The more general your keywords are, the more they will cost you per click, because there is more competition. It is in your best interest to ditch those general keywords, or at least move them into their own ad groups, and focus on your targeted keywords that are more specific to your product, service, or brand.

Recently, I was bidding on general, non-specific keywords, and there was no competition for them whatsoever. Mine were the only sponsored ads being shown, and my quality score was rated either “okay” or “great.” However, I was being asked to pay up to $0.50 per keyword bid in order to show ads for these general keywords. If I tried to lower the bids, they became inactive. I e-mailed Google for a solution that would lower my bids, and this is what they came up with:

“Effective keywords are relevant to your products and accurately reflect the content of your website. You might consider deleting general keywords, or moving them to a different ad group, as it’s important that an ad text and landing page are closely tied to the keyword list.

There is also a chance that your keywords that are well targeted may be too specific. Although specific keywords are usually better than general ones, keywords that are too specific can limit your ad exposure. For example, few people will likely search for the phrase “minocycline rifampin impregnated catheter.”

This worked for me to an extent. I did break out my keywords and put them into their own ad groups. About a week later I did notice that I was able to lower bids on some of my keywords, but not others. I’m still working on the issue, however.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 22nd, 2007 at 4:10 am and is filed under Advanced PPC Strategies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.