Stop Using Broadmatch or You Will Die a Horrible Death
Filed Under (AdWords, Adwords Broadmatch) by Jeff Hudson on 16-10-2007
The latest hysterics from our industry blogoverse is that Google Adwords broadmatching changes are causing advertisers all over the universe to suffer a precipitous drop in ROI. The first post I read on this issue was the only one that actually made any logical sense at all. It was also different from the subsequent posts because it was limited to the implications of expanded broad match on regionally targeted ads. This is a unique issue that requires some creativity to troubleshoot.
The rest of the posts just outline problems that are simply solved by reading your analytics data or log files and implementing a solid cadre of negative keywords. Of course, there are anecdotal stories of ‘this word’ matching to ‘that word’ and oh my god our impressions went through the roof! OMG!
My problem with all of this is the apparent expectation that Google Adwords owes the advertiser a platform that works a certain way. Look, this is an advertising platform. You don’t have to use it. If it changes in it’s performance, either adjust to that change or don’t use it. You can vote with your dollars. Do you hear high level SEO’s whining everytime Google makes a change to the organic algo? Not if they’re any good. You just figure out what is going on and make the adjustment.
In fact, I will go even further and say that 95% of the problems are caused by poorly constructed accounts with loose keyword/adgroup correlation, in addition to underutilized negative keyword filtering.
I absolutely use broad matching on every single account I manage. I also use exact and phrase match. The reason broad match is so attractive is because of the scalability. It’s where you will find your greatest volume, and of course, it requires a lot of work to make sure it’s done at an efficient ROI.
Jeremy at PPCDiscussions has a nice strategy outlined in terms of how he manages his way through a campaign. My approach is different, but also relies on carefully monitored negative keywords at THE ADGROUP LEVEL.
Am I denying that expanded broad match is occuring?
No, of course not. I am as realistic about Google’s motivations as the next guy, but I’m not going blame them for any of my problems managing accounts.
Do I want Google to allow advertsisers to opt out of Expanded Broad Match?
Of course.
I am choosing to use the tools they are giving me to make the best of the situation.
Here’s some advice someone posted on a blog recently that I printed out and put on my wall:
Don’t Complain. Just Work Harder.
Hey Jeff,
This is my first read of the morning, and it’s a good one. I don’t know about you, but every time I see one of those “EBM ruined our account/business” posts I would love to take a peak into the account being discussed. I don’t consider myself some kind of AdWords expert and that’s why it’s so perplexing to me when I read the horror stories - my accounts do just fine and I’m no expert - what the heck do these doom and gloom accounts look like?
Good point Jeremy.
Here’s my invitation to anyone reading this post who disagrees with me.
Email me your October log files, your October adwords report, your exported adwords account, and a summary of your problem (1 or 2 misbehaving keywords only please, I work for a living).
(jeff at theppcbook dot com)
I will either fix your problem, or I will buy you a beer (via paypal).
We’ll call it the “Expanded Broadmatch Beer Challenge”
Any takers?
[...] the QS, deservedly or not. Others feel Google is doing a poor job of quality control in regards to broad match. Google is asking more from it’s advertisers, and at the same time giving them more tools to [...]