Cheap?

[Shipper]

I have made the words 'cheap' and 'cheapest' negative keywords in my PPC campaigns on the basis that we really dont want to compete at the bottom end of the market (B2B & B2C service industry - freight forwarding).

Having thought about this again recently I wonder if I have done the right thing? For instance

1. I read somewhere recently for example of a somebody who wants a 'cheap' hotel room when what they really wanted was a 'cheap' i.e - a good deal - in a very nice room in a top class hotel.

2. I suspect that a good percentage of searchers put the word 'cheap' in all their searches for goods and services and I notice if you type the word cheap into Google it offers up the top searchs starting with cheap car insurance, flights, holidays, hotels, laptops etc. Web searchers - they cant be looking for the 'cheapest' can they?

Have I made a mistake by making 'cheap' and 'cheapest' negative keywords?

Yes, I know I can experiment with my own ads but just wondering if anybody here has any direct experience or views they can share on this subject?

Shipper

[Punched]

We don't do cheap.

But we do offer value for money! Cheapest doesn't necessarily mean the best.

Like you i don't use the word "Cheap"

[Indizine]

You're right Mike, when I was looking for my laptop, which was around the £1k give or take a few, I was looking for the cheapest price of that model, so it wasn't a cheap laptop by any means. I also used the same phrase when I was looking for one at £400 ish for my kids, lower spec, getting chugged around, so not wanting to spend loads but with a reasonable spec. So yeah, cheap doesnt always mean the cheapest of that whole range of product, but for the cheapest you can get it at.

[justinmarch]

It depends on what you want and what's right for your business I always find the word "free" to be a good negative word, but that because I don't work for many companies that offer free services/products.

[Barry]

Write another adgroup using the keywords 'cheap + your keyword'

But as has been said change your wording of your adwords to something like 'we dont do cheap, but we sell blah blah.? To give the searcher an idea before they click.

May help get rid of the tyre kickers.

Ta

Baz

[Alvin]

cheap always wins when one is looking for known products.

Like a car e.t.c

Not sure I would want a cheap curry though.

cheap in general means cheapest to the general public and seldom reflects on quality as most products are known items.

the exception being niche items or services.

Alvin

[Mike Seddon]

The only way to know for sure is to test.

Here's how I would do it.

Make a copy of your existing adgroup (very easy with Adwords Editor).

Set the bid price for all you keywords in your new adgroup to be less than your existing adgroup.

Remove the negative keywords cheap and cheapest from your new adgroup.

Now what will happen in that any keyword combinations using the words cheap or cheapest will trigger the ads in your new adgroup and you can test what results your get.

Also any keyword combinations that would have triggered your original adgroup will continue to do so because you have set you bid price slightly lower in the new adgroup.

You'll might still get a little overlap because its quality score rather than bid price that determines ads showing but it will give you a decent comparison without really impacting your existing adgroup.

I hope that helps.

Mike