Google's New Quality Score Going Crazy!
Google has recently made some updates to their quality score. Looking in my accounts and speaking with other Paid Search Managers, the effects have been dramatic. Keywords with a very low minimum bid going to $10 overnight! Google needs to fix these issues quickly.
From the quick research I have done, there are 2 quick things ppc'rs could do in the meantime to lower the minimum required bid.
1. I noticed plurals matter. If you are bidding on "widget" and your ad and landing pages have the plural "widgets" in them, your minimum bid will increase. Use the Google Keyword Tool to see which is searched more, the plural or singular, then optimize for that term. You can also create a specific landing page for each if they are both high volume. This must be done correctly or you will run into SEO duplicate content issues.
2. Place some of these words in phrase and/or exact match. Google may see them as more targeted and lower you min bid.
I have noticed, after the changes, sometimes the minimum bids do not change immediately so be patient. If nothing changes overnight, keep testing.
From the quick research I have done, there are 2 quick things ppc'rs could do in the meantime to lower the minimum required bid.
1. I noticed plurals matter. If you are bidding on "widget" and your ad and landing pages have the plural "widgets" in them, your minimum bid will increase. Use the Google Keyword Tool to see which is searched more, the plural or singular, then optimize for that term. You can also create a specific landing page for each if they are both high volume. This must be done correctly or you will run into SEO duplicate content issues.
2. Place some of these words in phrase and/or exact match. Google may see them as more targeted and lower you min bid.
I have noticed, after the changes, sometimes the minimum bids do not change immediately so be patient. If nothing changes overnight, keep testing.
2 Comments:
This morning, I saw many keywords for many different client accounts had been turned inactive and asked me to bid $5 or $10 on these keywords.
I called my Google rep, who agreed that these are high performing keywords and ads and that this shouldn't be happening.
This afternoon, I received an email from him letting me know that they are having a "technical issue and ... now identified the problem and expect to have this resolved later today."
So, advertisers don't need to worry about these issues today and restructure all of their accounts as you suggested as this is related to an error in the new quality score algorithm update.
More on this can be found at the DigitalPoint forums
Mark,
Thank you for the update. Hopefully the rep you spoke to is correct. The change in the min bids was dramatic so I am hoping you are right.
Thanks for your comment
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