I am still playing with Google Adwords. It’s a new month and I have some ‘pocket money’ budgeted for PPC advertising. I spend a lot of time reviewing how Google Adwords works in detail. It has changed quite a bit from my last experience with it many many moons ago. And I think the time reading the help section was well invested. Last night I discovered the Google Adwords Magic. Right in front of my eyes almost all inactive keywords that asked for $1.00 or $5.00 bids became active WITHOUT placing $1.00 or $5.00 bids. It was amazing. It was almost midnight when I finally got the hint and discovered a major piece I was doing wrong.

No, I did not remove the keywords from my listings. I discovered (for me) how the new Google Quality Rank works and what needs to be done to meet the hidden or invisible requirements. On first testing I was able to get about 25 keywords activated without increasing my bids. On a second try I got over 500 inactive keywords to become activated. When I refreshed the screen at one point and the number of inactive keywords went from 597 to something less than 50, I felt so relieved and motivated - I can barely describe that.

So, what is the key to Google Adwords Quality Rank? There are many factors to it, but the two main pieces you will need to look at are the ad copy and your keywords. That probably does not tell you anything. What do you need to look at? You will need to make sure that your ads match your keywords and phrases as close as possible. Being too broad or not detailed enough will kill you. Here is an example of an ad:

Get Cool Widgets
We got the best Widgets for you.
Buy now. Low prices. GR8 Deal.
www.example.com

Keywords in use are:

green widgets, blue widgets, best prices, cheap widgets, looking for widgets, download widgets, where to find widgets, need widgets, where to buy widgets,
Now compare the keywords and the ad copy. While the ad copy looks good in general, it does not have much to do with the keywords. Which one of the keywords or phrases is shown in the ad copy? None. The only common word used is “widgets”.

From Google’s point of view the keywords do not match. The ad is written too broad. It is too generic compared to the keywords. Yes, the keywords are related to widgets in a certain way, but they do not really show up in the ad copy. Google will ask you to increase your bid (prices) or to optimize your ad a little better or to remove the keywords. Most people, and that includes me until last night, would try at one point to raise the bid because they do not know what is going on and are becoming desperate because all the “good” keywords are inactive.

Here is what I discovered and what worked for me. Your mileage might vary, but give it a try. In Google Adwords you have the option to associate several ads (ad variations) vwith the same keyword list. In the past I had used maybe 2 or 3 different variations for testing, never more. After reading some websites last night it dawned on me that I need to write more ad variations to match all my keywords. 90% of my keywords were not mentioned in my ads. A large group of keywords were inactive. So, I picked some of the inactive keywords and phrases and specifically wrote ads matching the keywords. It sounds difficult to do, but it is possible. I wrote 6 or 7 of those ads until I had those specific keywords and phrases covered. Then I went on to do some additional work and refreshed the Adwords screen after a while. It showed less inactive keywords. I checked and some of my keywords I had used in the additional ads were now active.

I got very excited and tested it again. 15 ads later I had a whole bunch of keywords and phrases packed into ad variations. I waited and refreshed the screen quite often and then it happened. The reddish message box alerting me of 597 inactive keywords suddenly changed. The new number was below 50 and a huge chung of former inactive keywords was suddenly active. I could feel my heartbeat going a little faster. I did it. I finally went up to the next level (if you want to call it so). Gosh, have I been stupid or what. A huge part of my PPC advertising problem was in my own hands to be solved and I just did not get it. I did not read carefully enough of how Adwords works and I did not spend enough time to even bother researching this. Instead I concentrated on other issues which might have been secondary and less severe.

So, here is a good piece of advice when using Google Adwords. Filter your keyword lists and make them as targeted as possible. Make sure you got the most important keywords covered. Then start writing ad variations around those keywords. Include keywords AND phrases into your ad copy. Be detailed and use exact matches between keyword/phrase and your ad copy. 3 words in a row will do it for longer phrases. Write 20 ad variations or write 200. Keep writing until most of your important keywords are active. When I followed that procedure I was able to reduce the number of inactive keywords to a very small number. That’s a key step of being successful with Google Adwords. Once you got the most important keywords covered, you can go more broad if you like to, to expand your keyword list.