Further Reporting from the AdWords Frontier
by Sapphire (May 16, 2005)
I had wanted to see how my site tested with the most coveted keywords in the biz, so I threw them in. But it’s a waste of time: you get impressions, but no clicks. The ads you write - which are effective for other keywords - just don’t work for the biggies.
I took all the remotely general keyphrases out of the first campaign. Then I created a second one for another site, using only a handful of rather specific keyphrases, and an ad tightly tailored to one small section of the site. The result? A much-improved click-through rate on both sites.
I also lowered the bid amounts for clicks to a measely 18 cents on both sites. Oddly, I think that’s working out.
If you have any traffic at all, odds are the “referring sites” in your logs will show fairly lengthy keyphrases, rather than the single word or short phrase you wish you were #1 on. Take those phrases and make keywords and keyphrases out of them. That’s what you want in your AdWords campaign.
And watch your stats to see what searches you’re actually getting from AdWords. If you have a site that sells wicker storage baskets and you keep getting searches for “wicker Easter baskets” - something you totally don’t offer - use your Negative Keywords section in AdWords and ban the word “Easter”.
Posted in PPC
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