Broad Match: A Powerful Tool That Must Be Used With Care

[Chris Sherman]

Running a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign on Google and Overture can get complicated, especially now that both networks offer different types of keyword matching options.

Please join the discussion about today's SearchDay article: Use Caution when Going Broad with Overture and Google (http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3371961). This article covers a panel at New York's Search Engine Strategies conference, and talks about the advantages and pitfalls of Overture and Google's keyword matching options, how to avoid trouble, and offers techniques for maximizing a search advertising campaign's effectiveness.

[KellySEM]

This article neglected to touch on Google's expanded match (a component of broad match) which matches your keywords to synonyms of that word - so terms beyond the word you are bidding on are matched to. The system automatically trains itself to learn these matches, some of which are questionable. Things get complicated quickly in this area, especially with regard to trademarks matching to generic terms. Beware!

[diggz]

Another tidbit the author neglected to mention (not surprisingly because Overture neglects to mention it as well), is that Broad Match is not supported on MSN or Yahoo search results.

I discovered this completely by accident, and after pinning Overture customer support down on some specific examples, they sent me this reply:

"We apologize the confusion this may have caused you. Currently, you may find Phrase Match and Broad Match results on sites such as AltaVista and AlltheWeb, with many more coming online in the weeks ahead. You will not find your Phrase and Broad Match results in Yahoo! at this time.

Overture will provide Phrase Match and Broad Match results to affiliate partners on a gradual basis. Doing so will give our advertisers time to adjust to the increase in targeted customer leads that these new Match Types will deliver."

-Diggz
One Business Place - Connecting Local Customers and Businesses (http://www.obp.com)

[bradbyrd]

i've heard this too. the lack of distribution is due, as i understand it, to concerns over relevancy -- not to advertisers, but more importantly to web searchers. relevancy is the mantra at every search engine these days, as everyone understands that its the key to "good" search results. and google has proven good search results = sticky customers and more importantly $$$.

the "major" distribution partners are playing it safe -- they dont want to upset the credibility of their results with questionable matches... so they have thus far shied away from broad. obviously, there's more revenues in broad though, so you can be sure they're watching it closely and will adopt as soon as they feel comfortable.