Why Are My Keywords Not Eligible?

Not Eligible Low Search Volume

What does not eligible low search volume mean?

For years, digital marketers were taught to use “long tail keyword” phrases. These keyword phrases are just as they sound—long. For instance, instead of using a simple keyword phrase for a training course, such as “Maritime Courses,” we would use a phrase that described the course more accurately, like “Global Marine And Safety Systems Maritime Course.”

This more specific (and longer) keyword phrase was cheaper because fewer people were searching for that exact phrase. Less competition means less cost to the advertiser. Nevertheless, Google recently stopped this practice in Google Ads.

Why are my keywords not eligible?

Now for these more specific phrases we get the message in red: “Not eligible, Low search volume” which has changed the landscape of digital advertising. There has been a fundamental shift away from long tail keyword phrases to more general phrases. Ultimately, this change has required reworking of nearly all optimized Google Ads campaigns.

Of course, if your Google Ads never really took a hit, they probably could have been doing better even before this change, but that is a different story.

Highly-optimized Google Ads Campaigns in particular were hit fairly hard with this change. However, change is why we have digital marketing agencies. Working with Google’s team, Spin Modern has adjusted our campaigns to work with Google’s current best practices and we are seeing better results than ever.

Here’s What We Did:

We needed to create a new optimization strategy

Strategically using long-tail keywords allowed us to optimize the results our clients would experience with their ads. They would connect with hyper specific lead traffic at a relatively low cost-per-click. But as noted earlier, long tail keywords are no longer an option for Google Ads.

We had to look at these two main benefits of long-tail keywords provided and figure how to get those benefits in a different manner.

Benefit number one: hyper-specific traffic

Imagine you’ve found a large nugget of gold in your backyard. After you finish celebrating you would likely want the best quality of gold. To do this you would have to put the raw matter through a smelting process and begin to remove the impurities for it to become high quality. You would melt it down and begin to remove dross or impurities until you only had pure gold remaining. While this is an oversimplification of the purification process it gives a good idea of what we do with the raw traffic that is produced without the use of long-tail keywords.

…because of the broad variations Google now allows to connect search terms to ads, the resulting traffic can be less than desirable.

Just as when we started off with a large piece of unrefined gold, Google Ads traffic will be very low quality without the right process to refine it and remove the dross. Even with a great keyword set, because of the broad variations Google now allows to connect search terms to ads, the resulting traffic can be less than desirable. For example, a saddle repair shop could get a call from someone looking for a veterinarian for horses if the account is not properly configured.

Should I remove low search volume keywords?

To transform the low-quality traffic into high-quality traffic we watch each search term that Google connects with a client’s ad and begin to remove or approve them as valid searches. We literally go through thousands of searches each month to sift out the bad ones. Fortunately, this process pays off over time. Low-quality searches are blocked from interacting with our clients’ ads, resulting in higher quality leads for our clients.

Low-quality searches are blocked from interacting with our clients’ ads, resulting in higher quality leads for our clients.

Benefit number two: Lower Ad Spend

To get the very low cost per click that we used to see from long-tail keywords is not as easy as it once was. In some cases it can be extremely difficult in highly competitive markets. Nonetheless, we found opportunities to get lower cost per click for our clients by observing the best keyword, ad, and landing page combinations. Structured properly, we have been able to get high quality clicks at a lower cost.

On a case by case basis, we have been able to help our clients see better results with other options as well, but not every option fits every business. If you need help with low-performing ads, we’d love to help!