Google AdWords Spike in CTR/Clicks starting on 3/26
thejimster
4:36 pm on Mar 31, 2015 (gmt 0)
We noticed a pretty drastic spike in CTR and clicks starting on 3/26 on at least 4 AdWords accounts. It seems to have settled down a bit, but has anyone else noticed the same thing?
toidi
1:14 pm on Apr 1, 2015 (gmt 0)
I just started my campaign so i have no history to compare, but i have noticed they are ignoring negative keywords and putting my ads everywhere, including where i do not want to be.
i hope this is not normal or my adword experiment will be short lived.
are they honoring your neg keywords?
thejimster
1:19 pm on Apr 1, 2015 (gmt 0)
Yes, these are very mature campaigns.
Just a suggestion for your issue, as I'm unable to see what you've done, but be sure that your negative keywords are phrase match. I've seen first time adwords users make this mistake before. If your ads are in fact showing for terms you have correctly added as negative keywords, you should contact their support reps and get a credit. If adwords screwed up, and it's clear in your reporting, they'll give you a credit for sure.
RhinoFish
8:33 pm on Apr 1, 2015 (gmt 0)
"i have noticed they are ignoring negative keywords" example please? [you can change the word(s) to anonymize things]
toidi
2:31 pm on Apr 2, 2015 (gmt 0)
Keyword 'sale' and 'for sale' were ignored. I started searching out the entire search phrases (a big thank you to thejimster for that) the neg keywords were showing up for and added them to the list. This seems to be working but i will never know all the search phrases g is using or will use. And i am afraid by putting these long search phrases in the neg list i might be losing some searches i want.
this was only happening for 1 adgroup of 7 in 1 campaign.
RhinoFish
9:07 pm on Apr 3, 2015 (gmt 0)
What Negative Match type did you use for 'for sale'?
RhinoFish -- I just use bare words for negative keywords. It seems to work.
RhinoFish
10:20 pm on Apr 4, 2015 (gmt 0)
Bare words, meaning no brackets or quotes, means it's Negative Broad match. Which is the point I want to make... :-)
If you add a Broad Neg that is more than a single word, like for sale, the both words have to be in the search, as in AND logic. If you add a Broad Neg that is just a single word, it's has the same impact as adding a single word Phrase Neg, but it's different than a single word Exact Neg.
What I'm saying is... The OP said they weren't working properly, which I doubt is the case, I bet the OP doesn't fully understand how match types work on the Negative keyword side of the house. :-)
For example, Positive and Negative keyword matching logic doesn't work the same way.
FranticFish
3:01 pm on Apr 8, 2015 (gmt 0)
I have seen excluded words show up in keyword reports up to 1 month after adding them. I see this all the time. The less suspicious side of me puts it down to the fact that the reporting system isn't 100% accurate (for example, the click report shows keywords with impressions but 0 clicks). The more suspicious side of me wonders exactly how much money all those unwanted clicks add up to, one at a time, every now and then, from every account ever run on AdWords.
thejimster
3:15 pm on Apr 8, 2015 (gmt 0)
Ha, I guess nobody saw a spike in CTR on 3/26 :)....
Toidi, I recommend keeping an eye on the "Search Terms" report found under the Keywords tab, then the "Details" button. This will allow you to keep an eye on most of the phrases people are using that trigger your ads. When you see a trend of a word within those phrases that you don't want to show for, add that word to your negative keyword list as a phrase match. That's what I do in most cases.
Or you can do what Rhino suggests. I just don't like using broad match keywords in any way... They're just way too BROAD. Personal preference though.
FranticFish
5:25 pm on Apr 8, 2015 (gmt 0)
As RhinoFish said, broad negative is very different from broad positive. Mis-spellings and plurals that would be included in positive keywords at phrase match level are not included.
As an example, if I was bidding on "jimsters" on phrase match that would cover all of these - jimster, jimsters, jimster's, jimstres. With negative, you have to specify all four, even at broad match level.
