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How Can I stop this?
Hello,
Lately, my CPC has tripled. My keyword is “Waste Removal Chester” and I am using the location settings for those “in or regularly in my location” with a 15-mile radius around my target town, I’m seeing irrelevant location triggers like Waste Removal Dubai, London, and Manchester.
Also, my keyword is triggering unrelated searches like “City Bin Collection” and “Waste Management Companies Huntingdonshire” which is far from my target area. I’ve already added terms like bin, council, city, and recycle as broad negative keywords. Typically, I get 20-50 clicks daily, but now it’s only 15, exhausting my entire budget.
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1 Reply
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Are your keywords broad match? I’m guessing you’re running Maximize Conversions as a bidding strategy?
Also, FYI, the geo-targeting radius has a pretty large margin of error (around 40-60 miles).
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Don’t use broad match. Use exact. CPC tripling could be a few factors. One is a competitor starting to advertise for the same keyword and driving up costs because of the ad auction. More bidders = more Google profits funded by your daily budget
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Add all of those other cities / towns as negatives. I doubt those searches are happening FROM Dubai or Huntingdonshire but people in your location are searching for those thing and your ads are being shown.
You can identify which keywords are allowing those search terms to come through and pause them if they really don’t perform well.
Cpc could have increased due to more competition, or a host of other factors. I think you can tidy a lot up from looking at the search terms. Filter by the most expensive and see if those are relevant. Add the irrelevant towns from point above.
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What’s the min and max Avg. CPC prices for your keywords?
If the max CPC ceiling is really high, I would suggest implementing a cap to avoid spending stupid amounts on a single click. If you are using a Smart Bidding Strategy (that isn’t Maximise Conversions), this should be possible to implement.
Definitely use Phrase or Exact match if you are currently on Broad, as it sounds like your negative keyword list isn’t comprehensive enough to filter out the irrelevant search terms.
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Certainly want to go an add these as excluded keywords (negative keyword) though some days it feels like you’re playing whack-a-mole!
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Hey, I’m a freelance PPC manager in Chester. Happy to take a look at the account for free if you want to drop me a message.
Edit: Not sure I’m allowed to post that, but figured it’s local and I’m offering free help.
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This happened to me some time ago.
1. Go exact match with all your keywords
2. Only allow people that live in the area to search.Google is hurting and they are trying to spend your budget as fast as possible. This is happening a lot now.
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Check interest targeting location –
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go Exact match firstly, I have done waste removal campaigns in the past and for genuine waste removal it is difficult as you get a load of people looking for council collections expecting it to be free.
Add city names as negative keywords AND Negative locations.
And then check you location targeted as mentioned below.
Have done waste campaigns in the past and live in the UK so happy to take a look to see why CPC has tripled as well (free of charge).
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If you are using broad match stop.
Change to phrase and or exact match. Google’s traffic has been such garbage for us on broad.
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