If there’s anything that takes time in PPC, it’s keyword bids. But it doesn’t have to.
Of the components that make up quality score – bid, CTR, landing page experience, relevance – managing your keyword bids has the quickest turnaround time for direct impacts on your average position and, hence, your keywords’ performance. And, by following the steps below, you’ll be even quicker.
AdWords
Set the date range to Last 14 days
Go to the Keywords tab and add the Search Lost IS (rank) column
Download the report after adding the Week segment
Spreadsheet
Delete all paused keywords (there’s no point in changing the bid for a keyword you’re not utilizing)
Pare down the data to these columns:
Sort by: Campaign > Keyword > Week (Newest to Oldest)
Sorting by Campaign is necessary if multiple campaigns share keywords (i.e. RLSA vs “regular” search)
Enter the following equation into row 2 of column J:
=IF(OR((AND(EXACT(B2,B3),OR(G3=1.4,G3=1.5,G3=1.6))),OR(G2=1.4,G2=1.5,G2=1.6)), “skip”)
This equation is looking for any keyword that had an average position of 1.4 to 1.6 either during the current week or the week prior. I like to delete these keywords, since a position of 1.5 is the “sweet spot” for most of my campaigns.
Delete all of the “skip” rows, then delete column J
Sort by the Week column and delete anything except for the current week
Filter the Avg. Position column to view only keywords with a position of 0
Delete these keywords
Filter the Avg. Position column to view only keywords with a position from 1 to 1.3
Delete the keyword if its Search Lost IS (rank) is 10% or greater
Depending on the Avg. Position, multiply the bid in column F by one of the values below
Copy these values and paste them using Paste Special (Ctrl + Alt + V on PCs, Ctrl + Opt + V on Macs)
Multiplying the current Max. CPC by the values above should get your average position to about 1.5. These values can change over time, though, so update this list as you see fit.
Sort the spreadsheet by the Status column
If the CPC is less than the First page bid and the Search Impr. Share is low, raise the bid to the First page bid estimate
Add at least $1 to that bid to avoid being on the first page but in a crappy position
Delete all columns except for Keyword, Campaign, Ad Group, and Max. CPC
AdWords Editor
Download changes to the account (Ctrl + T on PCs, Cmd + T on Macs)
Choose Keywords and targeting and Make multiple changes
Choose My data includes columns and campaigns and/or ad groups
Copy and paste the spreadsheet data
Post the changes (Ctrl + P on PCs, Cmd + P on Macs)
Voila!
Your keyword bids are done in a flash and you can now reap the benefits. For even faster, automated bidding, consider AdWords Scripts to be your new BFF.
