I'm wanting to know which of the 2 are going to convert better and which is going to get the higher click through rate (and presumably help rank me higher) - can I do this with Adwords?
But I did see a thread here in the last few days that seemed to indicate people were having technical issues doing this when using the adwords editor, but that would be news to me as well.
"The benefits of having Phrase Match and Exact Match, if you have Broad Match as well, are few, since the advert won't show any more often. In addition to this, searches for the exact keyword will be spread across all of the match types, so it'll be difficult to tell what's happening"
I'm even more confused now. So basically if I have Broad match on, there's no point at all in having Exact match on for the same keyword?
"The benefits of having Phrase Match and Exact Match, if you have Broad Match as well, are few, since the advert won't show any more often. In addition to this, searches for the exact keyword will be spread across all of the match types, so it'll be difficult to tell what's happening"
No offense to the author of that quote, but that is an uninformed opinion.
So basically if I have Broad match on, there's no point at all in having Exact match on for the same keyword?
While it is true that dividing keywords by match type will not generate more impressions, it will allow you to segment very different performing pieces of a single keyword. Different match types are oftentimes worth very different amounts - and the more that you can exploit these pieces by paying more for the good and less for the bad, the better off you'll be...
Good luck.
What I'm basically wanting to know is that by comparing the 3 match types - which is going to have the lowest 'Cost per conversion' ... so if I had all 3 of these in the same Ad Group, and somebody typed in 'widget' would this make the Exact Match 'widget' to be displayed, or would it be any of the 3, selected randomly?
Surely, if my match type 'widgets' has a higher CTR (which you'd expect it to) it wouldn't cost me as much as say, Broad Match, that had a poor CTR?
I think I'm confusing myself now, so I won't be surprised if you are too.
I had someone suggest to me that I run only broad and exact but lower the bids on my broad terms. I'm testing that now but I'm concerned that my overall conversions will drop signficantly so I'm sure I'll have to do some bid adjustments the next few weeks.
However, I have one very competitive campaign I just started a couple weeks ago where the *broad* match (at the lowest CPC) is somehow achieving the most impressions, clicks, and conversions. The average ad ranking is also the highest. I have no idea why this should be so. The client is happy, because the CPC is less, but it defies my understanding of how it's supposed to work. So I don't think I can do it again.
Will this be because the broad match version has been in the Ad Group a lot longer, so the CPC has dropped?
Will this be because the broad match version has been in the Ad Group a lot longer, so the CPC has dropped?
Possibly, but it could be a number of reasons. I'd let it run longer - and evaluate not only the CPC and position of each segment, but also the ROI.
The good news is - you're already accessing information that would not be available to you if you had ignored Phrase and Exact Match!
Let’s say you have an ad group with one keyword in it only, and that keyword is in exact match, and your CTR is 15%.
It is highly unlikely you will get better overall CTR if you enter same keyword in phrase and broad match. In very most cases your CTR will go down if you do that.
What I am trying to present here is that in this way (separate ad groups) you’re “protecting” your best performing combination of keyword(s) in exact match and ads that are showing for them.
In addition, if you were to run a search query report, since this one is not available on a keyword level, your ad group division is perfect for finding out what OTHER keywords people looked for when they clicked onto your ads.
Furthermore, I find it easier to work with and optimize when I do such division.
Finally, if you were any serious about your campaign, you certainly want to know the stats for different keywords, i.e., ”something” in exact match vs. phrase and broad. Based on those findings you can figure if it’s worth of going further in investigating REAL queries that trigger your ads based on your phrase and broad match entries.
Say I had [widgets] (exact match) and it had a CTR of 15% and I added widgets in both Phrase & Broad match, these 2 come in at 5% CTR
but because [widgets] has a 15% it'll still rank high when searched for, even though the ads displaying are having their CTR lowered overall.
Of course I could be wrong, and if I am, this means keyword A, B & C could effect the ranking of keyword D indirectly because the ads are being effected, which seems wrong to me.
So much about my view onto positioning and score.
In addition, for me, it is easier to tune ad(s) based on keywords divided into exact, phrase, and broad match (groups).
I don’t like the idea of having an ad about “blue widgets” showing on “green pajamas” like you can get with broad match.
Broad match is a beginning for many PPCers. For me it’s exact. Once I see it’s going well, I go into exploration with phrase of good exact matches, and maybe broad. But that is my personal way, and I am not recommending it at all.
I admit I'm a little confused.
Isn't it an idea to start off with Broad Match to find out what others are actually searching? For example you have 'widget' as a BROAD MATCH and you find through your logs that many people are triggering your ad by searching for 'blue widget' - as you have started off with BROAD MATCH you now have a decision to make:
A) Have 'blue' as a negative word so it doesn't show up again for that ad
or
B) Create a new EXACT MATCH as 'blue widget' and see how it does in the following days/weeks/months.
So surely, to begin with, a BROAD MATCH is the way to go, and in time you can keep adding negative words, to make the BROAD MATCH more finely tuned?
Or am I missing something here? Also, if you have an EXACT MATCH & BROAD MATCH for the same keyword - widgets & [widgets] and somebody types in widgets - will it ONLY EVER trigger the EXACT MATCH of widgets or will both randomly be selected?
Or am I missing something here? Also, if you have an EXACT MATCH & BROAD MATCH for the same keyword - widgets & [widgets] and somebody types in widgets - will it ONLY EVER trigger the EXACT MATCH of widgets or will both randomly be selected?
the way we use exact match first is to see if we can generate a good, positive roi on exact match, if we can we start to expand that keyword out via phrase and broad.
it is just a cautionary approach we use in some markets.
Where there were phrase matches, I either took that information on board and created a new BROAD SEARCH, or I added both BROAD SEARCH and EXACT SEARCH - (as the new broad match keyword might give me more data from similar search terms in the future)
I then moved down and looked at the EXACT searches and compared it to the impressions and clicks in my ad group.
If 'widgets' had on my print out, say, 10 impressions and 4 clicks .. but when looking at the keyword overall (when simply displaying my adgroup on screen) it said something like 450 impressions and 4 clicks, it made me realise that most of it's impressions are because people are broad searching and not exactly searching 'widgets'.
Upon looking through my logs I found it had indeed received clicks from things such as 'yellow widgets', 'small widgets', 'widgets in London' and so I made a decision there and then:
1) add negative words, such as 'yellow', 'small' etc as I didnt want them to be displayed in future.. AND/OR,
2) Make 'yellow widgets', 'small widgets' into EXACT MATCH so that if someone was to search for those again, it would trigger my that keyphrase instead of a broadly matching 'widgets'.
I went through each word in the Search Query Report and added quite a few negative words but also added more exact match keywords. Often it meant duplicating a keyword to broad match AND exact match (so I now had 2 - broad and exact). My theory is, if they match the keyword exactly it will trigger the exact match - if they add words to it, it will trigger the broad match. In the coming weeks I'll be tracking both Broad Match & Exact Match and seeing which one is performing better. Keeping the broad match enables me to seek out new keywords/keyphrases that people are actually searching for. Had I only had exact match this wouldn't be possible, by looking at my logs.
Ultimately I either want:
1) To have entered so many negative words so that BROAD MATCH keywords are only shown when relative OR
2) Have changed all broad matches into lots more exact matches.
As it's an ongoing process I feel you have to be confident there's absolutely no other variations of your keyword, before changing them all to EXACT MATCH.
I hope this all makes sense. To me, it's about tweaking things over time and in X amount of time, I'll have adgroups which are targetted and don't get unrelated clicks.
