Also does everyone use to create your list of keywords? I have been using Notepad but it would be nice to find something that will rearrange them alphabetical. I have tried Excel but negative keywords, brackets, and quotes don't seem to work. Thanks
Does it matter what order your keyword and phrases are listed?
Not to the best of my knowledge.
Is there any harm in having keywords that have nothing to do with what you are selling.
Yeah, it costs you money for untargeted traffic.
Are you penalized for having keywords that generate no impressions or clicks?
Yes, Adwords disables the keywords automatically.
Are you penalized for having keywords that generate no impressions or clicks?
no if it is not getting impressions. If it gets 1000 impessions and does not also have .5% CTR it gets the boot.
I have my (somewhat unique) name in a personal adgroup to see if it is ever searched on.
after 2 years only 25 impressions : (
So if I have a keyword that is generating high (more than the other) impressions but little CTR (like .3%) I should probably delete it?
If its doing that poorly, delete it everywhere in your account.
Now, the decision is - Is that KW related to your services? Do you want to appear for it?
If so, then make an AdGroup just for that KW. Make several ads for it so you can test to see if any of them can get you an adequate CTR for that KW. And, don't forget, if you use phrase or broad matching - use those negative KWs.
So if I have a keyword that is generating high (more than the other) impressions but little CTR (like .3%) I should probably delete it? Makes sense to me.
Remember CTR is Google's measure of success. It may not be yours. We only delete words which do not generate enough ROI for us (even with high CTR) . Google will dissable any word that does not meet the CTR standard automatically.
Also remember that the CTR shown to you is for all the ad's placement (content sites, search partners, etc.) , but the .5% threshold is ONLY based on the GOOGLE SEARCH CTR.
I guess they don't show that CTR to us because then we could reverse engineer some of their algo, I suppose.
Also remember that the CTR shown to you is for all the ad's placement (content sites, search partners, etc.) , but the .5% threshold is ONLY based on the GOOGLE SEARCH CTR.
Good point, nyet. In my example, if that is your search CTR, or if you see 'at risk' then I'd do what I suggested as this will clear your history, so if you make better ads, your poor past preformance won't hinder those KWs.
If your CTR is that low because of content targeting, then ignore that and look at the other CTR rates.
Is there any harm in having keywords that have nothing to do with what you are selling. Even if they generate no clicks or impressions?
Aside from the untargetted traffic and likely low CTR, already mentioned, there is an additional downside.
If your daily budget is too low to show your ad 24/7, and you have your Ad Groups full of clunker keywords, then your ads will show less often for the ones that are working well.
This is because the system budgets for all your keywords when it decides how often it can show your ad without exceeding your budget.
Bottom line: If your daily budget is too low to show your ad 24/7, then the fewer keywords you have, the more often those keywords will show for the same budget.
AWA
