PPC Management: The Value Of Relevance
Google sent its advertisers into a panic back in mid 2005 when it began to implement a new keyword status policy. Each keyword in their system was assigned a minimum bid requirement. The minimum varies widely anywhere from 2 cents to a dollar or more for some keywords.
Google will just put the keyword in your ad on inactive if you don’t want to put up a minimum bid that meets the requirements, then your ad wont show when people come searching on that term. If you are willing to put up the bid, then your ad will show up.
There was a hoard of people who saw their cherished 5-cent minimum bids raise all the way to 10 and 20 cents or more. There were some who had based their sales plan completely on 5-cent click who believed it would ruin their productivity.
It didn’t. If Google deactivates keywords and demands higher bids for them, you’ve got two options, not just one: (1) Bid what Google asks, or (2) tweak the copy of your Google ad to convince Google’s computers that the ad is relevant, thereby lowering the minimum required bid.
If you are thinking of choosing option 1, make sure you really need to and that your budget can support that decision. With the second choice -this is the recommended one-then use this device:
Put the keyword in to the headline of your Goodle AdWords ad.
If you can’t do that without screwing up the ad and making it a mismatch for all the other keywords, then do peel and stick. Take that keyword out of your list and put it into a new ad group by itself with an ad that uses it in the headline.
That will convince Google’s computers that you’re writing relevant ads, and you are likely to be allowed to bid a lower price. More importantly, you’re all but guaranteed a higher CTR by doing this.
It’s an unfortunate fact that you’re not really being judged on relevance here, you’re being judged on perceived relevance. Google’s system won’t necessarily offer you a lower minimum bid price because you’ve got a high CTR; the system will only do so if it sees that you’re using your keyword in the ad.
So when all is said and done, the test is not in whether you’re actually relevant to consumers; the test is only in what Google’s computers think looks relevant.
Still, by setting up its system this way Google is now forcing you to do with your keywords and ad groups what successful advertisers already do: break everything down into small, tight groups.
If you have keywords in your list that don’t show up in the ad, Google may well penalize you by putting your keywords into inactive status.
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