Can't figure out Adwords!!!

Without seeing exactly what your settings are I can't give a lot of advice and I myself am a PPC newbie.

1. Are you geotargeting the ads? <---- setting ads to display only for searchers in MI or even more targeted to the Lowell, MI area?

2. There are many more keywords to bid on. Vinyl replacement windows, Low E replacement window, energy star rated vinyl replacement window, Lowell MI replacement window, etc.. <---- this is where being an expert in your field or being passionate about something comes in.

Replacement windows is way too general of a keyword, to get an estimated ad position 1-3 you are looking at $2.58 - $3.62 per click and there are over 800 bidders in Google's sponsored links. Yet replacement windows lowell, mi has 1 ad showing in Google's sponsored links and not enough data to give a CPC estimate in the adwords sandbox. If you did a phrase match on this it will lead to less traffic, but more highly targeted traffic .

I know this doesn't address your specific question, but as I stated above I don't think we can really tell you the problem with your ad not showing. I would do as James did and contact google to figure out why your ad isn't showing if you really want to use those keywords.

You need to sit down with your friend and figure out all the key phrases a person might use to find his services. I gave a few options above and unless he is nationwide, then geotargeting is a must in promoting his business. You don't want someone from California clicking on his ad if he doesn't sell/install windows there do you?

I'm assuming what you are doing with this campaign and basing the advice I'm giving upon my assumptions. So ignore the advice if you are already doing this. If you are already doing what I am suggesting.

Brian Weaver - Affiliate Marketer in Training
@profwebs on twitter
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Hey Chopper,

I just spent another half hour chatting with Google and I feel like I’ve gained a HUGE amount of knowledge, so I figured I would share it with you and others.

By the way, does anyone know where I can get a magic Google decoder book? If one more person tells me the quality score is based on many factors, I’m going to scream. LOL

The representative I spoke with told me the best way I can increase my quality score is to reorganize my keywords since I currently only have one keyword per ad group. I asked them if my keywords currently have too low of a quality score to show on the front page, will reorganizing them be enough, or will I also need to raise the bid enough until they get more impressions and clicks, since they’re not going to get that on the second page. I was told that reorganizing may be enough, but Google can take up to 2 weeks to show the improvements. I told her I was worried that in 2 weeks my keywords could be disabled with a bid price of $10, but she said when that happens, it’s usually because of low landing page quality and not keyword quality.

Another thing she told me, which goes against what I’ve heard from many people, but makes a lot of sense, is to get rid of duplicate keywords, because it can mess up your results.

Instead of bidding on every keyword using all 3 matching types, it’s probably better to bid on most keywords using the broad match type and have a very good negative keyword list. Unless it’s an extremely broad keyword like window replacement, then you might want to do it as phrase or exact. In that case, you could do “window replacement” and “replacement window”, because Google would see them as 2 different terms. Where you run into trouble is when you bid on

Replacement Window
“Replacement Window”
[Replacement Window]

This is pointless, because the broad match covers all the other match types, so they’re not necessary. My account definitely has lots of duplicate keywords, so that’s probably something that’s really hurting me. Hopefully by getting rid of the duplicates and reorganizing, I can have a very focused and strong campaign.

Hope this info helps.

James

I'm not sure if I believe Google as much as I did earlier today. I've done some research and everyone is saying to start with all 3 match types. I've always used it in the past and this is the only time I've had it affect my quality score, so I'm thinking it might be something else.

Maybe Google didn't like the fact that I only had one keyword per ad group.

James

One keyword per ad group with all three match types has worked fine for many campaigns I've even seen (and run) but it's not always totally necessary if all of the keywords are related. We have campaigns that Google has built for our clients that bid only on broad match. Yet, multiple match types will give you impressions on each different match type (but at a different CPC).

Quality score can also pertain to the actual keyword itself. If a word is not totally relevant or doesn't get a lot of searches, it can have a lower quality score and thus a higher CPC. Th only way to tell is to run it. Those local campaigns that are geotargeted are tougher to generate really relevant keywords on that get a lot of impressions. I have a hairdresser that I run a campaign for that gets almost no impressions. Not good.

Here are some general tips for keyword strategy straight from Google:

1. Do add all singular and plural variations of a keyword (i.e. shoe, shoes).

2. Add relevant keyword variations (i.e. high heels, sneakers).

3. Always add negative keywords (i.e. –snow, -orthopedic).

4. Refine or eliminate non-performing keywords!

5. Expand successful keywords.

6. Don’t add irrelevant terms.

7. Don’t add general terms.

8. Keep keywords focused around a central theme.

9. Ask yourself: Would a reasonable person searching on this keyword find my ad potentially irrelevant??

These are some ad writing tips also from Google:

1. Do think about the type of user that may click on your ad and write ads to catch the user’s attention.

2. Do reflect the keyword concept in the ad text.

3. Do try to use emotional messaging.

4. Do use keywords in ad text.

5. Do test multiple ads (questions, exclamations, call to action phrases, etc.)

6. Don’t use generic language of landing pages.

7. Don’t make your ads look like everyone else’s.

Finally, this is how the whole shebang works:

Real CPC = Max. CPC + Quality Score

Max. CPC = What You Set as Your Max.

Quality Score = Account History + Click Through Rate + Keyword & Ad Text Relevance + Landing Page Relevance + Landing Page Load Time + Some Other Things Google Won’t Say.

The rest is all testing, tweaking, and experience.