Google AdWords Exact Match keywords are no longer truly “exact match”. Here’s what that means, and how that may impact how well your AdWords campaigns perform.
“Exact” Hasn’t Meant “Exact” for A While
In the old days, an Exact Match keyword could only be triggered by a search term that exactly matched it.
Pure Exact Match: Pre-2014
- The Exact Match keyword [advertising agency] could only be triggered by the search term advertising agency
In 2014, Google rolled out close variant matching to all accounts. This meant that search terms with typos and very close variations of your Exact Match keywords could trigger your keywords.
Close Variant Exact Match: 2014 – 2017
- The Exact Match keyword [advertising agency] could be triggered by:
- Plural/singular versions: e.g. advertising agencies
- Typos: e.g. advtising agency
This month, Google announced the next step in the evolution of Exact Match. They will “include additional rewording and reordering for exact match keywords.”
Rewording/Reordering Exact Match: March, 2017 – Foreseeable Future
- The Exact Match keyword [advertising agency] can now be triggered by:
- Words in a different order: e.g. agency advertising
- Search terms with “function” words:
- an advertising agency
- agencies in advertising
Google has decided that for many search terms, the order in which the words in the phrase are entered, or the function words (in, to, but, for, a, the) included in the phrase, don’t change the search term’s intent. Someone who types “agencies for advertising” is looking for the same thing as someone who types “advertising agency.”
What About When Word Order Matters?
Many advertisers were frustrated when Google rolled out close variant matching in 2014, because a word being singular or plural often changes the context of the search and the likelihood that the person will convert.
The search term “Big Apple” might come from someone researching New York’s nickname. The search term “big apples” might come from someone who wants to crunch down on a succulent Fuji.
The new Rewording/Reordering update creates similar challenges, because search intent often impacts the order of the words in a phrase.
The search term “advertising agency” might come from someone looking to hire an ad agency. The search term “agency advertising” might come from someone looking for examples of agencies advertising themselves. The two search terms are likely to have different conversion rates and costs per conversion.
Google says that they recognize that word order and function words impact search intent. Theoretically, they’re only going to let search terms match your keywords when they think the intent of the search term matches the intent of your keyword.
For example, Google won’t match the search term “JFK to SFO” to the keyword [SFO to JFK], because the intent behind the two word orderings is different.
How Will This Impact Your Business?
Google’s early testing indicates that this change has increased exact match term searching by about 3% while maintaining comparable CTR and conversion rates.
We anticipate seeing those numbers change as Google extends this new paradigm across all advertiser accounts.
The significance of this change will largely depend upon how aggressive Google is with the search intent matching. We know from Google’s approach to Broad Match keywords that Google often does a poor job matching the intent of search terms to the intent of keywords. If Google makes the same mistakes with Exact Match rewording/reordering, this could negatively impact conversion rates and cost per conversion/ROAS.
Google is the only clear winner from this update right now, because more search terms will trigger Exact Match keywords, which means more clicks and money for Google.
How Does This Impact Your Strategy?
For now, we need to wait and watch to see exactly how Google rolls this out and how it impacts performance data.
This change makes it even more important that you (or your agency, if you work with pros like StubGroup Advertising), to monitor your search term reports.
You can bet that we’ll be keeping a close eye on our clients’ search term reports and will take action through negative keyword sculpting if we see this change creating problems for our clients.