The Importance of Relevance in PPC Management
In the middle of 2005 Google began a new keyword status policy that put panic into the hearts of their advertisers. Now all of the keywords in Google’s system had a required minimum bid. The bid could be anything from two cents all the way to 1 dollar or more.
For those not willing to put up the minimum bid for a specific keyword, Google simply flips your keyword to inactive and your ad won’t show up when that term is used in a search. As long as you bid the minimum or more, they will show your ad.
Many watched as their precious five-cent minimum bids got jacked up to ten and twenty cents and more. Some who based their entire selling strategy on this minimum price thought it would kill their business.
Not So. Should Google demand a higher bid and deactivate your terms then you have more than one option: (1) You could give Google the bid they are asking for, or (2) You can play with your ad copy and try to get the Google computers to believe that your ads are relevant and by that means lower the minimum bid required.
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:
Take the keyword and stick it into the headline of your ad.
Here is what you need to do if putting that keyword in the headline throws off the match for all your other keywords. Use “Peel and Stick”. With this method you move the keyword from it’s original list and make it an ad group of it’s own with an ad whose headline has the keyword in it.
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.
By putting their system together this way Google is driving you to do what other more experienced marketers have been doing all along. That is they are separating their lists into small-scale groups with a narrow focus.
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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