Comments on: When to Pause or Delete Ads & Keywords To Save Your Quality Scores http://www.ppchero.com/when-to-pause-or-delete-ads-keywords-to-save-your-quality-scores/ Heroic Feats of Pay Per Click Management Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:50:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 By: Bethany Bey http://www.ppchero.com/when-to-pause-or-delete-ads-keywords-to-save-your-quality-scores/comment-page-1/#comment-183201 Bethany Bey Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:50:00 +0000 http://www.ppchero.com/?p=4684#comment-183201 Hi Marc, I download all my deleted keywords to an excel spreadsheet every so often and try to make notes of why they were removed from the account. Then I can easily sort through these keywords when I want to add new ones to cross check. Hi Marc,

I download all my deleted keywords to an excel spreadsheet every so often and try to make notes of why they were removed from the account. Then I can easily sort through these keywords when I want to add new ones to cross check.

]]> By: Marc Boers http://www.ppchero.com/when-to-pause-or-delete-ads-keywords-to-save-your-quality-scores/comment-page-1/#comment-183192 Marc Boers Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:06:00 +0000 http://www.ppchero.com/?p=4684#comment-183192 How do you remember that you deleted the keywords (and will not try them again in the future)? How do you remember that you deleted the keywords (and will not try them again in the future)?

]]> By: Ashley http://www.ppchero.com/when-to-pause-or-delete-ads-keywords-to-save-your-quality-scores/comment-page-1/#comment-117375 Ashley Tue, 18 Jan 2011 12:26:39 +0000 http://www.ppchero.com/?p=4684#comment-117375 Hi Amber. I have a question regarding paused keywords. In one of my accounts I have 1,700 kw currently paused which all have a QS of 2. Should I be switching all of these to delete to help boast the live KW's in the account? Hi Amber. I have a question regarding paused keywords. In one of my accounts I have 1,700 kw currently paused which all have a QS of 2.

Should I be switching all of these to delete to help boast the live KW’s in the account?

]]> By: Nick http://www.ppchero.com/when-to-pause-or-delete-ads-keywords-to-save-your-quality-scores/comment-page-1/#comment-107980 Nick Fri, 10 Dec 2010 18:55:20 +0000 http://www.ppchero.com/?p=4684#comment-107980 Quick question. Why are my deleted keywords within a group still leaving impressions? I scroll through the keyword list, sort for results of TODAY, notice some keywords have been deleted, but still notice that they have left impressions. What gives? Quick question.
Why are my deleted keywords within a group still leaving impressions?
I scroll through the keyword list, sort for results of TODAY, notice some keywords have been deleted, but still notice that they have left impressions. What gives?

]]> By: Ari http://www.ppchero.com/when-to-pause-or-delete-ads-keywords-to-save-your-quality-scores/comment-page-1/#comment-83217 Ari Mon, 21 Jun 2010 12:12:43 +0000 http://www.ppchero.com/?p=4684#comment-83217 You dont need to delete. Pausing if fine enough. I just saw this comment from Adwordspro sarah: There is no difference between pausing and deleting in terms of Quality Score. And, because you can always 'undelete' Deleted keywords- there really isn't much difference in function either. I think 'deleting' just makes some people nervous :) http://www.google.ru/support/forum/p/AdWords/thread?tid=23df5c9d06833fa6&hl=en You dont need to delete. Pausing if fine enough.

I just saw this comment from Adwordspro sarah:
There is no difference between pausing and deleting in terms of Quality Score. And, because you can always ‘undelete’ Deleted keywords- there really isn’t much difference in function either. I think ‘deleting’ just makes some people nervous :)

http://www.google.ru/support/forum/p/AdWords/thread?tid=23df5c9d06833fa6&hl=en

]]> By: Craig Danuloff http://www.ppchero.com/when-to-pause-or-delete-ads-keywords-to-save-your-quality-scores/comment-page-1/#comment-71598 Craig Danuloff Sun, 14 Feb 2010 17:51:22 +0000 http://www.ppchero.com/?p=4684#comment-71598 Amber, interesting idea to discuss. But after reading your material carefully, I come to a very different conclusion. It seems that the following is true: 1) The historical performance of any keyword is not removed when that keyword is paused or deleted. OK, nobody should have expected that it was. 2) There is no difference between pausing or deleting a keyword, EXCEPT deleting prevents you from un-pausing it in the future. Duh. And it doesn't stop you from re-creating it and thereby attaching to the old Quality Score either so that is just sill. 3) If you pause/delete high Quality Score keywords and leave poor Quality Score keywords running, then the impact of your pause/delete was negative on your entire account. Duh 2.0. Nothing said in the quotes you provide, nor anything else I've seen suggests that an individual keyword, while paused or deleted, has any impact on the Quality Scores calculated from that day forward other than the impact on historical CTR of the account (and target URLS) incurred during the time before it was paused. In other words, while it can't remove the past, pausing or deleting a poor performing keyword has exactly the same effect. Please let me know if I'm misunderstanding something. Amber, interesting idea to discuss. But after reading your material carefully, I come to a very different conclusion. It seems that the following is true:

