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View Full Version : Should I fix an outdated ad with a high CTR?


largebutt
02-18-2007, 01:30 AM
From what I understand....In Adwords, pay per click ads maintain high positions and low prices if the ads are getting high CTRs. BUT they completely reset when any changes to the ad is made. Right? Is this true with even minor changes?

The problem is some of my highest CTR/low cost keywords are getting stale. For example my ads say "now with over 2500 members" but the actual number is "9000". I am scared to change the text of my ad to 9000 becuase I am afraid of losing my top spots and / or having to pay more to get them back into the same spots.

Some ads have even more serious issues of being outdated but are high in rank and have been there since 2002.

So....Am I correcct not to adjust my ads? Or should I update them so they are more accurate and hope and pray they slide back up into their top comparitively low priced positions?

This brings up another question....Does the lenght of time an ad has a high ranking give it an advantage over a newer ad with the same or slightly higher CTR? For example.....will a 3 year old ad that has consistently gotten 4% CTR over the years be replaced by a new 5 weeks old that is getting 4.1%. Who gets the higher rank there? How does time play into it?

I look forward to your replies. Thanks a bunch !

LargeButt (with big chair)

PPC
02-20-2007, 11:22 AM
Just create a new ad identcal to the old one excpt with "9000" replacing "2500". Run both ads simultaneously and compare performance (CTR, CPA, etc.).

AussieWebmaster
02-20-2007, 11:40 AM
When you write a new ad you do not lose the CTR set to the keyword.... that is how it is associated... you run three ads they will have different CTRs but the aggregate is the one associated with the keyword.

Thus time does not have the type of impact you think... the longer you have maintained this CTR the better to not be impacted by various swings in CTRs that occurr from time to time.... since it is an overall average and the more numbers the smaller the impact of a drop for a few thousand or 10s of thousands of impressions when you have had millions and averaged the good CTR.