Nuts & Bolts: Horseshoes - A Google Adwords Workshop on Close Variant Matching
Post on 16-Apr-2017
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Google AdWords Workshop:
How Consistent Evaluation& Consolidated KeywordsYield Greater Exposurewith Your Prospects
Presented by KeywordFirst& hosted by The Social Media Monthly
…and now Google CloseVariant Matching, too
“Close only countsin horseshoes andhand grenades.”
– Frank Robinson,Time magazine (July 31, 1973)
Have You Adjusted Your AdWords Lately?
Why Adjustments Matter•In late 2014, Google AdWords changed the way keywords set to Phrase & Exact Match trigger ads
•Keywords with Phrase & Exact Match types now also trigger for “Close Variants”:
• Abbreviations
• Acronyms
• Misspellings
• Singular/Plural forms
• Stemmings (e.g., dog, dogged, dogwood)
•Close Variants aren’t new, but now there’s no opting out
Where’s the Impact?
Who feels the change?•Every AdWords user
•Even if you opted out of Close Variants in the past, you’re back in now
Where will they feel the change?•Your cost of AdWords may rise – if unmanaged
•Less control over your keywords – if unmanaged
•Less control over the conversion process – if unmanaged
What’s More...
• “True” Exact or Phrase Match – no longer technically possible
• Exact & Phrase impressions & clicks will rise, as your keywords match against more variant keywords (a reason your costs could rise, too)
• Close Variant Matching generates on average 7% more Exact & Phrase Match clicks
EXACT MATCH
PHRASE MATCH
BROAD MATCH
Moving Up...
Google Traffic Share by Keyword Match Type
Exact & Phrase Match traffic share have edged higher since mandatory Close Variant Matching
was instituted last September
The Most Interesting Keyword in the World
Close Variants in Action
Hard Drive Hardly Driven
Baby Cloths Baby Clothes
How to Manage Close Variant Matching
How to Evaluate your Data
•Run a Search Query Report (SQR)
•Export your data into Excel and use a pivot table to sort your data by match type
How to Manage Close Variant Matching – Cont’d
How to Evaluate your Data
•Look at your KPI’s by match type and focus on the Close Variants
•In the above example, you’ll see the exact Close Variant typehas a much less effective cost per order than straight exact
•The phrase Close Variant is much closer to straight phrase
•CPC’s varied by type: exact was 5% higher with phraseslightly lower
Gaining Greater Control – Step 1
Steps to Take Back Some Control
The best thing you can do is to re-check your negative keyword list and run your SQR’s more often
•If you run SQR’s monthly, do them weekly for the next few months•Expand your negatives where appropriate
Gaining Greater Control – Step 2
Steps to Take Back Some Control
Evaluate your Campaign Structure
•If you use singular and plural exact match keywords, for example, you might want to consolidate them
•Keep in mind you want to maximize Quality Score so you won’t want to split click history amongst your keywords
What About the Other Guys?
•Bing has also eliminated the ability for advertisers to opt out of Close Variant Matching
Summing Up
1.Close Variants have been around for a couple of years, so this shouldn’t drastically impact performance of your account
2.Every account is structured differently, so the only real way to know how this has impacted your account is to analyze your data
3.You can gain some control back by running frequent SQR’s and analyzing your account structure to maximize Quality Score
4. Potential benefits to this change are:• Reduced account complexity (fewer keywords)• Ability to expand your keyword reach to capture more long
tail keywords
Thank You!
Resources:
Horseshoes article on The Social Media Monthlyhttp://bit.ly/1EoPh7k
Raise Quality Score article on The Social Media Monthly http://bit.ly/1Pwm5PE
See March posts on our FirstWord bloghttp://keywordfirst.com/blog/
Contact:
Kurt Anagnostopoulos http://keywordfirst.com/about-us/our-team/
Co-Founder, KeywordFirstKurt@KeywordFirst.com
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