The Price of a Negative Keyword

Here at PrimeView, we strive to provide maximum value for every dollar our customers spend with us whether it’s a web site redesign, a local seo campaign or a pay per click campaign. We want you to be happy, and in the case below, allow us to show you how we managed to keep our customer happy with a very simple yet crucial step in running adwords campaigns.

Customer A has been running a thousand dollar pay per click campaign. With more or less an 80% bounce rate, and a conversion rate of 0.26%, the campaign was certainly getting sadder by the day. We stepped in at their behest  and took a look at their campaign, and at the onset noticed the lack of negative keywords.

What are negative keywords? Basically negative keywords are keywords you don’t want your ad from appearing. For instance, you’re company is selling red velvet hats. Now if you’re selling, you certainly don’t want your ads to appear in searches for red velvet hats DIY or how to make red velvet hats. Adding negative keywords to your campaign prevents you from spending on irrelevant keywords.

Now back to Customer A.

For the last 3 months, without them noticing, they have been getting clicks from a completely unrelated phrase. Upon further check, we discovered that they’ve spent roughly $600 for clicks for that phrase alone. A phrase, that remember, is completely unrelated to the product they’re selling! Adding insult to injury, the word usually costs them less than a dollar per click so if you do the math…they’ve gotten 600 clicks for that phrase alone!

By just adding that phrase as a negative keyword, we have been able to save our client thousands of dollars in estimated annual costs. That’s just the first step, we’re keen on cutting out clicks that don’t convert, focus on keywords that bring in business and get more relevant traffic for their spend.

Take away:

If you’re doing your Pay per click campaign without the help of an agency, it pays to review your search queries on a daily basis so you can immediately weed out unrelated phrases and add to your negative keywords. There are also available keyword lists on the web you may find useful to add to your campaign. Get a fresh set of eyes to look at your search queries to see if you missed a phrase or two. For the more advanced customer, you can also use the keyword tool of adwords to search for negative keywords by entering your keyword and checking the corresponding “related” keywords the tool will suggest. Filter your list and keep on adding those negative keywords!

This could mean spending more money on traffic that converts, than traffic that only drains your budget.

If you prefer PrimeView to run your PPC campaign, talk to us…we’re waiting for your call!!!