The Problem with Google’s Broad (Advanced) Match Keywords
I just read a very interesting blog post from the Rimm-Kaufman Group about the changes that Google had made to Broad match keywords and the resulting effects. In the article they point out how the performance of broad match terms has gone down and that they have been noticing some troubling incidences where the broad match ads have been appearing when better and more closely matching keywords (and therefore adverts) have been available.
They believe that this started happening with the change to a ‘1st page bid’ rather than a minimum bid, Google is ignoring/not seeing some of the more exact terms with lower bids and is instead posting the broad match adverts. This idea certainly tallies with what I have been seeing in my analytics; looking at the actual search queries for broad match terms has thrown up example after example where there was a better matching keyword and ad group for the search. The result of this is that we, the advertisers, do not get the most suitable advert appearing for the viewer, Google have less relevant search results and that in turn will make the search less efficient for the consumer.
Hopefully with Google now aware of this problem a solution will be forthcoming before too long and broad match will no longer cannibalise other keywords’ traffic. In the meantime it means adding a lot of negative keywords to keep the boundaries up between ad groups. Perhaps we can use this as an opportunity to ask Google for some areas we would like improvements made such as;
- Separate broad and advanced match types where broad match would act more like the old version.
- Allow bidding on the Search Partners network on its own. Although in the UK the Search partners rarely seem to work as well as the main Search network, if given the chance to work on this traffic with independent bids then perhaps more value could be taken from it.
- Ad serving where ‘optimise’ would favour the best converting advert based on statistical significance rather than the best CTR.
- Search Query Reports without ‘other unique queries’.
- More flexible version of the conversion optimiser with more parameters when setting CPA.
In the long term if Google gives us greater control over how and to whom we advertise then adverts will be more relevant to the searches, campaigns will become more profitable, PPC budgets will go up and Google would be the ultimate beneficiary.
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David on Mon (9 Feb) @ 9:37 pm
I’ve noticed a similar problem. One of my former companies are no longer coming up top for an exact keyword match of the domain. Instead Google is bringing up two irrelevant results from their synonym definitions. I guess this is the same problem.
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Simon on Wed (11 Feb) @ 11:38 am
Interesting post.
“…incidences where the broad match ads have been appearing when better and more closely matching keywords (and therefore adverts) have been available.”
I wasn’t aware this was happening, the whole idea with match types and long tail keywords is that they are more targeted than simply using the generic, broad terms.
I have written about some of the points you raise before regarding the search partners and conversions from adtexts. Regarding search query reports, a better way to decipher search query’s is to use Google Analytics data..see link below for details…..
http://www.roirevolution.com/blog/2008/02/exact_keyword_tracking_with_gajs.html
Google are quite receptive to new idea’s, if you forward this post to AdwordsProSarah who is on twitter.com/adwordsprosarah, she will forward it to the Google engineers.
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Alan Mitchell on Thu (23 Jul) @ 2:15 am
Hi Rich,
What you’ve said here hits the nail on the head with broad-matching:
“looking at the actual search queries for broad match terms has thrown up example after example where there was a better matching keyword and ad group for the search”
I’ve often find many search queries broad-matched to the ‘wrong’ ads, asking myself “why didn’t Google show this ad instead?! It’s better!” Although to be fair to Google, if I don’t have the search query as a keyword in my account and there are 10 or so broad-match keywords that could be seen as relevant to that search, then I can’t blame Google having a go at choosing one.
In terms of managing this problem, it’s not practical look at every search query and decide whether it being matched to the right keyword, nor is it to to have a separate ad group with tailored ads for each search query. One useful technique I found to help regain a sense of control which broad searches go to which ads (without spending all day analysing reports and making changes) is the 10% Clicks Rule.
http://www.alanmitchell.com.au/techniques/the-10-percent-clicks-rule/
But until, like you said, Google separate broad and expanded match, it looks like we’ll just have to make do with work arounds.
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SEO Edinburgh on Thu (11 Feb) @ 8:34 pm
The last paragraph pretty much summed up the way this all went in 2009.
Are you some sort of SEO prophet?