Assumptions:

• That conversions are defined as an online action and trackable via the proprietary conversion counter provided by the PPC venue. Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing, Microsoft adCenter, Ask Sponsored Listings and Marchex Adhere all offer conversion tracking.
• Data range is ample -- based on your industry.

The following should be considered before terminating a keyphrase from a PPC inventory:

Sales Goals

1. Does it affect your overall cost per acquisition (CPA)? Is CPA still < value of buyer within acceptable limits?

Buying Cycle & Purchasing Behavior

2. Consider the possibility that the keyphrase acted as an "assist"* for a conversion on another keyphrase at a later point in time. For example, is the keyphrase in question likely to be queried during the discovery or comparison shopping phases of the buying cycle?

* YSM offers keyword assist tracking

Hypothetical search case:

• Discovery phase: "best residential solar power panels" (lowest relative conversion probability)
• Comparison shopping phase: "brand X retailers" (lower relative conversion probability)
• Purchasing phase: "brand X model Y free shipping" (highest relative conversion probability)

"best residential solar power panels" could have yielded a high CTR, but not necessarily any conversions since buyers that are still researching (more informational than transactional) are typically less involved in the sale and unready to commit to a purchase -- yet. The click-through will however raise awareness on the website, thus steering the consumer's decision-making, and "assisting" the conversion on Brand X Model Y when the buyer is ready to purchase.

3. Is the industry in question prone to latent purchasing behavior? If so, does the typical latency exceed the conversion counter's cookie expiration?

4. How many browsers and "uneaten" cookies?

• For a B2B campaign, do the searcher (e.g. an intern) and the decision-maker (e.g. a manager) or credit card holder use different workstations?
• For a B2C campaign, what are the probabilities of an initial search queried from one terminal (e.g. a work computer, or at a coffee shop public terminal), and the conversion taking place at another venue (e.g. at home), or for the original search to be performed by one member of the household (e.g. a tech-savvy child on FF3) and the transaction closed by another (e.g. the parent on the stock IE)?

For #2, #3, #4, the conversion counter cannot follow-through; the sales cycle is segmented. In other words, some conversions will be untraceable unless individually probed. Ever worked in commission-based retail? Consider this offline analogy: Salesperson A delivers a catchy pitch that results in a commitment to buy, but the transaction is rung at the register by Salesperson B who doesn't tag sale ownership to Salesperson A.

PPC Setup

5. Match Type. If the keyphrase is set to broad/advanced or phrase match, consider the possibility that long tail keyphrases have triggered the click-throughs. Check the AdWords' Search Query Performance report and your analytics paid keyword reporting for cross-referencing. Consider running the keyphrase in exact match for further evaluation.

6. Day / time-parting. Is the PPC campaign running during the target audience peak visit hours? For traditional B2B campaigns, consider parting to week days and business hours with consideration to Pacific, Central and Eastern time if the geo-scope is nationwide.

7. Misaligned landing page: is the landing page appropriate for the keyphrase? Is there a clear path to the content being sought?

Intel

8. PPC data is live intelligence. With consideration that organic and sponsored search yield differing purchasing behavior, is the cost low enough to warrant running the keyphrase for the sole purpose of cross-pollinating SEO efforts?

Other metrics to consider

9. Relative bounce rate, time spent on site, page view count. A relatively low bounce rate, high time spent on site and high page view count could be the result of #2.

The Cookie Monster

10. Successful conversion tracking is contingent upon a cookie. If the user's browser rejects it, the conversion cannot be bridged, e.g. browser tool bars set to decline all cookies, or anonymizers that use proxies. Similarly, the browser must be able to run a snippet of javascript code.

In closing, be it a fuzzy blue creature with a penchant for cookies or analytics blindspots, all low conversion keywords deserve a second fisheye look. Do you know how many of the arduous Salesperson A you might have?

Jeremy is a certified Google AdWords Professional, a pre-Panama Yahoo Search Marketing Ambassador and an accredited Microsoft adExcellence Member, and prior to BIGSHOT, has campaigned for over 150 SMB clients nationwide in both the organic and the sponsored realms of search engine marketing. Learn more about Jeremy.

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