Written by Honcho | May 4, 2012 3:46:34 PM
So in the last few days Google has announced that it is going to improve
[exact] and
“phrase” match in its PPC platform Google AdWords. Previously a keyword set to
[exact] match within an ad-group in AdWords would only trigger your ads for user search queries that exactly matched that keyword, whereas a
“phrase” matched keyword would only trigger if the users search query contained that specific phrase. However the Changes that Google is set to make will mean that your ads will now be triggered a lot more frequently as Google is set to include: • Keyword Misspellings • Acronyms • Accents • Stemmings (such as floor and flooring) • Close Variants of the original keyword. This means that your keywords will now act more like a
modified broad match, which will broaden your reach to consumers who search for close variants of your original keyword, but still giving you a lot more control than
broad match will give you. Google claims that these changes have been made to benefit the user, but many people within the industry are sceptical and see it as just another opportunity to increase their revenues. I personally feel that it is a bit of both (sitting on the fence I know!). It will certainly improve Google’s revenue as it means that ads will be showing where perhaps before there were none, or certainly increase competition on certain misspells or variants which is sure to increase CPC’s . However from a users perspective more competition (in terms of retail) is sure to drive down prices and give them more choice about what they want. It will also give companies opportunities to make sales where perhaps before they were missing out. What it does spell the end for is the meticulous misspell campaigns within AdWords accounts that many companies include. It makes the whole process a bit easier in my opinion. But it does mean that companies who had gone the extra mile, and spent lots of time and effort in including all sorts of misspellings and variants, now won’t get any advantage from that, which is a little frustrating especially if you are seeing successful returns from it! The changes do mean that your ads could potentially show for keywords that you don’t feel are relevant though, or are perhaps just too expensive. This means that you are probably going to have to spend time updating your negative keyword list instead. As far as I can see it, these changes will help people that might be quite new to PPC and consumers. However for Industry professionals who have already got successful AdWords accounts set up this might be a bit of a pain! What do you think about Google’s changes to the match types? Tweet me at
@philstevens1989 and stay tuned for more
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