Google AdWords Forum

Bek.

(Wondering if has something to do with the Broad and Phrase Match Quality Change launched at April 26.)

Funny how we (or at least me) didn't hear more talk about this after it happened. I myself have seen impressions go down since then, but clicks way up.

Is there any specific reason that broad and exact matches of identical keywords are no longer allowed in the same adgroup? And what about broad matches?

I just randomly picked a pair of two word keywords from different adgroups and they each showed as exact, broad and phrase. I even contrived some unlikely modifiers to turn them into phrases or "broaden" them. Therefore, broad & phrase certainly are "allowed" although it's possible they may not be shown as often for all keywords.

Are you sure that the keywords have been approved?

That may be the case, Suze. Erik_Jan, was the entire report from the Ads Diagnostic Tool as follows:

You have no ads that match the search term widget Reason The keyword phrase you've entered doesn't currently trigger any of your ads. What does this mean? You may receive this message if the keyword or keyword phrase you've entered: Is in a paused or deleted Ad Group or campaign. Doesn't exist in your account. Is rarely included in search queries. (In this case, your ad will begin showing for this keyword soon. You don't need to do anything.)

If so, it means an ad or keyword which has not been approved yet although the explanation Google provides covers everything except that possibility.

The last bullet "hints" at that possibility but otherwise makes no sense. Why is it that a keyword "rarely included in search queries" will begin showing for this keyword soon? Maybe I'm reading too much into that.

Erik_Jan, if this has been going on more than a week, it's time to contact support. I've had adgroups that were pending review and just somehow missed or forgotten. They never showed for keywords until I contacted support.

On the other hand, it doesn't make a lot of sense that one version of the keyword would show and the others wouldn't were they awaiting approval. Good support question. Good luck! ;)

----

Another thing to keep in mind is that the Ads Diagnostic Tool is flaky, to put it politely.

When I put the kws I tested at the beginning of this post through the ADT, it said they weren't showing. Message was Ad not shown ¦ Reason: Your maximum cost-per-click (CPC) bid is lower than the minimum CPC bid recommended by the system for your keyword.

However, it claimed they weren't showing for an entirely different Adgroup than the one they were being used in. Almost as though the ADT takes one of the two words in the 2 word keyword phrase and tests that one. Fortunately, in real life the kws are indeed showing for the correct ads as I saw during my broad/phrase/exact test just now.

All should know that sometimes it reports this same message for words that are not marked "Inactive" (for the correct ad, BTW). As mentioned before, there are now two levels of inactivity, it appears:

a) The keywords clearly marked inactive

b) The keywords that has had no impressions in a while. Those just silently sit in your account and their status is unknown to you unless you test them manually.

I preferred the "Disabled" days when at least you knew to get rid of them as I know I've said before.

FWIW, I happen to rarely find single word kws useful to me. Perhaps the ADT works better for those?

Israel

AWA2