Exact Match & Conjunctives ?

What does Google make of the/and/a/for etc

[Brain101]

I'm currently chasing the long tail of my AdWords campaign, but I'm struggling to find out how much Google helps out when using exact matches. Does anybody know how Google handles conjunctives (the, a, for etc) and plurals when using exact matches?

Let's say we have the term:
[buy car window cloth]

...would AdWords trigger the ad if a customer searches for:
buy a car window cloth
buy car window cloths

So far I've asked two different people at Google, and have been told 2 different stories. I can see the logic of adding in all the possible combinations, but it would massively increase the size of the keyword list.

Thanks for the help!

[AdWordsAdvisor]

An interesting question, Brain101, which I do not recall being asked before.

I believe exact match to mean just that: exactly what is is between the square brackets with nothing added, nor nothing taken away.

However I will confirm this with my team of "folks smarter than myself" in regard to 'conjunctives' and post again. I've already tried to ping a couple of them and have been unable to reach them.

When I do, though, I will get back to this thread.

Now, let's see if someone (*cough* eWhisper! *cough*) can post with a definitive answer based on exhaustive testing and observation over a period of years. :)

AWA

[chman0024]

Set up Google analytics or some other type of analytics and tage your exact match keyword destination URL's with something like www.examples.com?Google-kw=exact-buy-a-car-window

Don't use the keyword insertion tool, use the exact keyword and see what comes up in your analytics. To compare it yo will have to segement the landing page URL for "Google-kw=exact-buy-a-car-window" and then see the search terms used to get to this landing page. If the search terms match then you know exact match is only that, the exact phrase, if they don't match and you see keywords with a "a" or "the" added on that landing page then you will know that Google has added them into the exact match.

This won't be to easy to set up and monitor but you can trust that with 100% certainty if the answer to your question, anything else someone is just telling you what they think unless that have done the same thing and have the proof in from of them.

Or the easy way is to just flip a coin, heads exact match is just that exact match with ONLY the keywords and nothing added to it, and tails it will add words like "the" and "a" to your keywords.

[eWhisper]

I remember being out at Google a few years ago and talking with a product manager who was doing some research into creating keyword lists where the combinations could trigger your ad, so that you could have more control over how Google handles the 'stop' words. Wonder what happened to that project?

I will say I tested this over a year ago, and it could have changed...

Exact match is exact match. Plurals, stop words, prepositions, etc do not trigger your keyword unless you have all the combinations in your account.

It's that reason, combined with the Inside AdWords stat:

Did you know that 20% of the queries Google receives each day are ones we haven’t seen in at least 90 days, if at all?

Is why I still like to use broad match. It should be bid and managed separately from phrase/exact match. However, it definitely has a purpose.

Can't wait to see AWA's official answer to see if this has changed.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Thanks for jumping in eWhisper!

Can't wait to see AWA's official answer to see if this has changed.

I will still get back to this thread as soon as I am able to confirm. Turns out the folks I was trying to contact are at a big conference of some sort in NYC. ;)

<off-topic>

My real reason for posting without actual information in hand, however, is to say that I just noticed that I have finally met and even exceeded your post count after many years of trying!

I am going to go have a fifth cup of coffee to celebrate. ;)

</off-topic>

AWA

[eWhisper]

Congrats!

AWA has been a very valuable member of this community for years (almost 6). We both joined within a couple months of each other, but I've *always* been higher than AWA in post count.

The fact AWA is well over 4k posts (and finally ahead of myself) shows commitment by AWA and AdWords for advertiser feedback, troubleshooting, and handling a slew of other random things.

Although, as almost all of you posts are in the AdWords forum, and mine are all over the place means you really beat me in this forum a while ago.

Just a quick thanks :)

[AdWordsAdvisor]

[...] The fact AWA is well over 4k posts (and finally ahead of myself) shows commitment by AWA and AdWords for advertiser feedback, troubleshooting, and handling a slew of other random things. [...]

Thanks for that, eWhisper.

I printed the two posts above for my cube wall - because I know that it is not likely to last, and I want proof that it actually happened!

By the way - even after all these years, I still love posting here and remain thankful to be welcomed so warmly by mods and members. Thanks for that too. :)

========================

As to the question of conjunctives in exact match - I have asked around quite a bit and hear nothing other than that eWhisper was spot-on when he wrote:

[...] Exact match is exact match. Plurals, stop words, prepositions, etc do not trigger your keyword unless you have all the combinations in your account. [...]

If I hear otherwise at any point, I'll certainly post again. (Thus adding one more post to my count, heheh.)

Best to all,

AWA

<edit> Fix 3x (!) typos </edit>

[edited by: AdWordsAdvisor at 11:21 pm (utc) on April 2, 2009]