Google Ads

Google AdWords is Messing with my Match Types

By DOM Team| 2 Min Read | April 27, 2012
LinkedInFacebookTwitter
Google AdWords Jenga

As an agency, we use Google match types as intended and exact match means we only want that exact term to trigger our ads. The same can be said for phrase match- we only want that exact phrase to trigger our ads. Yet, we realize that users do misspell terms and that we cannot devise every variation of keywords…that’s where modified broad plays into our strategy.

My jaw hit the floor when I logged into AdWords last week and saw that Google was going to start inferring variations on our exact and phrase match terms. Really? If I wanted Google to infer exact and phrase match, I would have made them broad in the first place.

After I regain my composure, I click on the link and learn that it’s not as bad as I thought. Google is not treating these as broad as the broad match, but rather pulling “close variants” to the keywords.

I can see the benefit to this option, but it still scares me because the close variants can include: misspellings, singular/plural forms, stemmings, accents and abbreviations. (Sounds a little like broad match to me, yeah?) However, I was relieved to learn that there is an off switch. Under the main Setting tab, scroll to the bottom and find Keyword Matching Options. It looks like this:

Oh, and for all your price conscious folks, have no fear because Google will still use the exact match term to determine your quality score and first page bid estimate.

In all seriousness, this could be great for advertisers who just don’t have the time to research and get the most out of the match types. However, this could be detrimental to a campaign that has close variants which are irrelevant to products/services at hand.

As such, I don’t believe we will be using this feature for our clients, but I would be interested to hear if you have any success or failure with the new option.

Related Articles

All Blogs
Digital Ad Management | DOM webinar - From Click to Close
By Justin Seibert| 2 Min Read | October 25, 2023

New Webinar: Maximizing Google Ads & Sales Team Synergy

Are your digital marketing team and your sales team operating in silos, or are they…

Read Article right arrow
PPC Ad Management | Leveraging Google Ad Scripts
By Jim Foreman| 10 Min Read | October 19, 2023

How to Leverage Google Ads Scripts for Automated Success

Table of Contents Understanding Google Ads Scripts Getting Started with Google Ads Scripts Practical Automation…

Read Article right arrow
What Is Return On Ad Spend (ROAS)? How Is ROAS Calculated?
By Janice Masters| 3 Min Read | October 26, 2022

What Is ROAS? How is It Calculated?

When it comes to tracking digital advertising goals, measuring your return on investment, or ROI,…

Read Article right arrow