About the new simplified keyword states

Sorry we haven't posted for a couple days. If you've logged into your account today, you'll probably see why. We've been really busy preparing for our new simplified keyword states and quality-based minimum bids. We've said farewell to the normal, in trial, on hold, and disabled keyword states, and your keywords will now be either active or inactive, depending on their Quality Score and maximum CPC. Remember, the Quality Score determines the minimum bid for your keywords. If your maximum CPC meets or exceeds this minimum bid, your keyword will be active. As you begin to navigate through this new world of active and inactive keywords, we wanted to point out a few tools that can help improve your account management:

Reports – If you'd like to view the minimum bids for all keywords in your account, you can create a Custom Report. You'll see the minimum bid and maximum CPC bid set for your keywords, as well as clicks, impressions, cost and more.

Find and Edit Max CPCs - If you'd like to raise the maximum CPC for your keywords to the minimum bid, the Find and Edit Max CPCs tool is for you. We've added a new option at the bottom of the page that allows you to ' Increase each keyword's Max CPC to the recommended minimum bid.' You can make mass changes to your account with the click of the mouse.

AdWords API - For API users, we've introduced a new minCPC field in reports, and updated the keyword statuses to include the new 'active' and 'inactive' statuses. You can read more about these changes here, from the API blog, or in the Developer's Guide

Conversion Tracking - In the end, it's all about results and the value of your keywords to you. Make tracking your ROI easy by implementing our free conversion tracking tool. If you know how much your keywords are worth to you, it'll make it a lot easier to bid on them

Posted by Sarah, Inside AdWords crew