Poor performing adwords account - would a new account on a different subdomain be a good way to start a fresh?
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Hi
We have a client who has a poor performing adwords account and has suggested starting a new account with a different gmail account, different card details and a different subdomain. More specifically we will be using unbounce to create landing pages.
I was wondering the following:
Will Google be able to relate the new account to the old account? If so will they then use the old accounts history with regards to quality score etc...?
The keywords being targeted are in and around "email marketing" which is highly competitive - would a new account struggle at first and need to bid excessively high because of lack of history?
They have a high budget - does this affect how quickly and how Google looks at an account - will they get priority?
Would it be better to scrap this idea and pause the old campaign and start new campaigns in the same adwords account?
Would it be better to scrap this idea and repair the existing campaigns/ad groups?
Keen to get people's thought's on this one as I can't seem to find a clear cut answer from the web.
Thanks
Anthony
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Hi Jasmine
Thought I had already replied yesterday - obviously not.
Thanks for the advice about optimizing for clicks and when to change to optimizie for conversions. All taken on board!
We are still in the negotiation period with the client but i'm definitely a lot more confident that we will do a good job for our client taking on the advice received here.
Thanks again
All the best
Anthony
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Thanks for your feedback!
Where CTR is concerned, maybe putting the campaign on Optimize for Clicks and seeing which ads Google favors. Then pausing the lower CTR ones. After you have 15 conversions/mo from 1 campaign then you can put the ads on optimize for conversions. That will help bring down CPA.
I think keywords more like "help with email marketing" or "email marketing info" might be better than just the head term. But it really depends on exactly what you're offering in exchange for their contact info.
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Thanks Jasmine Aye - it really sounds like you know what you are talking about.
It's mainly CTR and cost per conversion that's really poor.
We will take your advice and work with what we already have.
On of our clients goals for people to fill in a contact form in order to get them to sign up to managed email campaigns so I guess just "email marketing" is too broad. Would you agree?
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Thanks fidelityim - That video is very helpful although it freezes with a minute to go!
It is poor performing because of poor click through rates and poor conversion rates - cost per conversion is really high.
We are going to create new campaigns within the same account and have a well thought out, well structured ad groups. We are going to pad this out on paper before we actually put it in adwords to make sure we have it absolutely spot on from the start.
We already plan to bid high at the beginning until the quality score improves.
So I guess my question has been answered - create new campaigns within the same adwords account
Thanks for taking the time to answer - we really appreciate it!
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Hi Anthony,
I don't think that creating a new account for your client is the best solution. Google sees subdomains a little differently for SEO work, but for AdWords it's just another page. And I'm fairly sure Google won't favor those who are spending a large amount, because large is a very relative term when it comes to advertising.
I would recommend working with what you have now for the next few months. If there is an abundance of spend, then using that spend to A/B test ads for the best CTR will impact your keywords more than the type of account switching you are referencing.
That being said, make sure your account structure is sound. Separating adgroups by keyword intent then creating new directly-related ad copy will help increase your quality score.
I'm only assuming you are referencing Quality Score when you say the account quality is low. What are you using to determine quality? Are you seeing conversions? How long do visitors stay on the page? What is the overall picture you're looking at? Looking at the quality of traffic you are delivering to the site will help you determine if these keywords are best for you.
For example, bidding on a head term like 'email marketing' will get people interested in what it does. If you plan on promoting content that will lead to a sale, then let your ad reflect that on this term. However, if you are looking for a direct conversion/sale/lead/etc, then 'email marketing' is probably not your best choice of keyword.
In short, analyse the quality of traffic you are receiving and communicate that back to your client so they know that even though the account isn't at Google's limits of perfection, it is benefiting the company and AdWords is working.
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Hi Anthony,
In what sense is it a poor-performing account? Just in terms of your ROI? You're talking about using new landing pages, that suggests to me you're not receiving a good ROI.
Your post seems to suggest that you're thinking that having better performing landing pages will result in Google giving your client some priority (i.e, increase in quality score). There's really only the smallest bit of truth to that notion.
According to Hal Varian, Google's chief economist, your landing page only accounts for about 10% of your quality score. The largest factor in quality score is your CTR, which represents about 60% of QS and the notion of 'relevance' is about 30%. You can check out video I've attached.
As far as your client's large budget, I've never seen or read of any evidence suggesting that the total amount of money that Google makes off an advertiser has an impact on Quality Score. Obviously the max CPC bid for individual keywords has an impact on your client's position (Ad Position = Max CPC x QS), so if your client is looking to bid very high amounts for individual keywords, that will certainly help with where their ads will show up.
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Thanks David. So you think pausing the current campaigns (about 12), and creating new ones in the same adwords account is the best option.
Would you advise to keep the old campaigns to be paused forever, or delete them once we see CTR and quality score improve in the new campaigns?
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I find the best option in most cases is to just run a new campaign since you will have a fresh start on the campaign level. Also google does have domain data they carry over to new accounts.
Not sure the hassle is worth the small gain of starting a new account unless the account has bigger issues then bad performance.
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