You’ve hit the nail on the head there – search queries are mined and irrelevant search queries are added as negatives, while relevant search queries are added as new exact match keywords.

Cheers for sharing your graphic!

Alan

http://www.chadsummerhill.com/ppc-search-query-mining-workflow-using-adgroup-triplets-2/

Will definitely be subscribing to your blog.

I think what you’re talking about is called staggered match type bidding. Craig Danuloff from Click Equations wrote a great piece on using staggered bids for different match types, which you might find useful.

While it makes logical sense to have lower bids for broad match keywords, I tend to avoid doing sofrom the onset, as broad match can be so useful in helping to uncover new keyword variations to expand your keyword list. Restricting broad match bids from the start can limit growth of an account, so is only something worth considering once an account matures.

That said, if a methodical approach such as the Broad Match Generator is used frequently to mine search queries generated from broad match keywords, then either add them as new exact or phrase keywords or add them as new negative keywords, then there is really no need for broad match to have lower bids at all.

Cheers,
Alan

Negative exact match and negative phrase match keywords can be incredibly useful in ‘forcing’ only the right kinds of traffic to broad match keywords.

For example, if you have exact and phrase match keywords for ‘fiji holidays’, you could put your broad match keyword ‘fiji holidays’ in a seperate ad group, then add in negative exact and negative phrase match keywords for ‘fiji holdiays’

That way, you can (almost) be 100% sure that your broad match keyword ‘fiji holidays’ will never be triggered when your exact or phrase match ‘fiji holidays’ keywords are eligible to show.

With this embedded match, you’re basically saying to Google, “show me anything you think is relevant to ‘fiji holidays’, except when someone types ‘fiji holidays’ exactly or in a phrase”.

If scaled up to campaign or account level, this could be incredibly effective at generating new keywords, but for large accounts with many keywords and ad groups, I’m not sure this is practical.

You would have to add every exact and phrase match keyword in your account to every other broad match ad group, to prevent broad match keywords from triggering your phrase and exact match keywords. For campaigns with 100′s of ad groups, this could result in tens of thousands of negative keywords.

I guess it depends exactly how big a problem inaccurate keyword matching is causing. I personally tend to ignore irregular cases of keywords matching, but like you said, it would be interesting to have some empirical data showing exactly how often this happens.

Cheers,
Alan

I think what’s necessary here is to do a precise test to measure how much traffic from exact and/or phrase match keywords is cannibalised by broad and or/phrase match keywords, when the same keyword is on all match types in an account. It’s very difficult to say in what sort of volume this problem occurs.

Anecdotally, when taking over an account recently, I have seen a significant uplift in traffic to exact and phrase match terms by negative matching them against their broad match equivalents, which happened to be in a different campaign.

That brings up another factor to investigate: which has the better CPC and conversion rate? It is all well and good me saying that I would prefer my exact match keywords to be triggered over their broad match but it really only applies if they are giving a better ROI. You would expect that they would but it would be interesting to investigate this concurrently.

Perhaps I may be able to offer some empirically backed opinions on this in future. Likewise, keep us posted on any results you may have to offer.

Thanks

Paul

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Thanks for your comment.

You’re right – sometimes a broad match keyword can get triggered for a search query instead of the exact match keyword, even though Google says this shouldn’t happen.

Although I’ve yet to do some analysis on search queries vs. triggered keywords for Google’s session-based matching, this could potentially be a reason why broad-matched keywords are being triggered when you have an exact match of the search query in your account.

That said, from my experience, anomalous keyword matching doesn’t appear to happen in large enough a volume to warrant a seperate PPC strategy, so I would tend ignore these exceptions, and continue to focus on the 99% of keyword matching which does work as specified by Google.

In terms of keyword and ad group structure, I’ve tried seperating broad, phrase and exact keywords into their own ad groups, and also tried bundling match types together in the same ad group, and have yet to notice any significant differences in performance of either strategy.

For high-volume broad-match keywords, it might be worth giving them their own ad groups or campaigns, and as you point out, perhaps using negative ad group keywords or embedded match, which could be useful for regaining control over broad-matching.

But unless their is a good reason for doing so (such as a very high-volume keyword), I would tend to avoid giving different match types their own ad groups. Doing so could over-granularize and bloat your account (see One Keyword Per Ad Group: Pros and Cons), which could do more harm than it’s worth.

Cheers,
Alan

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What are your thoughts on where to place these broad match keywords in your account? Do you put them in the same ad group as the exact and phrase match terms?

For certain search queries, sometimes the broad match keyword, the exact and phrase will all be eligible to appear. I know Google says that the keyword that most closely relates to the search query and has the lowest CPC should be triggered:

http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66292

However, in my experience, you can sometimes have a broad match keyword triggered for certain queries for which you have the exact match in your account. This is a point that I have put to the Google AdWords staff to which they could not really give an answer other than, “the rules you’re referencing are usually applied, but there are exceptions.”

When this happens you have, to some degree, lost a bit of control over your keywords and ad display, which I think you will agree is not ideal.

To me, the only way around this would be to have the match type keywords separated into different ad groups and have the exact/phrase negative matched against the ad group that contains the broad match keyword.

What are your thought’s on that?

I only tend to give high-volume broad match keywords their own ad groups (or campaigns) – and unless there is a good reason otherwise, I usually start with exact, phrase and broad match variations of the same keyword together in the same ad group. The goal is to find a balance between granularity and efficiency (which are often opposing factors), so it’s often unwise to give every match type or every keyword it’s own ad group.

Although a good campaign and ad group structure is essential for a sucessful PPC campaign, no matter how you choose to build your campaigns and ad groups, the key is always to regularly analyse the search queries which are broad-matched (and phrase-matched) to your keywords.

When you notice a difference between the search query and the keyword it is being matched to, alarm bells should start ringing, and you should consider how splitting out keywords into new ad groups with new ads and new long-tail keywords, could help to improve CTR, Quality Score, conversion rate and ROI.

Alan

Interesting post! Very well explained too.

I totally agree with your broad match “short term strategy”.

I was wondering how you manage broad match keywords. I found it easier to manage if I create an ad group especifically for broad match terms, so I can set a lower CPC at group level.

I also found that having them in a seperate campaign is a good idea, as I can set a specific daily budget for broad match keywords. This way I make sure that I’m not spending too much money on those low converting keywords.

Your thoughts about that would be appreciated!

Eric Paquet

Glad you found the article useful. I too can’t wait for the new modified broad match – it should help give advertisers more flexibility over search traffic and make new keyword discovery using the Broad Match Generator all the more controllable.

Cheers,
Alan

You’re both right – broad match often gets a bad name due to the sometimes poor quality of traffic it can deliver. And I’m sure there are many successful paid search specialists who choose to stick with exact and phrase match keywords only.

But if anything, this lack of competition for broad match variations surely makes broad match all the more profitable for those who choose to take the plunge.

Broad match should never be left alone, but if used alongside a regular expansion and optimisation strategy (such as the broad match generator), it can no doubt prove to be extremely effective in helping to uncover long-tail niches and deliver highly relevant and personalised ads.

Cheers,
Alan