We have recently seen a new kind of keyword showing up in Search Query reports: “session-based broad match”. So what does it actually mean?
Back in early 2006, we managed a campaign with a very strict “online sales only” strategy, ensuring that online advertising spend was totally accountable for what it earned by tracking conversions from actual online orders.
The strategy and the campaign was very sound, and by building out the keyword inventory we could target both generic terms and specific brands we wanted to position ourselves as alternatives for.
Sales increased and cost of sales drastically reduced.
Then, we decided to be ruthless with “non-converting keywords” by deleting them – you only want to run with keywords which convert – right? (maybe not!)
The campaign suddenly tanked. Conversions dramatically reduced, and cost of sales rose sharply. I remember being totally amazed by this seemingly counter-intuitive result.
In those days, you could not pause keywords – to turn them off you had to delete them (and face the consequences).
It was a scramble to get those keywords back into the campaign – fast. (You could view deleted keywords, and reassemble them by using a screen capture and a spreadsheet, not pretty, but it worked).
Fast forward to 2009 and the situation is as relevant today as it was 3 years ago.
We call it the “Keyword Life-Cycle”.
Some keywords have more commercial intent than others, but all users of Search Engines “don’t know what they don’t know” to start with.
So they start off with general search terms and refine them from “Browse”, to “Shop” to “Buy” over time.
Conversion tracking in Google AdWords (and Analytics) is only attributable to the actual converting keyword, not what “enabled” it.
So if you do not have the (non-converting) “Browse” keywords in your campaign, you cannot get to the keywords with commercial intent which enable the journey from browse to shop to buy.
By removing the non-converting “Browse” keywords from the working campaign which got people to the store to start with – we inadvertently killed it (but only with the best intentions!)
In recent conversations with our Google Relationship Manager, this disconnect from “browsing” to “buying” keywords is still in place. The mighty Google does not yet have an answer…
Even Conversion Optimizer is not exempt from it (I was hoping otherwise) – and Conversion Opimizer works really well, too.
So what’s the link between Session-Based keywords and conversion tracking? And why should you be interested?
It means that Google are getting smarter about the whole “keyword life-cycle” that users are conducting when they’ve searched for, and clicked on your ad.
And that the possibility of knowing which keyword *started* the sale is getting higher.
So you needn’t inadvertently delete or pause non-converting keywords which actually have hidden strategic value to your campaigns. You just might kill your campaign by doing so.
By all means test, but be prepared to put those keywords back to work if the result is not what you expect.