Exact Match Keywords: Whats Changed?
Just a couple of weeks ago Google announced changes to the well loved keyword match type, exact match! A staple of any successful AdWords account was the use of exact match keywords, which would only serve an ad when a user’s search exactly matched the keyword but that’s all changing.
Exact match keywords will no longer just show when search queries are exactly the same as the keyword. Now, exact match keywords can show when search queries share the same words of that keyword, but in a different order. For instance, the exact match keyword [men’s dress shirt] is now eligible to show to the exact search term men’s dress shirt and to the not-exact search term dress shirt men’s or even shirt dress men’s.
Furthermore, the changes also now allow for exact match keywords to disregard the functional words within a search query, including appropriate prepositions, conjunctions and articles. For example, the exact match keyword [jobs in united states] could show an ad to someone searching for “jobs in the united states” even though the keyword didn’t include the article “the.”
Google’s official estimate states that advertisers will, on average, see a 3% increase in clicks from this type of additional exact match traffic although this will obviously vary from advertiser to advertiser.
Google’s changes to exact match keywords don’t all go into effect immediately. Further to their announcement, the change will be rolled out to English and Spanish keywords over the following months, with other languages to follow throughout 2017.
Hopefully, we will be able to see some real benefit from this change but remember it could affect your campaign.Constantly adding new negatives, will be more important than ever. So ensure to be prepared and keep a close eye on your search terms reports over the coming weeks and months.
