Questionable Overture Term Matching

Mixing and matching words equals higher bid

[adamxcl]

I just noticed something interesting that I never did before. I found my manufacturer client site in results for a combination of words at a higher price than I can figure out.
For example in generic words. I come up in results for "widgets in country" at 0.16

I have bids: "all widgets in country" at 0.06 and "region widgets" at 0.16 and "wholesale widgets in region" at 0.10

So what is overture doing here? Are they just taking the highest price combination? Are they taking the .06 bid (which is closest to the search string) and adding the 0.10 term to it?

Now I wonder how many other results I show up in and where those clicks are dumped. I can understand some misspellings and plural-singular term matching.... but when they throw in extra words, move them around and then take the highest possible bid when a lower one is closer? I don't know about that.

I think Overture should provide options to either be black and white specific or allow their interpretation of terms. Some phrases take on entirely different meaning when moved around.

I also think they should allow us to opt out of different level partners and have country options like Google does but that's another story.

[Mike_Mackin]

Match Driver [overture.com] has been known to make mistakes. If you feel that it is in error, point it out to CS.