This was first foisted upon us and we had to disable it.
Now, even though there are no clicks, it appears to be there again without notification or an opt-out option.
And, there is NO info in the Help Center about it. With each of these developments, I am becoming more and more leery of any "help" Google provides.
Anybody else seeing this? How long has it been there?
I see it on 2 of 3 accounts I've checked.
Help pages are here:
[adwords.google.com...]
[adwords.google.com...]
...but the "Advanced Settings" option mentioned at the second link is nowhere to be found when I edit campaign settings.
I'm thinking (hoping!) this is a bug in what is displayed, not in the actual setting for automatic match.
Interesting that a search for "automatic matching" in Adwords Help did not yield these results for me.
I've emailed my rep and will pass along any response I get.
I have now heard back, and quote his reply below, verbatim.
Due to a bug in our AdWords interface which surfaced early this morning Pacific Time, you may have seen a message indicating that Automatic Matching was enabled in your account even though you had not turned it on. This message was added to some accounts by mistake and the error will be corrected today. No charges to any advertiser will result. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.
Please note that for competitive reasons, I will not be able to post with further details regarding the Automatic Matching beta.
AWA
<edit> the word 'competition' changed to 'competitive'. I hate clunky writing in my own posts! </edit>
[edited by: AdWordsAdvisor at 8:47 pm (utc) on Feb. 5, 2009]
My rep got back to me as well that is was a glitch.
Please note that for competitive reasons, I will not be able to post with further details regarding the Automatic Matching beta.
You have competitors? Doesn't seem that way these days. Continuing on with the clunky-removal theme, I think 'strategic' would be the better word choice.
