How To: Adwords DKI - Boost your fucking QS

[LazyD]

So, I hear alot of people complaining about shitty Quality Scores, besides the usual having a decent ad copy, privacy policy, relevant title, etc. and all that fun shit... There is another simple way you can do a good job of helping your QS...

Enter Adwords DKI (Dynamic Keyword Insertion) - For people who have never heard of it, its exactly what it sounds like, it will plug the keyword that was searched and your ad was found for into your ad where you specify, you can add it to the Ad Copy itself, or, better yet, you can add it to the "Destination URL" for your ad...

For this, you must have PHP, if you have hosting that doesnt have PHP, your not a serious marketer and you should just go suck a donkey dick...

We are going to use good ol "Widgets" as our example...

Ill get to the Adwords ad in a second, first, were going to setup our PHP code first... So assuming you already have you landing page made, you will want to enter this at the top of your page... MAKE SURE YOU SAVE THE PAGE AS .PHP

<?php
$srcKeyword = $_GET['src'];
if(!isset($srcKeyword) || empty($srcKeyword)) {
    $srcKeyword = "Widgets";
}
$replaceSymbol = array("!", "@", "#", "$", "^", "&", "*", "(", ")");
$srcKeyword = str_replace($replaceSymbol,"",$srcKeyword);
?>

Let me explain that code a little bit, essentially, its grabbing the string in the "src" portion of the URL for that page - So, if you were to put that into your file called "index.php" and you typed in "http://mydomain.com/index.php?src=blue%20widgets" then $srcKeyword is now equal to "blue widgets" - As a fallback and last resort, if someone comes to the page and "src" is not set in the URL it will just change $srcKeyword to "Widgets" so its not blank and there is still some benefit - Lastly, the $replaceSymbol is just a list of symbols and junk that will be replaced should some joker decide to enter it... So even if "blue wi^@!dgets" is entered in the "src" of the URL it will be stripped out and display without that shit on the page....

Okay, so now, go crazy with this... Use it in your Title tags, meta tags and Header Tags, whereever you feel its necessary - to do this... Just copy and paste the following to where you would like to use it

<?php echo $srcKeyword; ?>

An example implementation would be the following:

Are you looking for the cheapest <h1><?php echo $srcKeyword; ?></h1> around - you can find all of the best <i><?php echo $srcKeyword; ?></i> at MySite.Com!

Side Hint: You can use Header tags(h1, h2, h3) in normal text by changing the CSS for each of them by adding "display: inline;" to their CSS declaration.

Now, for the Adwords portion of this - Go in and edit one of your ads, in the "Destination URL" enter the URL to your landing page and add the DKI crap onto it... Soooooo....

Before:

http://MyDomain.Com/

After:

 http://MyDomain.Com/index.php?src={KeyWord:DefaultText}

Now, looking at that, its a bit strange im sure... Pretty much were telling the ad that we want the Search term that triggered our ad to be added onto the end of our URL

You can change "DefaultText" to a Catch All of sorts, if for some odd reason the Dynamic Keyword thats inserted is too long and makes your Destination URL longer then 1024 characters it will just use whatever word you put in for DefaultText - In this case, just change it to somethign simple like "Widgets"

Now, there are a few options you can use for the "KeyWord" declaration, you can actually change the capilization of the keywords entered, here is a break down of the formats...

• keyword - no capitalization
• Keyword - First word is capitalized
• KeyWord - Every Word Is Capitalized
• KEYword - EVERY letter in first word is capitalized
• KEYWord - LIKE Above But With Each Word Capitalized
• KEYWORD - EVERY LETTER IS CAPITALIZED

Thats about it, if I forgot something glaringly obvious, please let me know... Happy marketing...

ALSO!!!!! - This will allow you to track converting Keywords, you can then use some PHP to add the Keyword to a Sub ID(If your network supports SIDs) to track Clicks and Conversions for each keyword - I would suggest you not send the raw keywords to your affiliate network unless you truly trust them (Gives them a nice keyword list and shows which of those keywords convert, duurrrr)

 

[Polyphonic]

Just to follow on from this, there's a bit of evidence to suggest that the QS bot doesn't follow the DKI path - i.e. it doesn't insert the words, thus not improving the QS.

