Decent CTR (I think) but 'at risk'!

[EZUser]

I have had keywords that go to 'at risk' status, but their CTRs aren't all that bad, so I think. This morning I had two, one with 3.2% CTR and the other with 2.5%. I thought those were decent CTRs, but I might be wrong.

Anyway, I want to keep these keywords because they bring in good business. I've tried increasing CPC but eventually adwords just goes ahead and disables them. Any suggestions?

[skibum]

That means the ads are geting great click through rates on Google partner sites. The CTR that matters for keeping ads live is just the CTR on Google so if people on AOL and other partner sites love your ads but Google users don't then the ads will probably get disabled.

[Robino]

Skibum is right.

Are you making use of the different matching options? Adding negative keywords may be a big help if you're not already using them.

[EZUser]

Thanks for the replies guys!

What if I use "widgets" or [widgets] instead of negative words, because I'm not sure what negative words to use? Most of the keywords I have are actually key phrases, so would using quotes or brackets help to keep down impressions from searches that may contain some of the words in my phrases?

[wheel]

You need to examine your logs to get negative keywords. It'll increase your click through rates. If you're a retailer targetting 'fried shrimp', your ad will show up on 'fried shrimp wholesalers' - and you'll get no clicks from that traffic. Or you'll pay for some and they'll be garbage traffic. But you won't know what this traffic is unless you check your logs. It's a reasonably important item - don't underestimate this as it can dramatically increase your CTR.