In an ad group, does google sooner or later disable all keywords that have ctr below .05%? or does it disable the ad?Johnn, it would probably be more accurate to say that keywords will eventually be disabled if they do not meet the CTR standard. The actual standard, though, can be less than 0.5% depending on position: it is slightly lower for each lower position.
Ads are not themselves disabled.
AWA
And the standard can be much higher too!
I've run quite a few ads using Adwords and I don't believe 0.5% is the minimum threshold CTR, at least when there are few competitive ads. I've repeated this scenario several times always exceeding the 0.5% criteria (sometimes quite a bit) on a daily basis and poof the key words jump to disabled so quickly you never get a chance to see "in trial" or "on hold". I'd have to sit and constantly monitor the account to see the intermediate states. It seems the key is an actual lack of competition for the keywords in question.
Then there's all the Adwords if's and's or but's:
[adwords.google.com...]
Important Reporting and Analysis Notes
• The performance monitor takes only your performance on Google properties into account.
• The CTR displayed in your reports includes expanded matches (from the broad keyword matching option) and ad network distribution. However, because our performance monitor doesn't consider these statistics when evaluating your account, your keywords may still disabled even if your reports show that you're above the minimum required CTR.
• Not all ad network channels have the same minimum CTR requirements. Therefore, your ads may be eligible for some but not all placement possibilities.
• The best way to monitor your keywords (and ensure your ad delivery remains uninterrupted) is to review the keyword status column on your keyword summary page. Learn more about the keyword status column here.
Now I'll go through and optimize using exact match, etc. For this phrase I will still get 0.6% CTR and be put back to disabled. Or if I'm lucky I'll get slowed, it seems like you can actually run a long time in the slowed state. Very frustrating because I'm sure I'm getting reasonably targeted clicks.
Of course there are workarounds, but the keyword here is; it is a lot of needless work.
There must be some ad network that has set the CTR so high no one can statistically achieve it for any period of time for certain keywords. Perhaps a network owner will chime in?
Well back to work!
If a certain network's minimum CTR is too high, ads simply won't show on that network (let's say AOL). This should have no influence on the same ad running on Goolge itself. If the clicks in your 0.6 CTR come from Google's network partners but not from Google.com itself, your CTR on Google itself is below .05, causing the keyword to be disabled.
The best thing to improve that is experiment with ad copy and add negative keywords. But first delete the disabled keyword. Don't try to reintroduce it unless you deleted it first.
Thanks! What I'm already trying is disabling the search network, not that I want to, but perhaps this way I can see what Google's CTR is. Is there another way? (Note: at this time it looks like the ad is suspended for some other reason, no new impressions, unless the delay today is very long)
Why hide the actual CTR statistic being used to control the status of keywords? I was looking at the CTR for the keyword itself?
Is there a report that provides additional information above and beyond the campaign management pages?
Thanks for the input.
I still think Google is not as smart as all of us give them credit for. with their kind of money behind AdWords, I compare their business model to an unguided boulder rolling down a hill. No matter which side of the rock you are on, you become a part of history.
[edited by: engine at 3:59 am (utc) on Nov. 16, 2004]
[edit reason] No urls, thanks. See TOS [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]
