Phrase matching questions

[debvh]

Thanks to this board I understand now that it can take awhile for phrase matching to kick in so you need to bid on every possible keyword combination you can think of. I sell big red widgets (imagine that!), so I bid on "big red widgets" and "very big red widgets" and "great big red widgets" and "how do big red widgets work?" and so on.

Now that my campaign has been running for almost 3 months, my ads seem to be appearing on any search containing "big red widgets." As far as I can tell, anyway. I don't know how you can know for sure.

Here are my questions:

If someone searches on "very big red widgets" does that count as an exact match on "very big red widgets" (more expensive click) or a phrase match on "big red widgets" (less expensive click)?

Is there a compelling reason one way or the other to keep or dump the more specific phrases that get far fewer impressions (presuming the exact match will still pick them up)? Or perhaps move them to a separate campaign?

Is it possible to find out what searches people are actually doing that contain my keywords, so as to better target my ads? Can this be combined somehow with conversion tracking? I get high CTR on some of the more obscure phrases, but the conversion seem to be on the more general ones.

Thanks!

[debvh]

OK, either I asked a stupid question or asked too many questions in one post.

Question 1:

Now that my phrase match seems to be working, is there any compelling reason either to keep or to get rid of more-specific keywords?

For example, I bid on "red widgets" and also on "big ugly red widgets." Now that my ads are showing on just about any search including the phrase "red widgets," is there any reason to keep bidding on "big ugly red widgets?" Is there any reason NOT to keep bidding on "big ugly red widgets?"

Thanks.

[debvh]

Question 2:

Can I find out what search terms people used when they found and clicked on my ad for red widgets?

For example, if I have 500 clicks on an ad for "red widgets," is it possible to find out that they came from 200 searches on "big ugly red widgets for diabetes educators" and 300 searches for "cute little red widgets for nurse case managers?"

Thanks.

[briggidere]

hi,

if someone searches for "big ugly red wigets" google looks at both your ads in the group (phrase and exact), and will show the better performing ad.

If you stop the more specific ad, google will use the "red wigets" phrase match ad, but you cannot tell what other terms were among the string that led the user there. So, in my opinion it is better to keep that one going and target the ad to "big ugly red wigets" instead of "red wigets".

If you can view your logs, you will be able to see what other phrases people are using with that term included,(google doesn't do this for you) then you can go and create more relevant ads for them.

The more specific the ad to the user, the more likely they are to click on your ad, therefore increasing the CTR and rank score.

does that help?

briggidere

[debvh]

Thanks, that was helpful.