it's time to edit your addy?

[storevalley]

The other possibility is that the keywords you are targetting are too broad, or have more than one meaning.

Have a look at the ads of other people bidding on these terms for clues.

[lukasz]

Maybe you should change the targeted countries or languages.
I see some english ads on japanese portal sites fed by Google, I am pretty sure that they will have near 0 CTR.

[urameatball]

change addy? why?

my keywords are already pretty specific and all but two were 'estimated' at <1 match per day.

language was set to english and country was set to Canada only.

[JollyK]

I have a similar problem, but it just started recently. My problem is that I have some very specific keywords that are not shown very often. It's entirely possible for me to have 1000 impressions over an entire ad group where no keyword has been shown more than twice. This didn't cause my campaigns to be suspended before, but all of a sudden it's as though they're doing something different.

Is CTR counted across your entire account for all campaigns and adgroups and keywords? I thought it was only counted per campaign or even per ad group.

They've also yellow-starred keywords with a 1.1% CTR, while leaving alone keywords with a 0.1% CTR. Huh? Why flag a keyword that's over 1% while leaving alone one that's under?

I understand disabling keywords that are under 1% CTR, but shouldn't those keywords at least get a chance to be shown a few times first?

I've been trying to get answers from Google on this, but unfortunately, I've only gotten bits of the FAQ emailed back to me, even when I quote the same bit of the FAQ and say, "That doesn't explain thus and so." :-)

Maybe the way it worked before was the glitch and it's always supposed to have been this way, but it would be helpful to know exactly what they mean when they say "CTR" and what it encompasses.

Anyone know?

JK

[HughMungus]

Are you using brackets and such to get more precise ad displays? Before I read the instructions, I was using stuff like, "widgets widgetism" (without the quotes). When I got my notice thing I changed it to [widgets widgetism].

[storevalley]

change addy? why?

Because people aren't clicking on it? Makes sense to me ...

[JollyK]

I think all my keywords are bracketed. That's one reason why a lot of them don't show all that often. :-)

[instand1]

It's entirely possible for me to have 1000 impressions over an entire ad group where no keyword has been shown more than twice. This didn't cause my campaigns to be suspended before, but all of a sudden it's as though they're doing something different.

Yes, it seems that they made it more strict.
To reduce the risk of being switched of I opened up a new campaign for the "risky keywords", those with many impressions and few clicks.
Does any one know whether they check the click-through-performance only within a campaign? If that is the case, setting up several campaigns will help. At least it will give more time to improve the click-through-rate by individual measures like negative keywords, Brackets [..] and so on.

[michaelbs]

1000 imp is counted on your whole account not just a campaign. I wish it was as easy as creating a new campaign, at least that way you could test some of your more risky keywords to see how they perform without it effecting your other campaigns.

[storevalley]

I wish it was as easy as creating a new campaign

It is ... just create a new account ;)

[hobbnet]

I think some confusion that may be caused by

Change the addy

Just in case you don't realize what "addy" means....Change the advertisement copy.

[JollyK]

I guess this will just slow down experimenting with keywords. Previously, I could throw a ton of keywords in there and wait until they got maybe 100 impressions before getting rid of them. Now, I'm going to have to take out all the keywords that only get like 10 impressions a day and put them back in one at a time.

I wish Google would tell us about these things before doing them, though. I've been fine for months with these campaigns and all of a sudden got suspended 3 days in a row. Very odd.

Say ... what happens if they suspend you again after you've hit the third-time-pay-five-bucks? Do they just charge you again, or would they cancel your account?

Eek!

[lukasz]

They've also yellow-starred keywords with a 1.1% CTR, while leaving alone keywords with a 0.1% CTR. Huh? Why flag a keyword that's over 1% while leaving alone one that's under?

The statistics show CTR of your ad over the entire "google network" which include google and all partner sites at which your ad is displayed.
However, for your add to stay in adwords it need to have a CTR above 0.5% on Google itself.
So very often my keywords with above 3% CTR get disabled as CTR on partner sites is usually much higher.

[JollyK]

lukasz: That makes perfect sense.

Now, why couldn't Google just have said that? As in, "The CTR shown for a keyword may be for Google plus partner sites."

I always thought the CTR for keywords was just for Google.