1) The historical performance of any keyword is not removed when that keyword is paused or deleted. OK, nobody should have expected that it was.
2) There is no difference between pausing or deleting a keyword, EXCEPT deleting prevents you from un-pausing it in the future. Duh. And it doesn’t stop you from re-creating it and thereby attaching to the old Quality Score either so that is just sill.
3) If you pause/delete high Quality Score keywords and leave poor Quality Score keywords running, then the impact of your pause/delete was negative on your entire account. Duh 2.0.

Nothing said in the quotes you provide, nor anything else I’ve seen suggests that an individual keyword, while paused or deleted, has any impact on the Quality Scores calculated from that day forward other than the impact on historical CTR of the account (and target URLS) incurred during the time before it was paused.

In other words, while it can’t remove the past, pausing or deleting a poor performing keyword has exactly the same effect.

Please let me know if I’m misunderstanding something.

]]> By: Alan Rothstein http://www.ppchero.com/when-to-pause-or-delete-ads-keywords-to-save-your-quality-scores/comment-page-1/#comment-71441 Alan Rothstein Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:26:38 +0000 http://www.ppchero.com/?p=4684#comment-71441 Isn't the main google quality score on a three month rolling scale? The majority of your quality score will come from the performance of your account in the last three months. Isn’t the main google quality score on a three month rolling scale? The majority of your quality score will come from the performance of your account in the last three months.

]]> By: Matt Commins http://www.ppchero.com/when-to-pause-or-delete-ads-keywords-to-save-your-quality-scores/comment-page-1/#comment-71352 Matt Commins Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:31:19 +0000 http://www.ppchero.com/?p=4684#comment-71352 Great post! I too have always been an advocate of pausing keywords and ads instead of deleting them in order to preserve historical data. More importantly, I like to have keywords paused so I don't add the same keyword when add keywords from the Search Query Report. Great post! I too have always been an advocate of pausing keywords and ads instead of deleting them in order to preserve historical data. More importantly, I like to have keywords paused so I don’t add the same keyword when add keywords from the Search Query Report.

]]> By: Al Kuenn http://www.ppchero.com/when-to-pause-or-delete-ads-keywords-to-save-your-quality-scores/comment-page-1/#comment-71346 Al Kuenn Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:20:05 +0000 http://www.ppchero.com/?p=4684#comment-71346 Hi Amber, I have been focusing on the same things for my clients lately and it does work. I usually pause keywords for a month and then delete them. Great article. Its interesting how slowly the quality scores go up compared to how quickly they will go down.... Hi Amber,
I have been focusing on the same things for my clients lately and it does work. I usually pause keywords for a month and then delete them. Great article. Its interesting how slowly the quality scores go up compared to how quickly they will go down….

]]> By: Xurxo Vidal http://www.ppchero.com/when-to-pause-or-delete-ads-keywords-to-save-your-quality-scores/comment-page-1/#comment-71345 Xurxo Vidal Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:49:16 +0000 http://www.ppchero.com/?p=4684#comment-71345 Hi Amber, I've recently been told the same thing by our adwords reps too. Like you, I used to think that paused and deleted adwords did not impact quality score, but now the adwords team has made it clear that they do. And like Matthew, I too avoided deleting keywords and ads once adwords allowed us to pause them (I remember when you could only delete them), but our reps strongly hinted that there is also a difference between paused and deleted keywords and ads where paused ones can have a higher impact on the overall quality score than deleted ones. Specifically if a keyword has a very poor quality score (4 or less) with a large number of impressions and low CTR then deleting rather than pausing may be a much better course of action. Thanks for bringing this up because I'm sure many advertisers and PPC managers still believe that paused and deleted keywords have no bearing on their QS. Hi Amber,

I’ve recently been told the same thing by our adwords reps too. Like you, I used to think that paused and deleted adwords did not impact quality score, but now the adwords team has made it clear that they do.

And like Matthew, I too avoided deleting keywords and ads once adwords allowed us to pause them (I remember when you could only delete them), but our reps strongly hinted that there is also a difference between paused and deleted keywords and ads where paused ones can have a higher impact on the overall quality score than deleted ones.

Specifically if a keyword has a very poor quality score (4 or less) with a large number of impressions and low CTR then deleting rather than pausing may be a much better course of action.

Thanks for bringing this up because I’m sure many advertisers and PPC managers still believe that paused and deleted keywords have no bearing on their QS.

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