HOWEVER, we can still use all the ideas above but in a slightly different way.

Rather than altering your actual text advert (or whatever format you choose), we edit the URL of each keyword instead.

Enter adgroup - select keyword(s) - edit keyword settings. From here, you can give a unique URL to each, such as mypage.php?kw=keyword.

Now, don't dynamically insert them, instead append them all manually. If you do this at the beginning using a spreadsheet to upload into the adwords editor, you can do it instantly with a concatenation function.

Let's say you have the your keyword in column A, and the URL in column D.

The formula for each cell in D would be:

=".......mypage.php?kw=" & A4

if, for example, we're on row 4, it will insert the keyword from A4 and give you your URL, almost dynamically, if you like.



Now then, the DKI function hasn't been used but the QS bot will still follow the above URLs for each keyword, thus improving your QS.

 

[LazyD]

Polyphonic - Im not sure if I agree with the idea that the QS bot doesnt follow the DKI path, I recently started a new campaign and within 1 day of the campaign being online my logs were full of the QS bot hitting my site with ALL of the keywords for that campaign in the URL as I described above

I do like your method as well and its a different staring point that leads to the same end, thanks for pointing that out

 

[wrstroud]

Thanks for this
+rep

 

[wesley]

Hmm interesting, I'd like to know from other people what they have experienced with the QS bot and DKI.

 

[int_josh]

http://www.wickedfire.com/affiliate-marketing/9636-beating-g-gle-quality-score-bs.html

dynamic keyword insertion won't work
but there is another way - check out that thread

 

[tob]

http://www.wickedfire.com/affiliate-marketing/9636-beating-g-gle-quality-score-bs.html

dynamic keyword insertion won't work
but there is another way - check out that thread

that is rediculous. dynamic keyword insertion DOES work. php runs server side, and there is absolutely NO way that the google bot could query pages and not "fill" in the keywords. the only thing that could happen is the bot also pulls your landing page with a blank keyword, in which case you should have an ELSE statement that inserts your most general keyword.

nice post LazyD, I didn't know you could manipulate the case of the keyword in so many ways, awesome.

tob

 

[barman]

Great post LazyD. I've been learning massive amounts of PHP lately, and this is one of the reasons I've wanted to learn: to increase the quality score of my campaigns as well as conversion rates. I've got a few more things to do but I can't wait to try this.

 

[mason]

that is rediculous. dynamic keyword insertion DOES work. php runs server side, and there is absolutely NO way that the google bot could query pages and not "fill" in the keywords. the only thing that could happen is the bot also pulls your landing page with a blank keyword, in which case you should have an ELSE statement that inserts your most general keyword.

nice post LazyD, I didn't know you could manipulate the case of the keyword in so many ways, awesome.

tob

I did a little testing and I'm pretty sure bots don't put in keywords. they simply goto mypage.com/?id={keyword} EXACTLY

they goto whatever url you put in.

 

[tob]

when you initially create your campaign the adwordsbot will goto mypage.com/?id={keyword}, after a few days or a week the adwords QS bot will come back and check everyone of your keywords - which will then update your QS for each keyword.

I guess to help with the initial ranking, it would be better to have more adgroups and do a seperate landing page for each. so that landing page had keywords that applied to the specific ad group.. I guess

but you're right, initially it doesn't crawl each keyword.

tob

 

[blervin]

Okay, so maybe DKI in the *ad text* doesn't impact QS. Or maybe it does.

What I do know, is that I use PHP just like this all the time and it works like a charm. I just started a new campaign yesterday.

Out of 534 keywords, in 102 adgroups (this is key!) I had *one* keyword with a QS of OK with min CPC of $0.10 and *all* of the rest had a QS of Great, with min CPC of $0.05 or $0.04

And this is *immediately* after starting the campaign. In my experience, the min CPC will go down and QS will rise.

