It is quite common that you find your Google Ads account has several keywords marked as ‘Low Search Volume’. Mostly long-tail keywords, that is keywords with 4 – 5 words and with match type exact or phrase become ‘low search volume’ for the account. Before we discuss on how to manage Low Search Volume keywords. It is important to understand what does ‘Low Search Volume’ keywords mean.
What Does It Mean By ‘Low Search Volume’
The ‘Low Search Volume’ status is given to the keywords fails to attract enough traffic. People do not usually search for ‘low search volume’ keywords which cause the keywords to not participate in Google Ads keyword auction. Such keywords remain inactive and do not trigger any ads until search traffic increases for such keywords.
It could be frustrating to see that your most relevant brand terms or category keywords are falling under ‘low search volume’ status. If it is so, you should understand that for your particular term there are not much search happening on Google at that moment. There are following 5 ways you can manage your low search volume keywords.
Change The Match Type
Exact and Phrase matches additionally make keywords reach limited for better. But for Low Search Volume keywords this strategy can be counter-productive. For exact long tail keywords, in a restrictive match type that is in low search volume, you can consider them to convert in BMM (broad match modifier). You should add “+” in front of the important words of a long tail low search volume keywords and add it back to Broad. Do not prefix “+” on all the words of such keywords, that will make the keyword as good as a Phrase.
Prune The Flock
While having a few low search volume keywords in an account is normal and does not affect adversely, a large number of such keywords can drag your Account quality score to a bottom low. The Quality score is an important factor in determining the profitability. Low search volume keywords usually have a very low-quality score associated with them. If you find that your account has significant numbers of low search volume keywords, it is important that you prune them.
Change The Bucket
Many times the low search volume keywords are an effect of seasonality; some of your products or services may be highly searched during a specific time of a year, but not during others. Such targeted keywords often remain inactive as ‘low search volume’ during the other time of the year. It can be tedious to analyze the account performance after every sales season and manage such keywords individually. For such season keywords, we’d recommend creating a separate campaign and ad groups to segment them, so the management will be easier. By pausing such campaigns during the off-season, you’ll also improve your account’s quality score.
New Keyword Variations
Often low search volume keywords can lead you to similar keywords with more traffic. In order to find these variations, try Google Ads Keyword Planner to suggest new keywords based on your input of low search volume keywords. You’ll be able to find similar keywords with decent search volume in no time!
Make People Search
If you are just launching a new product or brand it is possible that your keywords might have a low search volume. This is because people can’t search for something that they don’t know exists. Improving search traffic for these keywords is not possible overnight, but in the future these keywords can become extremely profitable. Leave these keywords active, as is. You may concentrate on public relations, press releases or display advertising of your ads in the meantime. Once traffic comes to your website, users will start to know more about your new brand or product. Soon you should start seeing a spike seen in search queries for those keywords that used to have a low search volume.
Not sure where to start optimizing? Let our free Google Ads Grader score your account’s performance on 6 different metrics.