• Search Engine Land, Wednesday, June 11, 2008 1 PM

First, remember that none of the account's negatives--from the poor Quality Score, to the resulting sky-high minimum bids, to the horridly jumbled ad groups--are your fault. Then, take Andrew Goodman's advice for digging out from under the pile of fun that's been shoveled at you.

It's actually a very common situation for search consultants to be in, as "the default approach to trying AdWords is for a business owner (yep, it's common practice for even a CEO of a decent-sized company) to go in there and plop in a few keywords and ads to see what things cost," Goodman says. "The result, usually, is yecch."

Consult an AdWords rep who can tell you whether to keep the existing account (if the Quality Score history is just somewhat mediocre) or scrap it and start anew. Starting fresh isn't as easy as it used to be, but Goodman says that it involves experimenting with match types, building up your Quality Score, and then tightening the focus. In time, you should see your bids come down--though this depends on how competitive a vertical your client is in.

Read the whole story at Search Engine Land »