1. I understand that rank number is ctr * max cpc, but your ctr may change so what ctr exactly we are talking about here? what period of time is taken into consideration when rank number is calculated?
2. also is there such a thing as ctr history, I mean if on some day your ctr dropped dramatically and then got back to normal bext day, would this ctr drop afect your rank number for ever? would it make sense to delete this ad and create a new one?
3. due to the recent broad-matching changes I had to convert some broad-matches to "phrase" matches, the result was terrible, my average position for ALL those ads dropped from 1.0-2.0 to 7.0-8.0 right away (I mean even the first few impressions after this change were somewhere at the bottom of the page or on the 2nd page)
and we didn't change max cpc or anything else
before it was
red widgets
-negative
-negative2
-etc
now it is
"red widgets"
"widgets red"
-negative
-negative2
-etc
how would you explain this and what would you do about this?
2) Once you start getting 'good' CTR for your ads, do NOT change them unless absolutely required. Changing ad copies frequently is not a good idea if they are already 'established'. That's because whenever you change the ad copy, they will be taken off the search partner network until they are reviewed by adwords editors. And it takes 24 - 48 hours for that to happen.
A better option would be to create a second ad copy (keeping the old one intact)
3) Obviously, there are more competitors for the keyword and hence your avg position has tanked. Suggestions -
- Add [red widgets] and [widgets red] too
- Use the broad matched keyword 'red widgets' but use the keyword suggestion tool to add more negatives (The tool displays the broad matched keywords)
- Increase the max CPC of your ads.
Obviously, there are more competitors for the keyword and hence your avg position has tanked
looks like competitors are still the same, broader match affected more general keywords that everyone had already been using
actually the avg. position is not too bad, dropped slightly - from 0.8-1.0 to 2.0-2.5 (can't explain this since the competitors are all the same, probably someone has increased cpc but for some reason I tend to think that was not the case) but ctr dropped dramatically
- Add [red widgets] and [widgets red] too
are you saying it makes sense to have
red widgets
"red widgets"
[red widgets]
more than one match-type for the same keyword and the same ad?
why?
Use the broad matched keyword 'red widgets' but use the keyword suggestion tool to add more negatives (The tool displays the broad matched keywords)
did it, everything google shows as broad match is in my negative list now, but the number of impression is still 5 time higher than before, I have this filling that google doesn't show some of broad matched keywords (probably most of them), actually my log file proves this
Increase the max CPC of your ads.
was thinking about this but looks like it should be about $20 to return to the previous avg. position :)
And I would presume that they would look at the ALL TIME CTR for determining the ad position.
i used to think they look at 2-3 day old weekly or daily ctr but who knows
also do you think red widget and widget red (broad match) are the same keywords from google's point of view and have the same ctr history?
I'd think so, but I have both for one of my ads (just out of curiosity :), sometimes google shows one of them, sometimes the other one thus they have different avg position and different ctr and I do not really understand how google chooses which one to display
