Your initial CTR (since your KW/Ads have no history) is determined by the average of your competitors bidding on the exact same KW. So if their KW were doing poorly, then you could be assigned an 'at risk' status right from the beginning based on their history and not your own.
Seriously eWhisper?
Your initial CTR (since your KW/Ads have no history) is determined by the average of your competitors bidding on the exact same KW. So if their KW were doing poorly, then you could be assigned an 'at risk' status right from the beginning based on their history and not your own.
Very good thought, but I am not certain that this is the case. It's a bit late to ping the usual cast of experts, so I'll consult on this point and post again. I'll shoot for tomorrow.
I'll also be interested in hearing what AdWords support has to say, once they've reviewed the account. This sort of thing is really hard to pinpoint without seeing the account, but (usually) quite simple to answer with account access.
AWA
"It is possible for relatively new keywords to be slowed as well. This is because if they have not accrued any clicks, our system recognizes them as
having a low CTR."
Again, being new this doesn't make sense to me. So, any keywords for any new ad I post could potentially be slowed early in the campaign?
I believe their status assignments are based on CTR's not volume of clicks.
It's a good system, but like anything new, it needs some improvements.
When you first make a KW, it has no history, so it assigns the average of your competitor KW CTRs.
When an ad has 1000 impressions, then it has it's own history, so its based on what your account has managed, not others. Now, I would guess that G starts giving it its own CTR throughout those 1000 impressions - but don't have that data.
Your 'at risk', 'slowed', etc status are based on your G only CTR. It has nothing todo with the viewable CTR if you choose content or partner search listings. More on Keyword Status [webmasterworld.com]
It will be interesting to see what AWA brings up on this one. If you have a KW that others have failed on, are you penalized from the beginning?
Just to see what happens - I have the ads running on Google Search only, no network partners, if I get a slow or at risk now, I'll be able to see what the true Google CTR is, although my ad may suffer for it.
