The Clickable Search Engine Marketing Blog

To get a clear sense of how your keywords are performing, you need to review more than the current performance or the previous day's data; you need to know how your keywords are performing over a period of time. The question is: what period of time? The most important factor to consider when answering that question is when you last modified the keyword. If you take an average across a date range that includes, for instance, a bid adjustment, you'd be combining apples and oranges. A keyword with a $1 maximum CPC bid is a fundamentally different thing than the same term with a 75 cent bid.

The last date on which you modified your keyword is a clear line in the sand, and it is important to compare performance before and after that date. Since the most recent upgrade to Clickable Pro, this has been particularly easy to do in the Keyword Filter and Bulk Edit Tool.

With our 2.1.1 upgrade to Clickable Pro, you can now select 13, rather than nine, additional columns—along with the default columns, like search network or campaign name, that are always there. One of the new columns we've added is "Last Modified Date," which indicates the last date on which you made a change to a keyword bid. If you want to use the column, click on the "Select Columns" link at the top of the tool, then check the box for "Last Modified Date," and uncheck an option that you don't need.

For instance, if you want an accurate sense of whether a particular keyword is making progress toward your CPA goal, take a look at the average CPA since the last time you modified the keyword's bid. You'll have a sense of how the keyword is doing since the latest bid, rather than a muddled sense that contains data from the period before and after you made your adjustment. This will help you make good decisions about what to do next. And another upgrade gives you even more decision-making help: along with "Last Modified Date," the Keyword Filter and Bulk Edit Tool now displays ActEngine recommendations associated with your keywords. You can accept them directly in the tool, one-by-one or in bulk. More details on that next week! For help with this and other tool tips, please contact Clickable Support.

New comments

Last week, I introduced a new column that is now available in the Keyword Filter and Bulk Edit tool: