Serve adwords based on word order

[wheel]

Let's say I have two phrases:
- Detroit SEO
- SEO Detroit

The first is a company name that I don't want to serve ads on. The second is someone looking for services in an area, and is a good term.

Can I target just the second term?

[buckworks]

Yes, you can.

Just add the exact match [Detroit SEO] to your negative keywords for that campaign.

That will keep the unwanted company name out of your mix, then you can use whatever match types you want to go after the other phrase.

[wheel]

Thanks Buckworks!

[RhinoFish]

-[Detroit SEO]
will only block people who enter 'Detroit SEO' exactly, and nothing more.

-"Detroit SEO"
Would block any search containing 'Detroit SEO'.
So it would block 'Detroit SEO website'.
But would also block 'Local Detroit SEO firm'.

Depending on why you're avoiding their name, trademark or general avoidance for example, you might choose one or the other.

[artek]

I would be very careful with negative keywords in AdWords because just including word "Detroit" in exact or phrase matching in the negative list may stop all ads containing keyword "Detroit" from being displayed.

Using safer approach you can create separate ad group for exact match [SEO Detroit] to start with.

Then create another separate ad group for phrase matching "SEO Detroit" and run it for a week to harvest the list of matching phases and to see if you have problem with this ad showing in "Detroit SEO".

If not, you are done.

If yes, pick up phrases with traffic and again create separate ad groups for [exact match of each phrase]. This way you will gain full control of keyword phrases containing [SEO Detroit].

[RhinoFish]

> just including word "Detroit" in exact or phrase matching in the negative list may stop all ads containing keyword "Detroit" from being displayed.

My experience / data tells me this is incorrect info.

[netmeg]

Mine too. And I'm an actual Detroit SEO!

[Channel01]

Well, the negative exact match piece of what artek said is incorrect but setting "Detroit" as a phrase match negative will absolutely prevent any exact/phrase match keywords containing the word "Detroit" from triggering ads.

[artek]

As I recall, we had problem with keyword [tired].

Adwords showed our [tired] ads for tire (car tire) keyword search results.

When we tried to prevent that and added negative [tire] to the list our ads for our positive keyword [tired] stopped showing up too.

It is hard to notice this if you do not run separate ad groups for every keyword in exact or phrase match.

[ivan_huang]

You can use the Ads diagnose tool to check if the negative KW influence your other Keywords' running!

[Channel01]

As I recall, we had problem with keyword [tired].

Adwords showed our [tired] ads for tire (car tire) keyword search results.

When we tried to prevent that and added negative [tire] to the list our ads for our positive keyword [tired] stopped showing up too.

Your 'tired' keyword would have been broad match as opposed to exact match if you were getting that type of match behavior.

There isn't a circumstance where you could add 'tire' as a negative and it would prevent your 'tired' keyword from triggering ads. Just not possible.

[artek]

No, it was exact [tired] match. We noticed this in the past because we use separate ad groups for every keyword or keyword phrase in exact or phrase match.