How tweaking Google AdWords keywords can lower conversions

Google AdWords campaigns are an increasingly popular strategy to increase traffic and conversions for most online businesses. The problem is that despite selecting keywords and phrases, based on sound research, conversions are not always as high as expected.

Sometimes, keywords that were producing well, suddenly become barely profitable. So should you increase your bids? Or maybe change your keywords?

The power of keywords

Imagine that your keyword phrase is ‘web design Brisbane’ which has been working well, but even though it is producing lots of clicks – conversions have suddenly dropped to nearly zero. When you check the Search Terms Report in Google you notice that ‘best web design in Brisbane’ is producing high conversions and the cost-per-conversion is low.

So you add that keyword phrase to your adgroup and the conversions increase as expected. Then you notice that even with this keyword phrase, the conversions begin to slow – so you tweak the bids – but nothing works.

Is there a solution?

Adjust your bids: Check the Dimensions tab and look at the conversion rates by day of the week and time of day. You might see some golden opportunities that you are missing.

Add negative keywords: Negative keywords reduce your costs by making it more likely that your ad will be shown to interested viewers and increasing your conversions. Check through the Search Terms Report for keywords that don’t convert well and try them as negative keywords. In our example we could try adding the exact match ‘web design Brisbane’ as a negative keyword in this adgroup.

Any searches with an exact match to ‘web design Brisbane’ will not see our ad, but it will be shown when there is an exact match to ‘best web design in Brisbane’ – the keyword phrase that was converting well.

Simple tweaks like these can make all the difference to your conversions, but sometimes nothing works and you need to find fresh keywords and phrases for your Adwords group. If your conversions remain low then testing new Adwords groups is an effective strategy.

Some keyword phrases might produce low conversions, but the cost-per-conversion is also low, so it might be worth keeping this Adword group. Other times you unexpectedly have high conversions from one adgroup, which might fluctuate over time, but overall continue to produce good conversions. In this case it is not worth trying to improve your conversions by tweaking the keywords – if it works, just leave it alone and don’t tempt fate.

The real key to AdWords campaigns is not to keep swapping and changing your keywords intermittently. Do your research and be prepared to test different groups over time. If you have ad groups that are cost effective and provide sensible conversions, messing with this can create more trouble than it’s worth. Stick with the keywords that work, remove those that clearly do not convert and keep testing.

For more information on a how AdWords campaigns can help your business, please call us on 07 3333 2932 or complete our enquiry form.