G’s use of broad match techniques is one of the dirtiest contradictions concerning G's public persona. The following is a mere sampling of the damage broad match causes:
1. Local Search is rendered nearly irrelevant through Adwords as broad non-location specific brands dominate important local terms.
2. Irrelevant ads are served because the ads do not take into consideration the *true intent of the users query* from a qualifier standpoint like location, vertical, quality, price and the like.
3. Entire industries within Adwords are being obliterated by 10-20+ large broad matchers that buy up roots that dominate entire keyword universes
4. Small business, first driven from the serps, now become driven from obscure "open" bid conditions, that make even expensive bids look, well, “not expensive enough”
5. G's broad match revenue generation snowballs thus forcing deepening bias to large advertisers.
6. Users become disenfranchised and skeptical of sponsored matches
I could go on...but in the end, the real shame is that Adwords is becoming less, and less, and less relevant relative to the intent of the searcher.
The public hasn't a clue G, in fact, you have them ga-ga over Google. Look for the WW community, today, however, for signs of public sentiment of the future.
business is business, Google is under no 'obligation' to provide *anything* to anybody. To the extent they provide *something* that *someone* is willing to pay for, they will make money.
Broadly, PPC has had the effect of opening the marketplace to small players and provided a venue where the smaller player can challenge and compete with the larger company.
I could go on...but in the end, the real shame is that Adwords is becoming less, and less, and less relevant relative to the intent of the searcher.
speak for yourself. We are a small company and as we shift more revenue to PPC our ROI and client base goes up and up and up.
As more discover the value of PPC the cost will go up BUT there will be more providers of PPC ready and willing to provide more 'space'
p.s. how does broad match specifically 'hurt' relevancy, CTR is CTR whatever the matching.
I launched a small, web-based retail site about four months ago, and I have to say that for me and people like me, G's Adwords has got to be one of the easiest/cheapest/quickest/most cost-effective means of advertising I've come across.
When you are on a tight budget and need conversions quickly without forking out a great deal of money, PPC is a wonderful thing to have.
$50 million seems like a lot of revenue until you compare the company against a global multinational corp that has billions in annual revenue.
A mom&pop shop will not be able to chase as many opportunities as a $50 million dollar firm, regardless the amount spent on advertising. A larger firm can pursue larger contracts that would be too large for a mom&pop.
However, if the mom&pop shops get locked out of certain areas of online advertising, the smart ones will continue to evolve and adapt. Smaller companies are much more agile and adaptable than larger companies. The smartest small shops will create new ways to reach their target audience.
Regardless, google has probably the least intrustive ads out of any search engine out there. In my opinion this alone makes up for a little less relevant ads which are much more profitable for Google. It's their business, they can run it how they please. No one is forcing you to advertise on Google. I'd say, if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen. ;)
That made my night. .
I am new to all of this stuff, and I might be wrong...
I just think that we should address an issue that gets to the core of [the most] relevant ad serving versus the quest for the dollar.
One reason why CTR sucks for local companies is because broad match is conditioning people not to expect relevant local results, therefore they don't bother looking.
From a searcher's point of view this bit definitely irks me. D*ll buys up any word that is remotely related to computers and sites like *Bay and Amaz*n buy up any word that is remotely related to... a word.
So here I am searching for infomation on something, or a review, and I get sites showing me pages that are supposedly "review pages" but don't have any reviews on them i.e. no customer has bothered to post "feedback" yet. (When there is something it is a poor quality "feedback" by someone not usually qualified/not competent to comment on a highly technical product i.e. not an authority in the field. I typed "review", not "customer feedback").
As a searcher if I want to buy a second hand gizmo at an auction I'll type in "second hand gizmo + auction"
My point - from a searcher's perspective - is that it is frustrating to get these big boys using ad space that would otherwise carry other ads which may earn G less - but are more relevant to what I am looking for today.
I just think that we should address an issue that gets to the core of [the most] relevant ad serving versus the quest for the dollar.
bleeea! Id really rather be on the quest! besides in terms of Adwords, they are one in the same thing.
But what I have found is creativity really pays off...
Try to find vaguely related terms that have low bids and you could find some really cheap business that way. The majority of search engine leads I get for one of my verticals is from this type of "vaguely related" search term and the average price I pay per click is around $0.09
G's Broad Match Significantly Hurts Relevancy
and negatively impacts users and small biz
Well, you can take heart from the fact that it is hurting the conversion rates of the companies using it as well, so hopefully they can't keep it up forever...
A very simple change would be to show exact match bids before broad matches (like O), but than again, that would leave lots of revenue on the table and G's priorities are not relevancy, it is revenue. Otherwise they would make this simple and logical change.
Again, if you have not seen the devastating impact of broad match, just wait, your time will come. The problem is growing by the day.
You really think most adwords users have a clue to what they are doing with this default option.
G- this is crazy.
You just have to use negative words effectively.
You can still create razor sharp targeting with AdWords and get a good ROI but it takes lots of work. In some industries, it seems like all the top advertisers must be hemmoraging money or they have amazing conversion rates. Others industries are minting money with AdWords.
Conversion rates and cost per whatever are almost always higher on AdWords than any other search program for us across numerous clients which may be due at least in part to all the clutter from broad match.
I've come to like the Overture match type version better where if you want to blast your ad across all variation of shoes, for example, you have to go in and buy each one of them, not just buy the word shoes. Overture exact match outranks the other match types regardless of bid price. That makes the ad listing more relevant IMHO since advertisers have to do research and think in order to blanket a keyword set.
