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Thursday, March 06, 2008

More Revenue for Google; Thinks Irrelevancy makes more sense !

In late February, Google launched an AdWords Beta titled Automatic Matching Beta that is designed at driving additional impressions and clicks for advertisers…and revenue for Google. This beta is an expansion on previous changes Google made when it changed “Broad” matching to “Expanded Broad” matching.
With Expanded Broad matching, if a searcher performs two searches, Google will try to present a result based on the initial query. For example, a search for “MP3” yields results all about that subject. Next, if one searches for “accessories,” and Google presents me with multiple results, including one for “MP3 accessories.” The idea being that the research is for MP3s, so a search for accessories must be related to that subject.

Automatic Matching focuses on working with an advertisers daily spend. Google now is examining campaigns that are trending to spend below its Daily Cap and then altering them so they will deliver more ads. For example, under this system, if a company is bidding on sneaker keywords and isn’t pacing to spend its Daily Cap, Google will start to show their ads on similar keywords – such as slippers or shoes. The thought process is that since you are searching for sneakers, you might be interested in slippers or shoes. In some ways this is counterintuitive to what search is; if I asked about sneakers, why would I want slippers? There will be transparency of what’s going on, so keyword ads that are shown based on Automatic Matching will be indicated in a Search Query Performance Report. The beta only affects paid search and search syndication traffic; vertical and content targeting is not included. Keyword quality scores and minimum bids are not affected at this time.
If you’re an advertiser that is looking to drive traffic or impressions, this may be something to look forward to. The tradeoff is the limitation in being able to customize copy for these expanded keywords beforehand. If the focus of your search marketing is to drive conversions based on a CPA or ROI goal, you’ll need to weigh the benefits and consequences of this feature.

Regardless of if Automatic Matching becomes a part of AdWords or remains limited in beta, the idea brings to light the following three things to always consider in your existing campaigns.

Test Match Types – While Broad matching in Google may drive more impressions, the best way to confirm that it’s the right solution for certain high volume/high cost keywords is to test it against Exact or Phrase match and look at the results.

Negative Matching – Leveraging the ability to use negative matching in Google is a great way to ensure targeted users are seeing your ads. It has the ability to raise the Clickthrough Rate (CTR) for individual keywords, which may lead to driving subsequent clicks at a lower cost.

Using Search Query Reports – This report is full of insights. It can help drive decisions on what keywords you should consider adding as negatives, or add to the account so you can control the message on a more granular level. As the search marketplace gets more complex, this is a very useful tool.

Source: Search Marketing Trends