Moving Keywords to a New Ad Group

A reader wonders:

When you copy a keyword to another location, all values are reset to zero, is there some sort of delay in transferring or does this mean they are starting from scratch? – I have keywords that are great performers and I’m concerned that I will lose their status if I move them.

My response:

Since Quality Score (QS) is dynamically recalculated with each search (graded on a curve against competing advertisers), the only thing that is retained is the historical CTR of the keyword.

According to Google, the historical CTR of a keyword is remembered if you move that keyword to a different ad group or campaign.

Of course, pairing the keyword with a different ad will change the CTR, which will change the QS.

To be on the safe side, don’t delete the great performing keywords. Just pause them and try them in new places.

Or, to be even safer, keep the great performers exactly where the are, and move the other keywords to a new location.