{"id":112538,"date":"2014-09-02T20:41:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-03T01:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/end-googles-ppc-exact-match\/"},"modified":"2024-12-21T05:53:34","modified_gmt":"2024-12-21T10:53:34","slug":"end-googles-ppc-exact-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/en-gb\/insights\/blog\/paid-media\/end-googles-ppc-exact-match\/","title":{"rendered":"The End of Google\u2019s PPC \u2018Exact Match\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

What changes regarding Google\u2019s match types:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Up to now advertisers could opt out from close variations in phrase and exact match but soon this option will be history. From late September onwards Google plan to implement close variant keyword matching to all exact and phrase match keywords. For some this might not be great news since according to Google\u2019s stats the majority of advertisers (around 80%) already make use of close variations, but for others it could mean a drastic change in campaign structure. So, since the choice of opting in or out is already there the question is whether such a drastic change -that will practically eliminate exact match – is needed.<\/p>\n

Benefits:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Google argue that this change will gain advertisers more coverage \u2013after all 7% of queries are misspellings \u2013 which could result in lower CPC and higher CTR. \u00a0Since the introduction of close variations in 2012 -according to Google\u2019s report \u2013 advertisers have experience a 7% raise in phrase and exact match clicks.<\/p>\n

Close variations can also help advertisers to find new words that convert. \u2018Hidden\u2019 keyword opportunities could be lying in misspellings, abbreviations or low volume keywords. Also, extensive keyword lists will not be needed anymore and that will save you valuable time. So far so good.<\/p>\n

The thing is that they are already ways to pull in these keywords without having to create extensive lists. For example we have always seen the value of ensuring visibility for misspellings on some keywords and have captured these by using modified broad match.<\/p>\n

How you may be affected:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Those who are using broad much or phrase and exact matches without opting out from close variations will notice very little to no change.<\/p>\n

Those who have opted out should be prepared for that extra 7% though!<\/p>\n

One possible implication is that the expected higher number of impressions might generate more clicks but may lower your conversions since the gap between your offer and what the user is looking for may be significant.\u00a0 Thus despite the higher impressions \u2013and possibly higher clicks \u2013 your CPA could increase significantly from irrelevant clicks that will hurt your conversions. So for example if someone clicked on your ad for\u00a0baby clothes<\/em>\u00a0while he or she was looking for\u00a0baby cloths<\/em>\u00a0there is a high possibility that you won\u2019t get the conversion if this is a product that you do not provide.<\/p>\n

A shared concern among those who wish to retain full control over their keywords is that they will have to add a long list of negative keywords in order to achieve that. This can take time as \u2013in the beginning at least- they will have to analyse queries reports almost in daily basis in order to identify negative keywords.<\/p>\n

Close variations may provide opportunity for higher coverage but there will always be a degree of uncertainty regarding the keywords that will trigger your ad. Yes you are definitely interested for misspellings of your brand name, but two words may differ only by a few characters and have a competely different meaning.<\/p>\n

Also the competition is expected to be higher as more ads will be eligible to show for a given query.<\/p>\n

What you can do: \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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