Last updated*: August 23, 2021*
You launched a new campaign and added many new keywords to your account. And these keywords are very relevant to your product. However, a day later, you discover that the keyword is not generating any impressions and has the status – ‘low search volume.’
What is a ‘low search volume’ keyword?
A ‘low search volume’ keyword is a status given to a keyword in your Google Ads account that doesn’t have enough search traffic on Google search.
In other words, this keyword will remain inactive and won’t trigger your ad until search traffic for that keyword increases. If search queries for the keyword increase, it will become active and will start showing ads.
Are low search volume keywords bad?
Having a few low search volume keywords in your account doesn’t affect account performance. However, if you have a significant number of such keywords, it may affect the Quality Score of the campaign they are in and add unnecessary volume.
How to manage low volume keywords?
It is quite frustrating to have keywords relevant to your product marked as ‘low search volume’. Whatever happened to targeting long-tail keywords? Anyway, we have to find ways to work around it.
But first, it’s important to identify all the keywords that have the status ‘low volume’ in your campaign.
Optmyzr’s Rule Engine can generate a report of low volume keywords for you with their associated ad groups and campaigns.
Here are some options that may help you manage low volume keywords:
1. Leave the keyword as it is.
When search queries for a keyword increase, it’ll automatically start showing ads. This option makes sense if your keywords are for a new product and will pick up traffic.
If you’re launching a new product or site, your brand terms won’t have traffic immediately, but they will start picking up traffic once people become aware of it.
2. Change match type.
It is very common for long keyword phrases in exact and phrase match to be marked low search volume. This is because the probability of someone searching for a keyword with 5-6 words in a particular order is very low.
In this case, change the match type to broad. And then keep a closer eye on your search queries report so that you can add irrelevant search queries as negatives.
3. Find new keywords.
Use the keyword tool in your Google Ads account to find new keywords to target. Add keywords that already have traffic.
4. Pause keywords with a low quality score.
If you have a large number of low search volume keywords, consider pausing the ones that are generic and have a low quality score.
5. Move keywords to a different campaign.
Sometimes low search volume keywords are seasonal or related to an event or product that is yet to take place or launch. However, navigating through low search volume keywords every time you analyze account performance is not a good use of your time.
A good alternative is to house these keywords in a different campaign. Keep the same ad group names appended with ‘low search volume’ and move all low search volume keywords to a different campaign.
It is much easier to analyze active keywords without the noise these keywords create. This will also help improve the overall campaign quality score.
What can you do to increase traffic on low search volume branded keywords?
Create buzz. If you’re launching a new product or site, expect brand-related keywords to be marked ‘low search volume’.
This is because people can’t search for something they don’t know exists. In this case, it is a good idea to run display campaigns to create brand awareness.
People become aware of your product or site and then start searching. This will increase search traffic for your brand terms, and low search volume keywords will become active.
It won’t happen overnight, but you will start seeing results in a month or so.
