If #6 mistake related to Universal Search, perhaps this does too?

[fishfinger]

Apologies for not posting this in AdWords but I thought it might have more relevance here.

I use Google UK and today noticed something rather wierd. I tried a search for a 'service A London', then tried another one for 'service B London'. Some of the PPC ads were for service A! Then I searched again for 'service A London' and some of the ads were for service B!

I got a friend at a different location to check this. They found the same thing until they switched back to 'service A London' - that time everything was correct.

I still see this right now as of posting. It doesn't matter what service I use, ads from the last service are being displayed.

I'm not logged in. I'm using the UK results only filter.

Anyone else seeing this?

[tedster]

My first impulse is to say that organic search and Adwords relevance cannot be connected - after all, advertisers must bid on specific keywords. The ads on SERPs are not chosen by a relevance algo, although they might be filtered OUT from display automatically.

But this is a very strange report. Have you tried the experiment with cookies turned off?

[jimbeetle]

Didn't G start this quite a while back. If you search for service A, then search for service B, AdWords sometimes assumes you might still be interested in A and show ads for them. Somewhat strange thinking on G's part, but I do remember reading something along those lines.

[fishfinger]

@ Tedster : I turned off Google cookies and still get the same thing.
@ Jimbeetle : if it is intentional it's certainly a strange way to think!

[johnhh]

We have seen the same for some time (UK) - even if you don't search for service A first - I have never minded our ads showing for related searches. The natural SERPS however are always different - although of course the same sites may appear somewhere if they deal with service A and service B.

[nuevojefe]

@Jim: Definitely. At least 6-8 months ago if not longer. (US serps that is; don't know about other countries).