So I go and check up on my AdWords account, and my "web hosting" keyword has become disabled. So I think to myself, "Self, surely this is impossible." I proceeded to email the folks at Google, and much to my dismay, I receive a lengthy email. This is what bothered me the most:

Please note that Google strives to direct targeted leads to our advertisers' sites and to serve relevant advertising for users. Your keyword has been disabled because it has gained a high number of impressions but few clicks. This suggests that your ad is not as targeted as it could be and is not relevant to a number of users viewing it.
Apparantly the keyword "web hosting" is not suitable for a web host, and this makes perfect sense to Google.

Has anyone else had issues like this? What do you reccomend I should do? Google brought in MANY clients per day for me, and now I'm only getting a few signups scattered across the week. My advertising budget is not very large (~$50-70 /mo.)

Thanks a lot.

Ian

Just add another keyword such as "cheap web hosting".

I actually have that, along with "webpage hosting" and "virtual hosting", and google lists them as "in trial" and not "normal".

ohh. They dissabled the keyword "hosting" for my ad too because the click rate is too low. There's nothing we can do about it, the only thing we can do is find another keyword.

It's explainable - that is an extremely general keyword and with your low budget you will not be producing many (if any) results in AdWords. Think niche markets ;)

it can be very frustrating trying to get working words and phrases to do with web hosting just because its so flooded.

The reason google does this is to improve your click / impression ratio. The Ad-Phrase you are using to describe your site is not generating very good click-throughs for the term "Web Hosting" So based on your description, it is not catching the eyes of those searcing for "web hosting". And since people arn't clicking on it, you aren't paying google for it. So google will replace yours with an ad that entices people to click it, so that they can get paid.

they have a tool which suggests you keywords for your website.

Same about me. I've used Google Adwords for like 10 months and spend well over 10k with them but "web hosting" always got suspended after a while. I think it is because there is too much competition regarding this keyword and other webhosts are making their ads so that people will click on it. For example "Free hosting" will get more clicks then "Hosting for $9.95". That means Google takes the results of these "Free Hosting" listings and realizes that they get more clicks then yours. Then their system thinks that your ads are not targeted because the "free hosting" listings are getting a much better CTR. I think that is the reason why advertising under "web hosting" is close to impossible.

Google wants to make money. And so do you. So if google makes more money with your account, that means you'll have more clients visiting your site and that could mean more sales.

Don't fight google.

I have always found google adwords to be useless with Web Hosting companies if you cannot offer a good rate to them. I had to spend a few hundred dollars before I could understand that, so I stopped using them.

Not only that, since our rate was low, they kept removing keywords like:

web hosting
cheap hosting

and a few others I do not remember at the moment.

As webvilla said, don't fight google. Just as you want to make money, so does google.

Hers is the case guys, google wants you to get clicks... not just immpressions. clicks are how they make money. The guys that have ads under the same keywords that are getting clicks don't get shut down... you do because y6our ad is not getting people to click so they bump you to make room for those whos ads will get clicks.

The email is not saying that your keyword selection is bad... its saying that your ad itself is not as targeted... meaning that your ad wont get people to click on it and generate revenue for google.

so you need to rething your ad. wording so it getsa you clicks... just remember... clicks means cash, out of your pocket, so lets hope your site can generate signups.

Eventually you should considering hiring a Google guru to design a campaign. If you spend that much money on AdWords it might be well invested money to have a campaign designed by a professional.

yep, don't climb the rocks, find another niche.

Google is too big to fight with.

I have had Google disable a keyword that was getting 50% CTR - that's right - Fifty-Percent of the time it was shown it got clicked. Weird. It was also the only ad for that keyword. I think their system doesn't always work right.

Originally posted by DecentHost
ohh. They dissabled the keyword "hosting" for my ad too because the click rate is too low. There's nothing we can do about it, the only thing we can do is find another keyword. That's one thing you can do, but there are two others: increase your bids to get better positioning, and/or write better ads that will attract more clicks.

"Web hosting" ads generate plenty of clicks. The problem is that you're not getting a big enough percentage of them.

Part of the situation is that google ranks adwords ads based on both your bid amount and your clickthru rate -- the fewer clicks you get the higher you have to bid just to maintain your position. And you're trying to compete with a handful of companies that are willing to spend a lot of money for each adwords click -- if you're not able to afford to compete with them or to write ads as effective as theirs... then, yes, finding different keywords is the approach to take.

Google does provide good results if your keywords are niche or targetted. As someone else suggested, make sure to be creative and pick up words that aren't already saturated, based on the reporting tool Google provides. For example, maybe something like "shoe store web hosting" or "sports team club web hosting" ....

I just don't see how it would kill them to let niche keywords do their thing.

Who cares if it only gets 2 searches a day (as my 50% CTR keyword did)? Google still makes money every time the ad is clicked!

One secret about Google is that taking crappy leads will also increase the traffic you are getting for the good keywords.

I.e. lets say you sell paid hosting. If you advertise under "web hosting" and "free hosting" you will get a lot of traffic for "web hosting" only because you use "free hosting". You will lose some money with the crappy keyword but if you do it right it will pay off and you will get more clicks then you would get with a higher price for the good keyword.

sounds strangely odd that they would say that

GOOGLE is Weird sometimes but it rules !! so nothing to do :(