Keeping a keyword active

What is the best pricing strategy for maintaining low CTR keywords?

[spike2131]

I an ad up for the keyword combination "brown widgets", which has provided me with a large number of good leads. As a percentage its been pulling about 1.5% of impressions, though it seems this is not enough for Google on this particular keyword combo, and they've dissabled it a few times. However, this combo is paying off for me, and I'd like to keep it active.

What is my best pricing strategy for keeping this combo from going inactive again? Should I raise my max cost per click offered in hopes that it will bring my add closer to the top of the list, and therefore hopefully bring me more clicks to raise my percentage? Or should I drop my max cost per click, to knock it to a lower spot in the list so google won't judge my low click percentage as harshly?

Thanks,

Bobby

[Fischerle]

That's a good question which, unfortunately, can probably only be answered through experimentation. I personally would raise the max cost per click, or if it's not already exact match, experiment with that also.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, spike2131!

What is my best pricing strategy for keeping this combo from going inactive again?

One other really important tip (unrelated to pricing) and assuming the keyword is not used as an [exact match], would be to use a long list of negative keywords to prevent your ad from appearing where you wouldn't want it to.

For additional info may want to follow the link below, from the AdWords FAQ:

What are keyword matching options?
[adwords.google.com...]

Also, take a look at the Keyword Matching Demo on this page:
[adwords.google.com...]

AWA

<edit>added a few words for clarification</edit>

[edited by: AdWordsAdvisor at 6:38 pm (utc) on Oct. 29, 2004]

[martinibuster]

What is my best pricing strategy for keeping this combo from going inactive again?

Pricing is a good place to start. But there are other considerations, too. Some of the following suggestions may apply to you, some may not.

You may want to focus on narrowing down your clicks by getting rid of irrelevant clicks:

• Aside from using your noggin to figure them out, throw some negative terms in there. You can find them by reviewing suggested variations in the Google Keyword Sandbox Tool and doing the negatives on the ones that are innapropriate
  
• Check the O tool for possible negative candidates
  
• Check your log records for possible negatives

Another technique for getting control of the CTR is to segment your campaign by Countries. Instead of a worldwide campaign (or semi-global i.e. US, UK, Canada, and Australia all together) break it down by individual Country.

You may want to expand your keyword combinations. From your previous research you may have found additional combos relative to "brown widgets" in your logs and the G Sandbox Tool. Think, "Buy brown widgets" etc. If you're doing quote instead of brackets you may want to bid on an expanded set of keyword phrases.

[edited by: martinibuster at 6:37 pm (utc) on Oct. 29, 2004]

[nalin]

In this sort of situation I tend to:

1) Add negative keywords (minimize bad impressions)
2) Add a phrase and an exact match variation of the keyword phrase (get statistics on which variation your audience is clicking)
3) Expiriment with creatives, add several and lett google prune them to the most clickable one(s) (compel the user to click more)

Monkeying with CPC might be a last step, generally 1 and 3 will give you more bang for the buck (or lack thereof). Going high might be helpful as might bidding minimally (I have noticed with some of my compaigns it seems that higher position takes higher ctr to stay in good standing), and working your way up.

[spike2131]

Well, I've moved it to its own separate ad group, given it the keyword combo [brown widgets], and knocked the max CPC down to the minimum.

I decided to go lower rather than higher on the price because cheapness runs in my family.

We'll see what happens.