Is there such a thing as too many keywords?

[aschow]

I'm concerned about having too many keywords within one adgroup. For example, if one of my products is modern sailboats, I might start with the keyword list:

modern sail boats
modern sail boat
modern sailboat
modern sailboats
modern sail boats for sale
modern sail boat for sale
modern sailboat for sale
modern sailboats for sale
modern design sail boats
modern design sail boat
modern design sailboat
modern design sailboats
buy modern sail boats
buy modern sail boat
buy modern sailboat
buy modern sailboats
modern boats
modern boat
modern boat
modern boats
etc...

You can see how it can get out of hand. You could create 1000's of keywords here. I find that even if I target a particular ad group to a very specific product and verbiage, I can still end up with 1000+ keywords.

I'm concerned that the large amount of extra keywords, which do not get clicks, could negatively effect the few keywords that do get clicks.

Any insight would be appreciated.

[Sujan]

I would take the 20 keywords with most impressions/traffic and give them their own adgroup. All this long tail stuff often isn't worth the time.

[SEMblahblah]

well...u can have a max of 500 keywords in an ad group..but u wouldn't want to do tht!
split these keywords and put them into different appropriate ad groups.
u can have an ad group like "buy modern sailboats" having all keywords related to "buy" and write an ad exactly on those terms.
then u can have a generic ad group like "modern sailboats" with all similar keywords and an ad like.."looking for sailboats?" and so on.
the idea behind this is to have a very closely-knit ad group so tht u can write very-very relevant ad.
another thing...poor performing keywords don't affect the performance of other keywords in the ad group directly but key words with very low quality scores would affect the quality score of the entire account in general..try getting rid of such keywords..would improve the quality of the account!

[Sujan]

> well...u can have a max of 500 keywords in an ad
> group..but u wouldn't want to do tht!

wrong. hard limit is 2000 keywords per adgroup.

[netmeg]

I think I heard or read somewhere that keywords with very low or zero impressions after some amount of time (30 or 60 days? I don't remember) get inactivated behind the scenes anyway.

[aschow]

Thanks for the responses, everyone.

How much, if any, does a long tail with no clicks, hurt the the quality of your high traffic keywords?

Is anyone out there of the opinion that the long tail is more beneficial than limiting yourself to only the keywords with the most traffic?

[aschow]

Also, some are saying that low quality score keywords effect the quality score of your account as a whole, but I can't find this documented anywhere. Does anyone know where this can be found?

[PaidToPlay]

aschow-

From this page:

[adwords.google.com...]

Here is the relevant text:

"Your account history, which is measured by the CTR of all the ads and keywords in your account"

[buckworks]

For word combinations that you want to cover but that don't get many searches, look for ways to cover them with less redundancy.

For example, if you had a broad match bid on

modern boat

your ad would automatically show for

modern sail boat
modern sail boat for sale
modern design sail boat
buy modern sail boat

... so you wouldn't need to bid on those phrases separately unless you wanted to give them special treatment.

I agree that it can be profitable to go after long-tail terms, but give careful thought to how you do it so you don't end up with campaigns full of redundant overlapping phrases.

[aschow]

PaidToPlay-

Thanks!

So the CTR of all keywords effects overall quality score. So this would mean that the following would not effect your quality score:

-a long tail that is not getting impressions
-paused or inactive keywords

Right?

[PaidToPlay]

Kwds with 0 impressions will have no impact on your account Qaulity Score. The same is true for deleted and inactive terms.

But paused terms may still be factored into the account QS.

When running a large account with a substantial long tail, make sure there are not 100's of kwds each getting a few impressions and no clicks.

This adds up to a poor account QS that will drag down your good terms.

[shorebreak]

In my experience, the average mid to large advertiser in the U.S. has 15-20K keywords, and 3-5K in UK & Europe.

[aschow]

PaidToPlay-

So you're saying that active keywords that have 0 impressions will have no impact on your quality score, however paused terms may? Would you please help me to understand this? The way I see it, neither are getting impressions so if one of them doesn't effect quality score than the other shouldn't either.

[PaidToPlay]

Sorry for the confusion.

You are correct; any keyword, paused or active, with 0 impressions will have no impact on the account QS. But paused terms with impressions and low click through rates will still have an impact.

If keywords are doing poorly, I recommend you delete them from your account rather than to pause them.

[fenway]

shorebreak-

thats about what i've seen as well. I would be curious to know if you, or others, think these mid to large advertisers get any real value with this many.

Its been my experience, in some cases, that many older adwords accounts for the mid to large guys still have a lot of junk in them since they got passed around from agency to agency over the years..and its the same 10% of keywords driving 95% of the revenue.

[eWhisper]

I think this very much depends on your market and focus. I've seen accounts in where 200k+ keywords receive good traffic each month, and others where only a couple thousand are necessary.

You need to make sure your system can handle the number of keywords you have and have the ability to make the appropriate decisions upon those keywords.

[JimmyH]

Does the lowered QS from long tail words drag down the entier account, or just the campaign in which there are lots of KWs with low impressions and CTRs?

[deep_alley]

You are right netmeg - my understanding is that google has something like a 'non ad serving' bucket. Keywords which aren't searched for often (not sure of the number) move into this bucket. So even if you have bought the word and someone is looking for the exact same word, google will not display your ad (for that specific keyword - a broader matched keyword might pull your ad though).

I always thought that the number of inactive keywords in an account would affect the over all quality score of the account. Can anyone help me with this?