The problems with broad and expanded match in Google adwords aren’t new but I’ve seen more discussion on it recently and I’ve also come across more examples in my own campaigns which I consider to be stretching the boundaries even more.

This article was sphunn (sphinned?, submitted to sphinn?) and generated some discussion on Rose’s blog and in sphinn itself.

It primarily talks about the problems with overlapping keywords in different ad groups. Sometimes broad match keywords can result in situations where you have carefully crafted a very targeted ad for a specific product and then Google displays an ad from another ad group unexpectedly (from your perspective). It typically occurs if you have an ad group with a general keyword like watches and another ad group with narrower keywords such as mens sports watches. If someone searches for mens sports watches then, in theory, either one of the keywords can trigger an ad as they both fit the criteria for broad matching with the search query. This is what I mean by overlapping keywords. From your perspective as an advertiser you want the ad targeted to mens sports watches but it’s not always the case. If the bid for the general keyword is higher this can be the one that is picked over the more relevant one.

It gets more complicated with expanded match. Ads can be triggered when someone searches for something related to your keywords. So, Google might consider timex watches to be relevant to mens sports watches and show your ad.

The result is more traffic, which can be good, and this is how it is justified by Google adwords. The big downside is ads showing for queries that really have no relevance to you. This lowers the click through rate and generates unwanted clicks.

The fixes are:

Be careful when using broad match keywords in a Google adWords campaign.

On the positive side, broad matching means that ads will run for variations of your keywords without the need to specify what all these variations might be. So in the example given in the adwords help file, the keyword web hosting might trigger ads for the search phrases web host or web hosting company.

However broad matching incorporates expanded matching so not only will ads show for variations in word order, and queries with additional words to the keywords, but ads will potentially show for synonyms and other related variations.

This might not be what you want and there may be times when the expanded matching can be much broader than you might expect. In a campaign I recently set up, a broad match on a generic product name triggered ads for search queries for a manufacturer name, very specific model numbers (not relevant to my client) and other products sold by the manufacturer.

There are two main ways to deal with it.

1. Build up a list of negative keywords and add them to the campaign

• use the keyword tools (particularly the adwords keyword tool as this will indicate potential expanded matches); extract the words that are not relevant and including them as negatives in the campaign
• run searches and seeing which words and phrases come up in the search listings and ads to uncover potential negatives
• analyse your website logs to extract non-relevant search queries or words that can be input as negatives
• run the new search query performance report to see which search queries triggered ads and what negatives are necessary in the campaign

2. Opt out of expanded match by using phrase and exact matching

By doing this you know when the ads will be triggered and you eliminate the instances of unwanted expanded matching.

20 to 25% of search queries that Google gets in any one day are unique. The queries have never been seen before. This statistic was given at the recent Google searchology event.

I spent some time analysing the searches that resulted in a visit to my website during the previous month. Here are some of the stats:

• 42% of queries were unique
• 85% of queries were made up of 3 words or more
• The longest search query was 17 words!

The figures aren’t surprising. Having a blog means that I rank well for a large number of longtail searches on the subject of adWords, pay per click or Google. Search queries are getting longer and queries with 3 words or more are much more common now than they were previously.

Some observations:

Keyword analysis is a good way to uncover hot topics and common questions or concerns

For example, quite a few people came to my blog because they searched, in different ways, on the topic of adWords being expensive. It’s interesting to know this and I can take action by writing more on the topic or addressing it in a frequently asked questions section.

Of course I had to have written something on the topic in order to rank for the combination of “adWords” and “expensive” in the first place. There are obviously a range of other popular topics that I haven’t written about and therefore the search phrases don’t appear in my log files. However, blogging is a great way of producing a variety and volume of content to get visibility for those long tail phrases in the first place.

Did people get the information they wanted with the long tail searches?

People phrase things awkwardly, or use odd combinations of words, in an attempt to get information on something they don’t know a great deal about, particularly when the topic is complex. I tried out quite a few of the searches trying to assess the experience from the perspective of the searcher. Sometimes I thought there was a good chance they got relevant information. Sometimes the content probably didn’t cover what they wanted to know and just happened to contain the same words as the query but in a different context. That’s going to happen and the searcher may just leave immediately to try again. Maybe they weren’t part of my target audience anyway. However, it really made me have another look at overall usability and reminded me how important it is to have clear navigation and help people find what they want.

Details are good but focus on the overall trends

I love the detail in analytics and could happily spend hours pondering some puzzling aspect of the data. There are always a few puzzling things as well. One of the keywords someone used was the single word “Australia”. I’ve no idea how someone arrived at my website from that because of course I don’t rank anywhere for the word Australia (I checked :-). The details are interesting and can offer insights. However, overall trends and some key pieces of information are what is important.

On that note, I’ll finish with a link. I just ordered Avinash Kaushik’s book on web analytics.

