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Went Hot: October 12, 2007 - 1:43 am
Posted By: billslawski 633 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://www.semclubhouse.com)
Category: Google AdWords
Why does Google refuse to allow opt out for “expanded broad match”? Does it have to do with pressures applied from Wall Street?
9 Comments
Comments
Great article - we too have seen many of our clients 'matched' to some really off-the-wall variations. As a result, I've gone from a person who relied heavily on Broad/Negative Matches to a person who is now using Phrase/Negative and even Exact for some clients. Like you I'm not a cynic or Google conspiracy theorist by any means. I agree with you that they do have by far the best PPC platform out there and have made a lot of great additions to make our lives as advertisers that much easier. But Expanded Broad Match has become quite ridiculous IMO.
Thanks for getting the word out.
I'm impressed with how creative broad match can get sometimes. I still hate to give up broad words though. People are incredibly creative with how they phrase/spell what they're looking for and I hate missing out on these. I have a lot of accounts that are still running very well with a lot of broad words that have lots and lots of negative words.
We have one account that got spanked by broad match before we got involved and it still has lots of broad words but we do periodic negative keyword research based on the results gathered from Search Query Reports and now our cost per conversion is lower than they've ever acheived before. So broad words aren't unusable, they just require more work.
I've said it a few other places but I love EBM (for a number of reasons) and feel it works exactly as advertised. If you use EBM like it's still the old BM you'll end up with issues most of the time. Two different animals.
If EBM is too scary for you EM and PM until your fingers hurt:-)
I posted this on WMW a few months back. As an experiment, I tried broad matching keywords like: buy gifts uk. The keywords were broad matched to searches like:
americans in uk
buy runescape items
aikido uk
calculators for sale
cheap number plates
japanese restaurant brighton
paperweights for sale
yorkshire souvenirs
It is a shambles.
I've never liked broad match, personally; however, it works for some and not for others (I just fall into the latter camp). I'm not sure why anyone would use broad match exclusively and just keep adding negative keywords - sounds like too much work. Would it not be easier and more efficient to just PM everything to better target? Sure, you still have to add negatives, but you won't have to be at it nearly as much.
Google has gotten quite liberal with not only the match types, but I think they are also blurring the lines between what is "search partners" and "content partners". I have a whole conspircy theory about and it basically revovles around the notion that Google is realizing that marketers are realizing that in many cases content match just sucks. Basically holding your clicks hostage. Crappy traffic from a content partner that is considered a "search partner"? What are you going to do? Opt out of the search partner network?
Coming soon: Google Jedi Mind Trick Match - You bid on the term FRUIT BASKET and your ad shows up for BRITNEY SPEARS. Why? Because "these ARE the keywords you are looking for. Move along....."
I use EBM, but cautiously, because I don't want to miss out on long-tail keywords and misspellings I didn't anticipate someone searching for. Sure, it takes a lot of time, but a strong negative keyword list (use match types wisely here), and a regular review of search query reports make expanded broad match less risky.
When the Expanded Broad Match first arrived in 2003 I loved it. It discovered new keyword opportunities and was a fast way to drive high volumes of traffic to a site. One had to continually add negative keywords to ensure the ads displayed for relevant searches, but things ran pretty well for a couple of years.
Lately however, the search queries that our ads are displaying for using broad match - well, they defy logic. Google has expanded the "expanded possibilities" of search queries to beyond what makes any possible sense. I used to be able to look at the terms my ads were showing for and see the logic jump. I may not have always liked the logic, but there was logic there and the simple fix was to just add the term to the negative list and go on. Now, when I look at the search queries my ads are displaying for with Broad match it's just plain silly - and dangerous. The ads will show for totally non-relevant terms.
Over at Webmaster World (http://www.webmasterworld.com/google_adwords/3371081.htm) Brad Geddes (eWhisper) suggested that Google add a 4th matching option and bring back "original broad match". Brad – sounds like the perfect solution and the answer that many PPC managers are pleading for. Google, are you listening?
Phrase can be used effectively to filter the right expanded terms.... just use all variations of the phrase