Are my ads displaying for every search?

[lesterj]

Hi,

Does anyone know if a Google Adwords ad will be displayed for every search of the keyword being bid on if your average position is around a 2? The ads are only setup to display with searches (no content displays). I'm wondering if the number of impressions the ads are getting is the actual number of searches those keywords get.

Lester

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by lesterj

The ads are only setup to display with searches (no content displays). I'm wondering if the number of impressions the ads are getting is the actual number of searches those keywords get.

Sounds right to me.

[doj464]

Yahoo has a "search share" measurement, designed to motivate you to bid above the current average, by promising more of a "search share". Google doesn't have that, but I suspect that they also switch out even top ranking positions, just like they randomize some of the ad positioning.

Also, make sure that you don't have any restrictions that might affect those numbers - geographic, time etc.

The above could possible reduce the accuracy slightly - probably not a high percentage.

Additionally, if you're keywords are on broad, they will be including long tail - (or possibly related) searches. You might be able to get rid of the extra keywords through the Google Keyword Report. (Excuse me, the name of the report is slipping my mind.) You might overshoot a little on count.

This is something that you would want to take into consideration depending on how you've built your adwords account. (e.g. Do you have all 3 match types setup for each keyword? If so, you want to add all 3 numbers together, and subtract the Google keyword searches that came up for broad or phrase match.)

Bottom line, the research you get will be much more valuable than wordtracker

[lesterj]

Thanks for the responses. I guess the question is related to the research done for the keywords. We used WordTracker to help decide the keywords we would use. Our impressions were nothing like what WordTracker indicated:

<i>(According to WordTracker, 72.7% of all search traffic occurs in the top 8 search engines. The other 27.3% of search traffic comes from all the other search engines, directories, and pay-per-bid engines. They also list that Google gets 47% of all search engine traffic. I'm not sure if that 47% is 47% of all traffic or 47% of the 72,7%. So, I'm creating high and low columns to give a range.)</i>

christian web sites
Actual daily impressions: 55
WordTracker Predict: 578
Calculated Google Est.: 197-271


christian schools
Actual daily impressions: 84
WordTracker Predict: 54
Calculated Google Est.: 18-25


church web sites
Actual daily impressions: 34
WordTracker Predict: 548
Calculated Google Est.: 187-257


teacher websites
Actual daily impressions: 150
WordTracker Predict: 151
Calculated Google Est.: 51-70


christian websites
Actual daily impressions: 125
WordTracker Predict: 173
Calculated Google Est.: 59-81


christian web site
Actual daily impressions: 41
WordTracker Predict: 519
Calculated Google Est.: 177-243


As you can see the predicts are all over the place compared to the actual impressions. Some predicts were way over and some were way under. I got the predicts a few days ago and I got the Google impressions by taking the average over the last week to avoid any anomolies. All the Google ads are setup for only the exact match of the keywords, so there shouldn't be any extraneous impressions, however, doj464 you brought up something I hadn't thought of. We have limited the ads to the US and it's possible some of the ads don't show all day due to budget caps (though I doubt many impressions are being missed as we don't meet our daily limit half the time). Even still I wouldn't expect the predicts to be as eratic compared to the impressions. If anything I would think all the predicts would be above, but some are above and some are below.

Is it that the WordTracker predicts are that wrong or do you suppose the US limitation and impressions possibly being missed due to budget caps?

If you thiink WordTracker is just not reliable, do you have another keyword popularity research tool that you would recommend?

Thanks.
LesterJ

[incrediblehelp]

No keyword tool will be able to accurately tell you how much traffic you can get for each keyword. Have you tried Keyword Discovery?

[Peter (IMC)]

Originally Posted by lesterj

Hi,

Does anyone know if a Google Adwords ad will be displayed for every search of the keyword being bid on if your average position is around a 2? The ads are only setup to display with searches (no content displays). I'm wondering if the number of impressions the ads are getting is the actual number of searches those keywords get.

Lester

Most likely there are more searches done than your add is displayed for. The number of impressions depend on your daily budget, your average CPC and your CTR. How many real searches are done should be no concern.

Imagine your daily budget is $100 and you´re willing to pay 50 cents per click on average. That means you'll get about 200 clicks per day. Now Google will simply do a calculation. They look at the history of your CTR to predict how many impressions are needed to give you 200 clicks. Suppose your CTR is about 2 %. That means for every click 50 impressions are required. 200 clicks times 50 impressions means about 10,000 impressions. So they'll give you 10,000 impressions.

Of course it is possible that a certain keyword doesn't have that many impressions. In that case they won't be able to spend your complete daily budget. (and they won't) In this case it is your job to find more keywords so that you can reach more searches to get the required clicks you want.


The above is a bit simplistic view of how Google works. They have many more variables to play with to get you the best result. That means for example that when the adwords system realizes that its not able to spend your complete budget in one day, they´re going to move your ads up a position for a while so you'll get more clicks. The opposite is possible too. When clicks are going too fast, they will lower your positions a bit in order to reduce the speed at which your budget is spent. (lower positions get less clicks.) That's why they give you an average position rather than an exact position. Then all this is being done while keeping in mind the other advertisers so that they also get the best result for their money. The amount of variables is huge and makes the whole thing pretty complex. But they´re pretty good at dealing with that at Google.

[infrascape]

Yes,

You will get more impressions than clicks.

Network Monitoring

[CompuGeneration]

Originally Posted by lesterj

I'm wondering if the number of impressions the ads are getting is the actual number of searches those keywords get.

Your ad will only receive an impression if your ad is displayed for a keyword you are bidding on. The number of impressions your ad gets will always be less than or equal to the number of searches for the keyword(s) in your ad group.

There are many factors used in deciding when/if your ad will be displayed.

1) Is your campaign active?
2) What are your budgeting options?

a) Do you have a high daily budget?

b) What delivery method have you chosen? (standard or accelerated)

3) Are you using Ad Scheduling?
4) Have you enabled Position Preference?
5) Have you enabled Geo-Targeting?

Each of these will have varying effects on your ads and their ability to get impressions based on a search. As you learn to utilize these options in Google Adwords the number of ad impressions you receive will go down. This isn't necessarily a negative. These options allow you to target your preferred market(s) while ignoring users that don't fit your ideal demographic.