Q&A Is it OK if a keyword appears twice in an account?

Posted: November 10, 2009

First, let’s define a keyword as a keyword & match type combination. Therefore, “kitchen remodeling” phrase matched is a different keyword than [kitchen remodeling] exact match.

With the above definition, the short answers are:

The same keyword should not appear twice in a search campaign
A keyword can appear twice in an account if the keywords do not compete with each other
The same keyword can appear twice in content campaigns

The same keyword should not appear twice in the same search campaign

Your keyword’s visibility settings are set at the campaign level (day parting, geographic targeting, etc). Therefore, all keywords within the same campaign have the exact same potential visibility. If you have two of the same keyword in two different ad groups within the same campaign, these keywords will compete with each other. Essentially, Google will show the one with the highest Ad Rank (Max CPC x Quality Score) most often. This leads to a loss of control for the advertiser.

For every keyword, you should have in mind an exact ad copy and landing page you wish a searcher to see. If you are not sure which ad copy or landing page is best for any one keyword, then test these items within the ad group.

A keyword can appear twice in an account if the keywords do not compete with each other

It is OK if a keyword is in two different campaigns if those campaigns have different visibility settings. Some of those most common examples are:

The campaigns are set to be shown in different geographies
One campaign is content only, another is search only
One is for desktop users, the other for mobile users
The campaigns are shown at different times, or on different days

What you do not want is for a keyword to be in two different campaigns if ads from those campaigns could be shown at the same time (which they won’t as only one ad per account will only be shown on one search result).

The same keyword can appear multiple times in content campaigns

For content campaigns, the search engine examines all of the keywords in an ad group and assigns a theme to that ad group. What is more important for an ad group is that all of the keywords create a cohesive theme. Individual keywords do not matter nearly as much. Therefore, it is OK to have the same keyword in multiple ad groups. For instance, you may have these ad groups:

Ad Group 1: iPhone

iPhone
iPod
MP3 Player
3g
wi-fi
mobile phone
AT&T

Ad Group 2: Droid

Android
Droid
wi-fi
mobile phone
Verizon

In this example, the word wi-fi and mobile phone are in both ad groups. As the other keywords in each ad group help to shape that ad group’s theme, is is OK for those keywords to appear in both ad groups.

Keep Control of Your Ad Display

The search engines are happy to take control of your ad serving. If you use a keyword multiple times in a campaign, especially if you only use broad match, then you will quickly start to lose control of your ad’s display to the search engine. Much of PPC optimization is ensuring that your ad is only shown under specific conditions.

Every time someone conducts a search that matches a keyword in your account, you should control exactly what ad copy and landing page will be seen by the searcher. Only by asserting control over your own account will you find true PPC success.

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Written by Brad Geddes aka eWhisper · Filed Under Blog, PPC Info

Comments

3 Responses to “Q&A Is it OK if a keyword appears twice in an account?”

SearchCap: The Day In Search, November 10, 2009 on November 10th, 2009 5:33 pm

[...] Q&A Is it OK if a keyword appears twice in an account?, Brad Geddes [...]
Jeff - Starting An Online Business on November 11th, 2009 5:40 am

The appearance of keywords in more than one ad group was not something I’d thought about. I do tend to make ad groups somewhat exclusionary which I now see could also be hurting things.

Thanks for giving me another way to look at ad groups.

Jeff
Brad Geddes aka eWhisper on November 11th, 2009 6:09 pm

Hopefully Google will post any more recordings they have on this topic. At present, this is the full set of video Google has posted. If they update this video – I’ll definitely post it.