Using AdWords Editor, it is easy to identify low CTR keywords and
pause/delete them in one fell swoop (it doesn’t matter if you pause or
delete them- the effect is the same). In my experience, accounts with
a high percentage of ‘Poor’ Quality keywords see a noticeable lift in
Quality Score for the remaining keywords after a good scrub.
Search Engine Roundtable points out a post by AdWordsPro.Sarah explaining that removing poor performing (googlespeak for low CTR) keywords from your account can give your quality score a boost.
Your quality score has several, if not hundreds of different variables that go into it - one of the most, if not, the most important being your CTR. Another factor is your ad group’s performance history. As you remove keywords with a poor CTR from your account, they will begin to be left out of the equation on the QS variables that aren’t so transparent such as your ad group’s historical performance, account history and display URL history. This will end up giving you the increase in QS for the remaining keywords.
It should be noted that just because you have a poor CTR doesn’t mean the keyword isn’t working well. Make sure that before you go off and delete or pause your keywords, you check to see if they’re hitting your other, more important metrics like CPO or ROI.
If you find that you do have keywords that have a poor CTR but good ROI mixed in with other keywords having a high CTR, you should still be able to get a slight increase in QS for your remaining keywords by moving the low CTR keywords into their own ad group. Be sure to also check back on the performance of the separate ad groups again after a week or two to see if your overall costs and metrics are better or worse after the changes.
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