Broad Match Can Be Really Annoying
I’ll warn you now, this is a rant. It should be concise, but be prepared for some vitriol.
I’ve been running search query reports, and am getting really irritated by some of the broad matching on Google. For a group of keywords about Paris (and only Paris) a lot of queries about France that don’t contain the term Paris at all are matching, which is irritating, especially since I purchase these France keywords to go to a France ad and a France landing page separately. I bid higher for Paris terms, which convert better, and Google is trying to squeeze out a higher CPC by applying the France queries to Paris instead of the lower bid France adgroup. If I have specified a bid for a keyword outright, don’t you think I’d rather have the search query match there than to a more broadly extrapolated match? And isn’t that a better experience for users? The quality of my ad and landing page are more specific to the France keywords, and at a higher quality score, for the appropriate adgroup (France) as opposed to the less related one (Paris). I’m irritated that my quality score is potentially harmed by this broad matching, when I am actively breaking out dissimilar keywords to enhance my quality score, and frankly, provide a better experience for search engine users. Way to undo my work Google!
There is a solution to this problem, add negative matching to the Paris adgroup so the France keywords don’t match there (I’m using negative exact matching). Then they are compelled (fingers crossed) to match to the France adgroup. Le sigh.