For about 2 days things went ok and I was generating leads at a cost I was happy with. Lots of clicks and impressions. Then suddenly...bang.
Suddenly clicks and impressions disappear, the ad diagnostic tool telling me that my ads aren't showing because the keyword's CTR is too low.
This is not just for keywords that received thousands of impressions - I get the same diagnostic result for a keyword which generated 3 impressions and unfortunately got no clicks - hence a CTR of 0.00%.
It seems like I'm caught in a Catch-22. My ads are disabled because of low CTR. So is there a way to improve their CTR, or are they now gone for good? It certainly seems like the latter is the only logical conclusion. If my ads never show how can their CTR ever be improved?
I also can't believe google can disable a keyword for only getting 3 imps and no clicks.
Has google made it impossible for new accounts to survive?
I tried to explain this catch-22 situation to a google staff member today, but they didn't have a solution either and proceeded to talk around the issue for 20 mins, further compounding my despair. They then said I should increase my CPC.
I increased my CPC across the board to a ridiculous £7.00 with the theory that yes, I might lose money for a few days but at least I'd be getting some keyword history built up.
The higher bid did absolutely nothing to my account - ads still not showing. Even though I know for a fact that people are paying 7 times less for an ad with more or less the same ad text as mine - and they're appearing on page 2-3 for the same keywords!
Can anyone who has perhaps been in the same situation and found a solution please help me out here?
Here's hoping...
Yes, new accounts can get off the ground, but you have to tweak, tweak, tweak your copy. It may take awhile to find something that clicks (no pun intended) with your audience.
As for the 3 impressions one being disabled, I found Google will only give you a certain amount of time and if a keyword or keywords don't generate enough impressions, they'll just disable it. Just something to live and learn from, I guess.
Break down your campaigns into smaller ones that are strongly focused on one or two or a few keywords where the ad text really zeroes in on just those phrases. 2000 keywords for one set of ads often doesn't do as well as 200 ads with 10 keywords each. (Yes, it's more work.)
Use the Adwords tools to show the keyword/search phrase in your title whenever possible. This also immediately can draw attention because someone searches for "blue widget" and your ad will say "Blue Widget at Acme Inc" (etc).
You can do it, but it does take a lot of work and thought and copy rewriting sometimes.
JK
Ads show...then they go offline or are slowed like mad during the review process. You can either:
Sit it out
Get on the phone
sit it out then get on the phone!
It can take a while but hang in there!
Good Luck
I have an adwords account with a very small daily budget (around GBP 3) with a handful of campaigns, each with a couple of ads and about 10 keywords. Some of the campaigns have been running for several months and some of the keywords have never triggered any impressions, and some have triggered impressions but with very low CTRs.
But I've never had a keyword disabled for low impressions or low CTR, just the occasional one for low CPC (they range from GBP 0.01 to 0.25).
Have I just been lucky, or is it because it's such a low-budget account?
