Google has set forth a number of guidelines on the usage of keywords in order to ensure that your grant is used in the most effective way possible. Failure to follow any of these guidelines may result in account suspension. Below are some of Google’s keyword policies explained:
No single-word keywords
Google does not allow the use of single-word keywords, with several exceptions. Keywords related to your own brand name are allowed, as are keywords related to certain medical conditions. Other exceptions include words such as volunteering, charity, and nonprofit, though we typically don’t use these as single-word keywords because of the next policy.
No overly generic keywords
Overly generic keywords are not permitted, which is a good thing for your account. Generic keywords may result in a lot of impressions (your ad being viewed), but do not result in a lot of clicks. This drops your overall CTR (click-through rate), which in turn can cause your account to be suspended. Keywords should be highly relevant to what you are advertising. For example, if your organization was hosting a youth basketball tournament, “basketball” would be too generic because anyone searching for anything related to basketball might be shown your ad. A better keyword would be “youth basketball tournament.”
No keywords with a quality score of 1 or 2
Keywords with a low quality score as determined by Google must be removed from the account. This is part of our normal weekly account management.
While we are always happy to get keyword suggestions from clients, please know that we may not use all of them if we feel they might impact your account negatively.
