“better chance of converting” on a return visit – yes, because they are coming back again on a different keyword this time, and may have remembered me, or even seen a different ad for that keyword, and not actually remembered me. They could even have come in to a different landing page. So as ever, it’s down to the site to perform the crucial act of conversion.

The “browsing” keywords *do not* get attributed with the conversion event, only the final keyword which performs it. This is the danger of removing “non-converting” keywords. I guess if you consider the act of conversion they perform is to get you on to my site, they must have some value.

If you bounce immediately and leave without doing anything else, maybe their value is more dubious, unless the user is thinking “ah, I’ve been here before, don’t need to stay on this occasion, maybe I’ll be back again though…”

So, to reiterate, be wary about pausing or deleting keywords which don’t show explicit conversions, as they may be the crucial first stage of the visitors journey to and through your site.

Your point about low search volumes and “long-tail” keywords is a good one – yes there will be fewer searches, but better likelihood of conversion, but the danger with long-tail keywords is that Google may not even be serving your ad for them at all.

You can run the ads diagnostic tool (I recommend doing that on a periodic basis, say every month just to keep an eye on things) to identify any keywords not showing ads for low-volume searches

Buying keywords, by definition have lower search volume, and if the market is really narrow, may actually result in the keywords being inactive… and no sales as a result.

So, what your saying is:

By allowing “information”, or “browse” keywords to stay active in your account, you are achieving a sort of “brand exposure”, so that…

When the searcher returns with a “buying keyword”, seeing your ad again, they remember you and therefore have a better chance of converting?

There is a paradox though… as Google is, “getting smarter about the whole “keyword life-cycle” that users are conducting when they’ve searched for, and clicked on your ad.” This actually means that those browsing keywords are indeed registering conversions, as they “started the cycle”.

When Google says, ” you needn’t inadvertently delete (pause) non-converting keywords which have strategic value to your campaigns”… this doesn’t make sense to me, because they definitely should be registering conversions?

David can you explain that please, thanks.