ouch..
all Providers are continuing to make changes, which will both beneficial for Advertisers and Partners.
lets just wait and see what happens.
Shak
Shak
A few weeks later we noticed that there were impressions showing up for it. Not the hundreds per day that were previously shown, just 30 or 40. We also started getting clicks at a good CTR. It is now fully back on line and doing not great but OK.
We made no changes to it in that time.
If the word was truly disabled, a day by day date range check would tell you roughly when the impressions and clicks came in. I wonder if they might have come in in the hours following when the keyword was disabled, due to server delays?
I only ask because, otherwise, this would be the first time I had ever heard of this happening in the year plus that I have been involved with AdWords.
And if it did happen, we would certainly want to track down why...
Yes, the content site served ads don't count to the CTR minimum, but if an ad is disabled on Google's site it will be disabled everywhere else too I believe.
It could also be that the ad has done badly on Google's network but performed OK on syndicated sites.
It could also be that it's a competitive arena and they don't want you cluttering up the space with ads that don't perform.
Don't aim for the floor. 1% is not difficult to achieve if you know the rules of the game.
The word had a red asterik. It was a search term where we had a number of other competing ads however they were all affiliate booking agencies while ours was a specific small accommodations location for a specific popular area. The original numbers were poor - only 2 or 3 clicks per thousand. The term was "country hotel" and as it was so general we were not surprised that we couldn't keep it in. As such, being lazy, I just left it there with the red asterik.
We were surprised when a few weeks later it started showing impressions but not in the numbers previously shown. It is now fully back on line and staying above .05% but not above 1%.
If the data is still online I'll try and take some time over the next day or two and dig into the actual numbers. I have a heavy schedule in the short term so bear with me.
NOTHING official out of Google HQ yet.
Shak, What's with the "yet"? I don't like that.
I'm not completely following the logic here. Google already pushes down your ad, if you have lower CTR. So why push it out altogher?
I addition, if your maximum CPC is lower than other ads, then your average position and CTR will be lower, too.
For example, an ad that would get 0.5% CTR with an average position of 8, may do 1+% CTR if a higher max CPC gave it an average position of 2.
The ad is just as relevant - it's the same ad - but the CTR is lower for lower positions.
As far as clicking on your own listing, I think that does make sense sometimes and I have done it. If you are willing to pay more than you are bidding but are not getting the 0.5%, it can be worth it for low volume search terms where only a few clicks will affect the CTR.
Right now, all ads have a minimum of 0.5% CTR. In the future, if all the ads have a 1.0% CTR, that means more surfers would be clicking on the ad rather than the free listings. That equals more revenues for Google.
Having a high CTR requirement means advertisers have to work a little harder to make the ads look attractive. This will avoid surfer 'ad blindness'.
>>> if your maximum CPC is lower than other ads, then your average position and CTR will be lower, too.
Not necessarily. If the max CPC is lower, but the ad is well written, its CTR will be higher and so will the ad position.
As a reminder the term is [snipped] with no quotes or brackets and I was and am bidding 5¢.
During the original active period it was showing us as average posistion 3.2.
Date Impressions Hits %
Jun 1/9 --1132 ----3---.002
Jun 10/15---0 -----0---.0
Jun 16/25--24------0---.0
Jun 26/30---2------0---.0
Jul 1/10---209-----1---.004
Jul 11/21--428-----7---.016
Jul 22/31---55-----0---.0
Aug 1/10----933----11---.011
Aug 11/21--2493----23---.009
Aug 22/31--2375----13---.005
Sep 1/10---3348----38---.011
Sep 11/21--2036-----9---.004
Sep 22/24---723-----8---.011
As far as I can recall we made a change to the copy however it was before the ad was red starred June 10.
Hope this info helps. Please note that this was not the site in my profile.
[edited by: Shak at 8:08 pm (utc) on Sep. 25, 2003]
[edit reason] no specifics, and AWA does not engage in stickies, thanks [/edit]
As to original question posed by thepurpledestiny, I'll see if I can find out more information.
