Reports of skyrocketing minimum bids. Pissed off advertisers complaining on message boards and blogs. That must mean it’s “Google Slap” time again!
Google Slap, for the uninitiated, is when many AdWords advertisers find that Google’s algorithm tweaks have caused Quality Scores to drop and minimum bid prices that were under $1 to go to $5 – $10 overnight.
Why does this happen? Google is Google because it strives to provide the most relevant search results to its users. This is true in the organic search results as well as in AdWords. The algorithm Google uses to determine relevance changes constantly as Google keeps trying to improve the search results for its users. Every now and then, these changes can be significant.
When this happens, advertisers whose keywords, ads and landing pages still provide relevant results in Google’s eye have nothing to worry about. However, advertisers whose campaigns fail to live up to the new standards get punished, or “slapped.” If you log into your AdWords account one morning and see your minimum bid prices have rocketed and many keywords have become “Inactive for search” – you’re the victim of the “Google Slap.”
So if you’ve been slapped, what can you do?
Here are 3 options for AdWords advertisers to deal with Google Slap:
1. Pay the increased bid prices. If Google says you need to pay at least $5 or $10 per click, you could just raise your bid prices to those levels. For those selling high priced, high margin products or services, this may be an option. It’s not an option, however, for those selling items where the lifetime value of a customer is a few hundred bucks or less. Whatever the case, I don’t recommend this option.
2. Find out how you offended Google and fix it. If Google doesn’t think you’re relevant for the keywords you’re bidding on, find out why and fix it.
Often your website is the culprit. Adding more content to your site (especially your landing page) that contains the keywords you’re bidding on can help your bring those Quality Scores back up and minimum bid prices back down. I’d definitely recommend testing this option out before even thinking about option #1.
3. Advertise elsewhere. I think AdWords is the most powerful marketing system to come along in a very long time. But it’s not for everyone. And I would never recommend compromising your business model just to make Google happy.
If you’ve tested your site out and discovered that a one page sales letter site makes the most sense for your business but Google doesn’t like it – don’t change it! Take your advertising dollars elsewhere. Get traffic from other sources (which you should be doing anyway). Try video marketing, article marketing, SEO, affiliates, or even (gasp!) offline promotions. AdWords is not the only game in town.
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