Beginners question

Some campaigns do not start - why?

[pontifex]

Folks, we started some campaigns for our products on AdWords and I am quite inexperienced in that game. We had (for example) a Widget campaign running last year and stopped it due to the lack of funds (deleted). Now I have started some new campaigns and these are running and making traffic. Yet 2 of the started campaigns do just not start to produce any hits... what is the reason for this?

thanks, P!

[Yoshimi]

It could be that there are low search volumes, or that your bids aren't high enough, or your ads could have been disapproved for some reason?

[pontifex]

Would disapprovement not be indicated? The search volume for some keywords is massive, the bid is solid - it just does not start to show... other campaigns almost instantly show at least some impressions...

[Yoshimi]

yes if the ad had been disapproved you would have a message, what QS is showing for the keywords in the account that isn't showing (or what message if there isn't a QS) just to check of some silly basics, the campaign is definitely turned on, and doesn't have any odd settings (i.e time targeting) and you have the time period set to the right dates (i.e you're not looking at figures for last month? I have been caught out by that one more than once)

Have you tried whacking the bid up? I once had a single keyword, for "brandbrand widget" I was at number 1 for 0.20 for "brand brand widget" I had to pay 6.00+ so it can happen that certain terms behave in an unexpected way.

[pontifex]

Yoshimi, I double checked the basics and that is fine... one campaign has 3 ad groups - 2 very granular for lower prices and these run. the 3rd ad group is a bit broader and has 2 heavy terms in it - this is not producing any impressions.

my first gut feeling is, that ad groups with very tough keywords (like "car") are on hold until someone looked at it in person?

[netmeg]

Possibly. Are they Content or Search campaigns, or both?

If your keywords are as broad as "car" I'd not be surprised if it was on hold, or went down due to QS pretty quickly. That kind of overall broad keyword is a *hard* target these days; I'd not even attempt it myself (and I'm good)

[pontifex]

hi netmeg, its not that hard, but simliar... just testing out some landing pages with massive traffic (that was the plan, at least)... these are content+search runs.

but if you say, it could be the case it probably is! so - conclusion - if you want to have a campaign running right away, use granular long tail keywords?

[netmeg]

longer than one broad term, yes.