Tip: re-activate all inactive keywords - without increasing CPC

[szetela]

Folks,

I've tried the following method on many ad groups, and it seems to work - I've successfully re-activated several thousand keywords (without increasing CPC) this way:

1. In an affected ad group, make a change to one of your ads, or create a new ad.

2. Choose "Edit Keywords." Select all keywords (Windows users: click in the keyword list and type CTRL-A). Perform a Cut operation (e.g. CTRL-X).

2a. (optional) For those as risk-averse as I am - paste the keywords into a test editor and save the file.

3. Click on Save. Wait. Eventually you will see your ad group, with seemingly zero keywords.

4. Click on Add Keywords. In the keyword field, perform a paste (e.g. CTRL-V).

5. Click on Save.

In nearly all of my tests, this re-activated all previously inactive keywords. The exception was ad groups that utilized dynamic keyword substitution (see my previous posting on this).

BTW, I tried the same sequence, omitting step #1, and only a few keywords were re-activated.

Please give it a try and post your findings. For some of us, even if keywords become inactive again, it's worth repeating as often as necessary!

Cheers,

David

P.S. Surprisingly, all historical data (e.g. clicks, CTR) return when you re-add the keywords.

[Chris Boggs]

good methodology...chances are that all of your prior disabled kws now meet the minimum bid...

[szetela]

Chris - I was talking about inactive keywords - not disabled keywords. The re-activated keywords are now active under their original CPC. All are now garnering clicks at their old, "pre-inactive" CPC - many at 5 cents.

[Chris Boggs]

have you checked to see what the new "minimum bids" are for those terms? (see this post and read the rest of that thread for some great discussion about the updated system) I may be thinking of this wrongly, but doesn't "inactive" status get determined by you? You could have "activated" the keywords the whole time, right? And if that is the case, wouldn't all you have to do be simply check the boxes for the inactives and click "resume?" I must be confusing your comment, so I apologize...

[seobook]

old terms that were disabled were not automatically reactivated. unless advertisers manually reactivate them Google said those disabled terms would be deleted from the accounts in about a month.

right now the three states are
active
inactive
disabled (that were disabled before Google rolled out the new ad system)

in a month it will just be
active
inactive

for simplicity sake I left out the disapproved category...ads that are disapproved usually in some way violate Google's guidelines.