AdWords Account Size Limitation

[rustybrick]

I am not a big PPC guy, I run some small stuff just for educational purposes.

I heard from a client that his AdWords rep said he can not put in a large amount of keywords into his campaign because - I think I am quoting word for word here:

New accounts have a limit to the number of keywords they can have to ensure that they do not place unnecessary load on our advertising servers.

Is this true? If so, really? Why?

[Bernard]

Pure speculation on my part, but I'm guessing that it's really to limit new client exposure to mistakes. They want to have new clients be successful and first impressions mean a lot. If new clients burn a ton of cash right away before they figure out what they are doing, chances are greater that they won't stick around long enough to figure it out.

I suppose it also limits Google's risk by ensuring new clients don't run up huge bills that they can't pay.

[rustybrick]

I should clarify that this client has been in the AdWords game for 6 months and started slow at first. Now they have expanded and expanded to really fine tune by keyword, location and content/search.

[AdWordsRep]

Is this true? If so, really? Why?

Yep, it's true.

As the number of advertisers has grown, and as a trend towards using truly vast numbers of (mostly untargeted) keywords was noticed, we decided to take proactive action. Suffice it to say that at some point in the future, had the trend continued unchecked, system speed might have started to suffer for all advertisers. And that ain't good.

The limits are variable, and depend in part on how successfully keywords have been used in the account to date.

However, if an advertiser has hit a keyword limit, they're always welcome to contact support and request an exception to the limit.

In the interest of setting reasonable expectations, though, I will say that when the review teams looks at an account to consider the exception request, what they decide depends on what they see there. For example if they find tens of thousands of untargeted keywords seemingly chosen at random, well, an exception will not likely be made.

Instead, we'd suggest ways to re-organize the account to user fewer keywords to much better effect.

On the other hand if the account had tens of thousands of well chosen and carefully targeted keywords/ads, well, a higher limit would not likely be a problem.

This is sort of a topic that causes me to step up on my soap box, so forgive me if I've done that. But I truly believe that quality of keywords is far more important than simple volume. And that 100 carefully chosen keywords are worth more (to the advertiser, and to Google's users) than thousands of poorly chosen ones.

AWR

[ApogeeWebLLC]

FYI, this is not just for new accounts. I recently logged into a client's account that I created in 2002 and was greeted by this message:

The keywords in your account are nearing an unmanageable size. We recommend that you reduce the number of keywords within your account. This will ensure that your account includes the most targeted and relevant keywords possible. Use our Find and Edit Keywords Tool to identify poor performing keywords within your account (such as keywords with few or zero impressions) and delete them.

I suspect that the "unmanageable size" means unmanageable for Google's ad system, not unmanageable for my client. Pity this is such a vague alert. Would have been more appropriate to send my client or myself an email and/or pick up the phone and call. I've pruned the account a bit, but it is very focused.

-Rich

[OptimizeOnline]

Google's warning related to having an account with an unmanageable number of keywords does appear from time to time for some of our clients' accounts. However, in all cases we have been successful when asking Google to increase the limit. In all cases our keyword lists have been very targeted and focused and have been told by our Google rep that the limit would not have been increased had this not been so.

[AdWordsRep]

Google's warning related to having an account with an unmanageable number of keywords does appear from time to time for some of our clients' accounts. However, in all cases we have been successful when asking Google to increase the limit. In all cases our keyword lists have been very targeted and focused and have been told by our Google rep that the limit would not have been increased had this not been so.

Well said, OptimizeOnline.

Thanks for posting with your actual experience with the review process - I'm delighed that it seems to have have worked out exactly as it should have done.

AWR

[adamjthompson]

Also, I am told that if you add too many keywords too quickly that they will all go "On Hold". I have had that problem myself & that is the only reasonable explaination I have heard.

Of course, I can't prove it, as I have no way to know the exact reason why Google puts my ads "On Hold", but I have better success when I do add keywords a handful at a time.