Stung by the Google Killer Bee (the google slap)…
November 3, 2008 – 5:59 pmThe Google Killer Bee hurts like no other. You invest a load of your time and energy into creating a campaign only to see sting you with high bid prices, low rankings, and more often than not, ads that are NOT EVEN BEEN SHOWN!
After 6 years in the Adwords game, I had one of my Adwords campaigns stung by the Google slap for the first time. Boy was it ever a shocker when I looked in this particular campaign to see no clicks because my ads were shut off due to “poor” Quality Score.
I yelled at the computer screen…“What do you mean “low” Quality Score!”
I have relevant ads, a high CTR (over 5% on average), my landing pages were relevant, and I had internal links on my pages.
Any guesses as to what my problem was?
My ad groups were too big!
I am not talking about a huge 500 keyword groups. I thought my ad groups with fewer than 20 keywords were tightly grouped, but apparently Google was de-ranking me for this.
Alright, if Google is going to play this relevance game, I can play just as hard. There comes a point where your campaign cannot be created any better…and the only thing that I could do is tighten my ad groups to the point where they were so targeted, Google could not have any more complaints.
Here is what I did:
I took an ad group like this:
-wealthyaffiliate
-wealthyaffiliate review
-wealthyaffiliate university
-wealthy affiliate
-wealthy affiliate review
-wealthy affiliate university
-does wealthy affiliate work
-become a wealthy affiliate
-join wealthy affiliate
……and 10 more similar keywords
Then I created a “brand new” campaign and I ripped them apart into smaller ad groups like this:
Group 1:
-review for wealthy affiliate
-wealthy affiliate review
-wealthy affiliate reviews
-wealthy affiliate website review
Group 2:
-wealthy affiliate university
-join wealthy affiliate university
-wealthy affiliate university review
-wealthy affiliate university website
I kept the ad groups to a size of 5 keywords or less, following a common keyword them. Notice in the first “wealthy affiliate review” and in the second ad group, “wealthy affiliate university” is the common theme.
And then I wrote targeted ads for both groups, including ALL keywords within the ad groups within the ad (this is critical).
Guess what happened?
My ads instantly showed up within the Google paid search results, my keywords obtaining a “great” Quality Score (9/10 most of them), and my new campaign was alive and thriving!
So, even if you are following the rules, Google continues to make things harder for weak advertisers to succeed, and easier for strong advertisers to become massively successful.
Ever since these changes within my campaign, my ads have never been ranked higher and my CTR has exploded (many ad groups over 30% CTR)!!
Here is a little checklist that you need to follow to have a campaign that Google absolutely loves:
- Relevant keywords (3+ terms in length)
- Small and tight ad groups (less than 10, ideally less than 5 keywords)
- Relevant ads (that contain the keywords)
- Relevant landing pages (that contain the keywords, but doesn’t spam them)
- Multi-page site
Cover these basis and you are on your way to PPC profits….send the Google bees back to their hive or sick them on your weaker competition!
Hope you enjoyed this and if you are having trouble with your Quality Score, go over the checklist. Chances are you may be doing one or more things slightly wrong!
Take Care,
Kyle
Wealthy Affiliate
www.wealthyaffiliate.com
PS. Want to become a PPC expert? We are just 8 days away from something big, REALLY BIG! If you have ever wanted to master the PPC field you are in luck. 8 DAYS AWAY!
7 Responses to “Stung by the Google Killer Bee (the google slap)…”
Great advice.
I’ve always kept my ad groups as tight as possible, in most cases less than 10 keywords every time. It’s more work, but this post proves why it’s worth the effort.
There’s only one way to play this game, and that is to play it the way Google wants you to play it.
Keep ‘em happy
Marcus
By Marcus on Nov 4, 2008
You will get the highest CTR and quality score if you have one keyword per group. There is no better way.
There are tools that do this for you if you want but try it and you will improve your profits.
Regards
James
http://www.DoubleDigitCTR.com
By James Schramko on Nov 4, 2008
In an idealistic world, absolutely James…one keyword per ad group will RULE. However, you can get away with more depending on the relevance and the common keyword theme that you are targeting.
A great PPC campaign can still have up to 10 keywords per ad group…where as a “good” one may have up to 20, but you are opening yourself up to a Google slap at this point.
If you don’t play Google’s game, someone else will and take your traffic (and revenue) in the process!
Cheers
Kyle
By Kyle on Nov 4, 2008
Excellent post (and comments) for someone like me (ie not exactly a newbie but still soooo much to learn!)- short, sharp and easy to understand and follow as I make the move up a level (or two!)
Many thanks and more like it please!
By John on Nov 4, 2008
I think that was the problem with mine as well. It’s a lot of work but it is worth it when you know that you can beat all your competitors who don’t know any better.
By Paula on Nov 4, 2008
Thanks for the tips Kyle.
But I have one question, what about total number of adgroups?
You were saying it is better to have less than 5 keywords per adgroup, which mean eventually we will have more adgroups.
Will having to many adgroups in one campaign hurt our quality score?
By Max on Nov 5, 2008
Hi Max,
Having multiple ad groups within an ad group is not an issue. In fact, this is completely normal and depending on the size of your campaign, 100+ ad groups may be more than likely.
The key is to be relevant with your keyword selection, your ads, and also your landing pages. Google does not mind if you have several ad groups…they are more concerned with the relevance of them.
Cheers,
Kyle
By Kyle on Nov 5, 2008