One comment that I'd like to add though, is that a 1% CTR is not a lofty or unreachable goal. As I've mentioned in the past, the average CTR system wide for AdWords is at 2% or slightly above. And it is not unusual to see CTRs far in excess of that - well into the double digits, in fact.
My 2 cents: If you choose your keywords carefully, and focus on being specific rather than general (with both your keywords and your ads), a CTR of 2% and beyond is well within your grasp.
My top tips for an excellent CTR:
* design multiple Ad Groups, each one about a specific thing
* avoid general keywords, and instead,
* create a focused list of specific keywords for each Ad Group focusing on that same specific thing
* write a crisp and informative Ad that is clearly about that same specific thing
* put your best keyword in the headline if possible
* then to turn a click into a customer, send Google's user to the most appropriate page on your site for each Ad Group - by using the appropriate URL for each keyword
I suppose that's an advantage to me on marginal keywords since I know how to maximize CTR while many of my competitors are just small local business owners that slap up an ad.
When I first started using Adwords I often had trouble reaching 0.5% but I learned. It will be harder for some new users of Adwords to climb that learning curve.
In August, 13% of my keywords (that got at least one click) were below 1% CTR. They accounted for 16% of my total clicks and 16% of the conversions (I just spent 2 days last week calculating for the first time conversion rates for each keyword.)
My absolute most relevant keyword only pulled 0.96% CTR. The low CTR is because my average position stinks at 7.8 . (Okay, I admit it, I'm cheap. I don't pay a lot per click.)
I just don't see how an ad at average position 8 can pull a 1% CTR.
I have another good keyword at average position of 11.7 (CTR of 0.74%). The cost per conversion to me is actually quite good for that keyword. I bet extremely few, if any, ads with an average position of 12 will pull a 1% plus CTR.
It seems more likely that the cheaper advertisers will end up being pushed out, and the others will have to bid a little higher to get higher positions, at least for a few days a week, to maintain this CTR rate.
My problem is that it is a general "widget" keyword, so it gets a fair number of impressions quickly, but is also a primary word that many of my searches use instead of more qualified multi word terms (I know this from three years of Overture results). I have written my ad for this keyword so that I get very qualified clicks that result in about 10% buy for the $20 to $50 "widgets" that it targets with a sub 10 cent CPC.
So, baring the option of clicking on my own terms which I think is covered under the "to generate fraudulent impressions of or fraudulent clicks on Advertiser's ad" clause of the TOS, what options do I have to try to keep this good ROI keyword active?
In my opinion, this is the least used function to make general terms relevant. Sell green widgets, but want to bid on widget, then negative out red, blue, and purple, and now you're bidding on a keyword that takes out some of those queries.
Look through your server logs, pick out the search terms that people have found you under that aren't relevant to your product. You now have a list of negative keywords to apply to your campaign.
Also, think about the term and it's relative use. You'd be suprised how many people are advertising for a site in the state washington, but haven't used the negative keywords d.c., dc, etc, so now their ad is being displayed in washington dc even though it's not at all relevant.
I am fairly new with adWords, took control of it from the owner about 5 weeks ago (ok, he handed it to me and said do something with it, I do not understand it). Being a nube with PPC, I am quite amazed that out of almost 1000 keyword phrases, spread over 5 groups, that I have edited or set-up, only 5 have less than 1.0% CTR. I have quite a few that are receiving over 100 clicks per day @ 6-10% CTR. If only I was not in such a competitive market, I could probably nail CTR's over 75% (compared to our #1 competitor, whose logo happened to be plastered all over a 'blockbuster' this past summer). I have found CTR's maintainable @ 1.5% or better, except for the 5 that seem to be over-aggressivly bidded on. Our ROI is turning out to be pretty lucrative also. 50% of click throughs are making a purchase of $5 or more (think biggest order via our website was like US$6500.00). But even the small US$5.00 order, based on an average CPC of 34¢, is good on a product that is already marked up 66%.
well, my 2¢ worth
Even with a spot on advert using the keywords in title, 1% is just impossible. If this 1% rule were hard and fast Google would immediately lose all the advertisers on these keywords. So I'm sure the brainy men in Google's bean counting department have thought of that and have a backup plan ;)
