buy a widget
"buy a widget"
[buy a widget]
If any given search term will only match one listing in my account, and the broad match buy a widget will catch everything, what is the point of having all 3 versions of every keyword?
It must have something to do with CTRs right? For example if someone types in buy a widget I would assume the system would match with the exact match [buy a widget]. But I still don't understand how this helps me?
What am I missing?
By having all 3 variants of the KW, you are making sure the high profit [buy a widget] will never get disabled (will have great CTR). Also, your cost per click for the [] variant will get lower in time as it is not influenced by people who hate widgets.
Gert
I'm wondering about how this relates to various related terms that you are already bidding on, and which listing a search is matched to based on the different match types.
Is the general idea that if you have
buy a widget
"buy a widget"
[buy a widget]
that the popular phrase buy a widget will always match your exact match, which should theoretically have a very high CTR because that is the exact and only term it's being matched to?
Versus if you only had buy a widget it would be matching other things like buy a widget online, etc. which might have slightly lower CTRs?
[webmasterworld.com...]
Say you are bidding on
buy a widget
and so are 50 other people. That's not good.
However, if you bid on
[buy a widget]
and someone searches for buy a widget, and there are only 5 other people bidding on that exact match, then really you are only bidding against 5 other people instead of 50.
This should reduce your CPC tremendously since most advertisers are probably not bidding on phrase and/or exact match for every term. Am I on the right track?
I don’t believe that is the way it works. If you are biding on ‘buy a widget’ as a broad match, than you are still competing with people who are using [buy a widget] (exact) or “buy a widget” (phrase). So say company X is bidding on [buy a widget] and your only bidding on ‘buy a widget’ (broad), a user comes to google and searchs “buy a widget”, both ads broad and exact will be competing for the position. So if my broad match keyword was set to say $1 and his exact match was set too $.50 than my broad match would show up on top.
The main benefit of using all 3 types of keywords is to get a better idea of how users are searching for your keyword. By using all 3 on a given keyword you will be able to see how many are finding X keyword and by what meathead. I wouldn’t use it on every keyword you add, but it could be used on specific keywords to test over an extended period of time.
Assuming you have a pretty specific and targeted keyword, typically one would expect the best CTR and Conversions from [red widgets], second best from "red widgets" and last but not least, red widgets broad matched.
However, if, after analysis you notice the best conversions are coming from "red widgets" instead of [red widgets] then you are likely missing out on directly targeting some other more exact and lucrative keyword such as [floppy red widgets].
That's just one oversimplified example. Generally, the more info you have to analyze the better.
I was under the impression that exact matched keywords would rank higher than phrase or broad matched keywords
This is true in Overture, not in Google.
Google finds what keyword in your account has the highest ad rank formula that qualifies for the search, and assigns it a number. It does the same thing for every other account which could show for that keyword and assigns them an ad rank number, and then it displays ads based on those numbers.
[webmasterworld.com...] posts 10 & 11 have some data on how keywords are selected in your account - however, I think that the data is now outdated and needs to be updated by G.
Most people do not bid on exact matches, they just dump a bunch of broad match terms into their account and their done.
So basically with exact matches you have an advantage because most of your competitors probably aren't bidding on exact matches, and thus you already have a CTR advantage right from the start.
Is that right?
In some industries, this is very true. And since the less sophisticated industries aren't making use of negative keywords and phrase/exact match options - your observation is often true.
In sophisticated industries, you'll find people using a lot of exact match and negative match. You'll also find that their bidding is scaled by ROI. Meaning that the exact matches might be very expensive and the broad matches cheaper because the exact match produces better results.
So, if you bid on [big red widget], and another advertiser bids on broad match of <red widget>, and someone searches for [big red widget] (exact match), then your ad will get listed before your competitors because you have bidded on the most exact term, even though both of your ads cover this particular search.
However, if you bid on [big red widget], and another advertiser bids on broad match <big red widget>, and someone searches for [big red widget] (exact match), your ads are considered equal and the ranking of your ads will go down to the CTR/CPC etc.
