A little Too Broad

[kg84]

I recently just started a ppc campaign for a client that installs home theaters. In one of their ad groups we have 2 broad keywords that relate to theater installation. Well, I just ran a search query report for them and their add displayed for "surround sound". These two words appear no where in their campaign. I would not mind them displaying with those words if they were paired with their keywords, but it is not. I also do not have the automatic matching setting on. So I ask, are more people seeing stuff like this? I understand that negative keywords are important with broad match, but this is ridiculous!

[Discovery]

When you need to increase profits just expand the reach of Broad Match and the big G will meet the streets expectations.

Yes, we have seen Google's broad match become more of a theme match. "White flowers" oh you must mean, funerals, parades, weddings, dating and vacations to Holland.

Yahoo was the biggest offender of this, but now Google is following in their footsteps.

Discovery

[kg84]

what really gets to me is what is the difference between this and having automatic matching turned on? If I turn on that setting they'll probably start coming up for "used cars". But seriously, what is the difference? This seems to be exactly what automatic matching is. At least Google has started providing more detailed search query reports, though I wish that they would still give us a little more than they do.

[TigerWoodsOfSEM]

This is a feature of Google's Expanded Broad Match. Rumor has it that this may become an opt-in/out feature in 2009 and broad match will be able to be utilized as it was in 2006.

If you are putting keywords on broad match, I would highly recommend going through search query reports on a regular basis and adding in negative keywords, especially if the keywords receive high impressions and are more general.

You can also fix by buying the keywords from the search query report that are relevant to your product set. This way you can get additional adgroups created and then see which groups are creating the irrelevant traffic through additional query reports.

Furthermore, after you get additional keywords and/or groups launched, you can move to phrase match (which may reduce the total amount of impressions) but receive more qualified traffic.

[AdWordsRep]

I'll pass your feedback along to the right folks, kg834 and Discovery - as I talk with them at least once a week. So, please know that your comments will be heard, verbatim.

In the meantime, yes, negative keywords are your friends.

You may also wish to also consider/explore "phrase match", which is not expanded. It is an option that gives you more control, of the sort that I think you are looking for.

AWR

<added> It seems TigerWoodsOfSEM was posting with some of the same advice, while I was composing my post! </added>

[kg84]

Thank you for all the responses. Awords Rep, it is nice to know that our feedback is heard and definitely helps in improving my confidence in Google. We have been using phrase match for the majority of the keywords, but I have had success with broad match in the past and always like to implement it with a strong set of negative keywords. It has just started too become too broad. What I would love the most is for search query reports to stop displaying "3 other unique queries" as searches and give us more queries. Im sure there is some reason behind doing it that way, but it would be very beneficial to be able to see of the keywords being used. I have noticed that has been more detailed recently.

[Deltron Zero]

Originally Posted by kg84

What I would love the most is for search query reports to stop displaying "3 other unique queries" as searches and give us more queries.

+1. I would rather have too much data than too little.