 

[LazyHippy]

If you use Analytics you can pass on other parameters in the url as well, like this:

http://www.example.com/?utm_source=AdWords&utm_medium=PPC&utm_term={keyword}&utm_content={creative}&utm_campaign=AdGroup&Network={ifContent:Content}{ifSearch:Search}&SiteTarget={placement}

then echo utm_term to put the keywords in the page

(Or using LazyD's code, replace src with utm_term ... I think!)

Good post about it here: Using AdWords Dynamic Parameters in Links » eWhisper.net

Tob - If I understand this correctly - the QS bot won't replace {keyword} in the url with the keywords, so for QS purposes it's best to enter them manually. The dynamic insertion of the keywords into the urls is the only thing affected, not the insertion of the keywords into the page.

 

[chatmasta]

This is a great technique. It's especially useful for something like cities/states *cough*sig link*cough* or brand names.

For instance, if they searched for "Canon Sure Shot 150u" and you were bidding on that keyword for your cameras.com site, they would be glad to see a destination URL like cameras.com/canon-surf-150u.

I know that basically repeated the OP, but I'm just trying to say that it's really good for sites like those that Eli calls madlib sites.

And yeah...if you want to do this with cities and states just use the tool in my sig. I've done it and I got all OK and Great quality scores.

 

[DavidR]

Also keep in mind that you can use separate URLs for each keyword. Something I've done in the past was set up each keyword to kind of fake DKI. It was more of a static keyword insertion I suppose.

For each keyword in the set (apples, bananas, oranges), you can set up URLs example.com/apples, example.com/bananas, example.com/oranges. Your page will then dynamically generate its content based on the keyword insertion like normal and google can actually see this.

 

[BeerHat]

Great Post LazyD. Posts like this suggest you have some promise.


(watch...Tuesday he'll go back to bitching about work. )

 

[LazyD]

BeerHat - Until I quit my job I will continue to bitch about work - I am getting closer to telling those people to fuck off and quit though...

blervin - Exactly, I started a brand new campaign using this and all of the keywods except one had a QS of "Great" and 5 cent min bid, this was immediately after the keywords were added to my campaign - I only have my hosting setup to keep the current days raw logs so I cant post them but the QS bot will actually come and hit your server for every keyword in your campaign using the destination URL from the Ad, and really, whether the bot does it right away or 1 day later it still works great for bumping your QS...

 

[aeiouy]

Good info on getting the QS on the landing page. One thing I will note, is I have some people say, and I suspect they are correct, using keyword insert in the actual ad text is not a good idea, as when calculating the score, Google uses the default text.

Can I prove this no, but I have seen it a few places. I am still doing tests on it, but suffice it to say, if you really want to make it work you may need to break out into unique ads, beyond just insertion.

 

[blervin]

One thing I will note, is I have some people say, and I suspect they are correct, using keyword insert in the actual ad text is not a good idea, as when calculating the score, Google uses the default text.

Okay, sure, Google may use the default text for QS. That's not the point. I use a million other strategies for QS, dropping DKI for QS reasons is just dumb.

In my testing, DKI tends to increase CTR, which makes sense because of the actual search query keywords are bold in the ad text. It grabs the eye a little more.

And let's not forget: Higher CTR = Higher QS

 

[bubbles]

ALSO!!!!! - This will allow you to track converting Keywords, you can then use some PHP to add the Keyword to a Sub ID(If your network supports SIDs) to track Clicks and Conversions for each keyword - I would suggest you not send the raw keywords to your affiliate network unless you truly trust them (Gives them a nice keyword list and shows which of those keywords convert, duurrrr)

Just throw all of your keywords into a database, and have the database have an id field, and a keyword field. Then have the Sub IDs be the keyword id... Then you go to your affiliate, take the number and connect it to the keyword in your DB.

The affiliate has no way of knowing which keywords your using.

 

[LazyD]

Bubbles - Thats the method, or variant of that method that I usually use for tracking keywords - Ive also heard some people do shit like replacing certain letters with other leaders so it looks scrambled to unknowing eyes but they have some kind of cipher or key to it...