I read about 20 blogs each day and there are others that I look at on occasion. This is one of my favourites at the moment so here’s a link. It’s relatively new and there have been some good posts. Also check out their keyword manager. I’ve been a big fan of Aaron Wall’s keyword tool for a while and this is similar with a couple more features.

Here’s the link:

PPC Super Affiliate Blog

Google AdWords provides four keyword matching choices, “broad”, “phrase”, “exact” and “negative”.

Broad matching is the default option in that it requires no special formatting. There are advantages to using broad match but some disadvantages as well.

Broad Match Pluses:

• more impressions and more traffic
• a wider variety of keyword phrases can be targeted without having to add them all into the campaign
• can be used to find additional, popular keyword phrases if you examine the logs to find the full phrases

Broad Match Minuses:

• not as targeted - you can cover a wider range of searches with one broad match but you can’t make the ads as relevant to very targeted searchers
• expanded match can give unwanted matches
• poor targeting can result in a lower click through rate which will in turn result in a low quality score
• broad matching will not be delivered on all matches for new accounts with no quality score history

Strategies:

1. Use all 3 matching types to start with and then act on the information the results deliver.

- Use an analytics program such as Google analytics to discover additional keyword phrases from your broad matches. Add them as exact matches in a new ad group and improve the targeting.

- Delete keywords which don’t perform.

- Use different bids for each keyword matching option. Keep in mind that you may have to pay more for high converting, very targeted exact matches.

2. Use broad matching for longer phrases rather than single words. Where phrases overlap use separate ad groups and negative keywords to control which keyword phrase is matched. For example, if you have broad match keywords “web design” and “custom web design”, a search for “custom web design” could be matched with either phrase. Google will not necessarily select the most relevant phrase so if you want more control and better targeting then add a negative keyword for “custom” in the ad group containing “web design”.

Ad Group 1

web design

-custom

Ad Group 2

custom web design

3. Use dynamic keyword insertion to improve the targeting for broad matches

Brian Clark has some excellent ideas for writing effective titles in his blog copyblogger. He has recently re-written headlines submitted by his readers along with a rationale for the changes. It’s a good way of demonstrating what works.

At the core of his recommendations is the need to use the title to clearly communicate the value of the content to the reader. There are some tried and tested techniques for this such as:

• “10 ways to ……”,
• “How to (do xyz) and get (some benefit)
• “What you need to know about (xyz)”

If you are optimising a page for the search engines the title is important because having keywords in the page title is one of the most important factors contributing to ranking well for those keywords.

So, should you optimise for the search engines by making sure the title contains keywords, or should you make the title persuasive so that the reader is motivated to click through and read the rest of the post or article?

There’s no reason why you can’t have both of course. A title can be both persuasive and contain keywords. That’s always going to be the best result. I would always make sure that consideration is given to keywords in the title for the following reasons:

1. Using keywords will get more targeted traffic than people clicking a clever headline out of curiosity. Untargeted traffic doesn’t have as much value.

2. If one of the goals is to get your article republished, publishers will search article directories for relevant content using keywords.

3. The titles of most interest to your target audience are the ones that have relevance to them. Keywords are exactly that – words that have relevance for your target audience. If you don’t include the keywords the headline is less likely to stand out when someone scans a page.

Keyword research is one of the most important parts of a pay per click campaign so how do you go about identifying as many relevant words and phrases as possible? Here are some techniques:

1. Use your existing resources

You know your own business and you will have access to a list of your most relevant keywords. Your brain is a good place to start! Here are some resources that will be useful

• Your website
• Your product brochures, ad creative, email campaigns and any other marketing and sales collateral
• Your knowledge of the business , brainstorm!
• Your network of friends, family and customers , ask them for words and phrases they would use to find your business
• Your website’s log files. See what people search for when they come to your site.

2. Look at your competitors’ websites

Do the same with competitors’ websites. Have a look at the words and phrases they use and extract ones relevant to your business that you haven’t listed yet.

3. Use the Keyword Tools to expand the list

There are a number of free keyword suggestion tools. Put in the phrases you have uncovered so far and see what else comes up that is relevant.

• adWords keyword tool if you have a Google adWords account
• wordtracker
• keyword discovery

4. Include variations of your keywords

Consider the following:

• spelling mistakes
• relevant qualifiers / adjectives (eg cheap car loans)
• geo locations (car loans Sydney etc)
• single and plural versions of each word where it makes sense (eg use hotel and hotels)
• common abbreviations
• variations of verbs (eg learning Spanish and learn spanish
• separated and hyphenated words (eg pay per click and pay-per-click)

5. Maintain a seasonal calendar

One-off or seasonal events relevant to your business can present good opportunities for keywords in the time leading up the event. These keywords can be very cheap, and good for branding opportunities, if there is little competition for them.

6. Use all suitable combinations of words to uncover all phrases

Aaron Wall has an excellent keyword list generator that does this really well.

Wordtracker have launched a free version of their keyword tool.

Thanks to Aaron Wall for pointing it out.