Avoiding inactive words for search

Automatically?

[silverbytes]

When I check my adwords campaign I often find intactive words for search, seems like the bid raised and now I must pay more for those terms. I understand that if I don't those words will negatively affecting my campaign.
So when I'm not in the mood of paying that much I just delete those. All that process takes time. Is there any way to ensure you will not have "inactive" words and set a max, you are disposed to pay for?

[wedouglas]

since when does inactive hurt your campaign? Why would something that isn't runnning hurt your campaign?

[silverbytes]

Because it makes your ads not show so often as if you have none inactive. But that was not the question.

[ronmcd]

Why would an inactive word make your ad not show as often for the active keywords? As long as your daily budget is high enough your ads will have full exposure for the active keywords.

[Israel]

If you click the '?' at the bottom of the "Inactive" warning box one of Google's suggestions is:

Do nothing.
Let the keywords stay inactive for search. If search behavior works in your favor -- such as if more users search for your keyword, thus increasing its relevancy -- your keyword might be re-activated.

(from What do I do if my keywords are inactive for search?)

[Israel]

What perplexes me is why some keywords show "Active" status, do not ever get shown and then the Ads Diagnostic Tool reports:

Ad not shown ¦ Reason:Your maximum cost-per-click (CPC) bid is lower than the minimum CPC bid recommended by the system for your keyword.

What precisely is the distinction between "true inactive" and these "stealth inactive" keywords that you won't learn about unless you test them yourself by searching or relying on the shaky reliability of the "Ads Diagnostic Tool"?

We don't appear to be talking about that brief moment that "Inactives" are sometimes given a chance at an impression as has been claimed. These keywords will remain dormant, but "Active" forever (so far anyway).

Sounds like a bug here or just an additional obstacle to managing your campaigns. If the keyword is worthwhile and remains "Inactive" at least you can throw more money at it to get it to show. These other non-showing keywords you'll just assume get no searches and delete.

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Not to go on and on, but also when one activates an "Inactive" keyword to the alleged mininum bid required to show, invariably it jumps to the #1 or #2 position. We've lost the flexibility to bid less and settle for a perhaps more long-term profitable lower position.

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Just curious, are there people who think the Active/Inactive method is working as Google intended?

That is, aside from that single advantage of being able to salvage a keyword that was forever doomed under the old "Disabled" status.

So many good keywords have no ads showing for them now. I suppose because everyone is being asked for a ridiculous amount to activate them. Makes you feel just a little better....

Israel

[sharewarepro]

"Just curious, are there people who think the Active/Inactive method is working as Google intended?"

It depends on what we think their intentions were.

Google are effectively playing a very delicate balancing game.

They need to keep everyone happy - their advertisers, the users of their search engine, and their accountants/shareholders.

Personally I think their intention with the Active/Inactive system was to make more money. Nothing more and nothing less. And why not?

It's all basic supply and demand.

Dave Collins
SharewarePromotions

[jtara]

There are products that use the API and purport to surf the bid to maintain a desired position.

I'm going to try one. They have a free trial that will work only for a few keywords.