Introduction
Don't miss an opportunity to find hidden layers of negative keywords that are quietly burning through your client budgets. Take your search query analysis to a deeper level with these two advanced analysis techniques.
The goal of these workflows is to measure a search query’s performance, either clicks or CPA (depending on the workflow), against the average account performance to determine whether it should have converted by now. This process will identify search queries where the performance is not in-your-face bad, but could still be eating through budget to give you a less than desirable outcome.
When used in conjunction with the SQ Deep Dive: Bottom up workflows, you'll be implementing a robust search query analysis process for expert-level PPC optimisation.
Sound like a worthwhile exercise? Great! Let’s get search term mining, PPC Samurai style!
Workflow
Workflow Logic Explained
Note: The workflows for Google Ads and Microsoft Ads use the same steps.
Note: These workflows assess search queries at the aggregated account level. To ensure that we're assessing search queries for only relevant campaigns in an account, the workflow settings have been updated to include only campaigns with type Search, Search and Display, and Shopping. In the workflow logic, campaigns of these types are referred to as the 'selected campaigns' and in the explanation below, when we refer to the account metrics, we are referring to the aggregated metrics across these selected campaigns.
1. Step One - Has the account served impressions in the last 7 days?
- This step checks that the account (i.e. the selected campaign types of search, search and display, or shopping campaigns) is, or has recently been, active.
- (If no, ignore the search term)
- (If yes, proceed to Step Two)
2. Step Two - Has the account had 3 or more conversions in the last 90 days?
- (If no, ignore the search term)
- (If yes, proceed to Step Three)
3. Step Three - Has the search query recorded 0 conversions since it began triggering in the account?
- (If no, ignore the search term - it has converted)
- (If yes, proceed to Step Four)
4. Step Four - Refer below for the logic depending on whether you're assessing CPA or clicks
- CPA Threshold: This step assesses whether the search term (which we know hasn't converted) has an all time spend across the account that is greater than 2x the cost per conversion in the past 90 days. Essentially, we're asking whether the search term has spent more than it should before recording a conversion.
- Click Threshold: This step assesses whether the search term (which we know hasn't converted) has an all time number of clicks in the account that is greater than 2x the conversion rate in the past 90 days. Essentially, we're asking whether the search term should have converted, given the number of clicks it has received.
- (If no, ignore the search term)
- (If yes, proceed to Step Five)
5. Step Five - Does the search query match an existing live keyword in the campaign?
- OUTPUT: If yes, this search query has not converted and has a high spend or high number of clicks compared to the account average, and should have converted based on the average campaign cost per conversion or conversion rate. It also matches an existing keyword in the account. The workflow will send an alert to the Insights Dashboard that this search query could be added as a negative keyword.
- OUTPUT: If no, this search query has not converted and has a high spend or high number of clicks compared to campaign metrics, and should have converted based on the average account cost per conversion or conversion rate. The workflow will send an action to the Insights Dashboard that this search query could be added as a negative keyword.
For more information on the full search query analysis strategy, please read our article on how to uncover hidden negative keywords.
| Current version (Google Ads): |
[Weekly] SQ Deep Dive: Top down - clicks > 2x target but no conversions v1 [Weekly] SQ Deep Dive: Top down - cost > 2x CPA but no conversions v1 |
| Current version (Microsoft Ads): |
[MSA] [Weekly] SQ Deep Dive: Top down - clicks > 2x target but no conversions v1 [MSA] [Weekly] SQ Deep Dive: Top down - cost > 2x CPA but no conversions v1 |
| Workflow level: | Search Query |
| Available for platform: | Google Ads, Microsoft Ads |
| Recommended automatic run cadence: | Weekly |
Workflow Version Updates
| Date | Previous workflow versions | Update reason |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
If you would like to apply this workflow to your accounts but need some guidance, check out our article on how to apply a template process.
We love to hear from you! Any questions or feedback on this article or workflow (or just to say hi), please email us at hello@ppcsamurai.com.