Adwords Broad Keywords Bloopers

This post will be regularly updated, with the “best broad bloopers”, a seemingly irrelevant search query triggered by broad keyword in your adwords account. Feel free to send in your “broad bloopers”, and I may include them in this list, “the infamous adwords broad keywords bloopers list” …

Be forewarned, broad keywords employ “search history permutation” and “relevant variants” algorithms… this probably explains some of the really absurd matches.

I hate this technology…

IT ROYALLY SUCKS!

How about you? Go Vote!

Send your bloopers to: bloopers@ppcproz.com

photo: brian “doctabu” moore

Your Broad Keyword	Actual Blooper Search Query
advertising company	advertising on wheels
advertising company	health insurance advertising
company advertisement	i have a photo for advertisement
event ideas	children party ideals
event ideas	decorations
event ideas	ideas for party platters
event ideas	summer themes
indoor playground	wooden playgrounds
interactive floor	interactive walls
locksmith	plumber
shop designer	coffee shop names
shop designer	fashion
show ideas	baby shower gift ideas
advertising company	business for sale
event ideas	golf ideas
holiday parties	christmas tree vendors
event registration	register my new HP printer
wedding albums	wedding photographer
personal injury attorney	pro bono attorney
digital cameras	babe cams
kids cell phones	sexy cell phones

 

Dan: could you please return broad matching to the old

algorithm so that only relevant traffic is shown?

Dan: if i am bidding on "shop displays" in broad match, why

would i want my ad to show for "shopping carts"?

Dan: that is just stupidity, and a big cheat if you ask me

Dan: can you explain how this is not cheating the client?

Dan: if you were an advertiser, would you like paying $5 for

a stupid click like that?

Dan: you can buy a hamburger for $5

support: if you don't want to appear on something like shopping carts, you could always include 'carts' as a negative keyword.

Dan: who has the time to add hundreds... thousands of

negative kws to adapt to this nonsense?

Dan: i have 615 negatives in my campaign, and the irrelevant

traffic just keeps streaming in. sure, as most queries are

unique. very convenient scheme?

Dan: if the algo was more pure, this nonsense wouldn't

continue to happen, would it?

support: Well the idea again is that it's more traffic for

you. But you could also consider changing your keywords to

phrase or exact match if you're not happy with the traffic

you're receiving using broad match.

support: We're always working to improve the relevancy of our

search results for advertisers and users alike.

Dan: broad match could be fine, if it wasn't used as a tactic

to drive irrelevant clicks

Dan: this bastardizes the concept of search advertising,

turning it more into display ads... sure,lets "shopping

displays" to "shopping handbags"... nifty, but a real scam to

advertisers

Dan: why not make exact match the default matching option

then? why default to broad match?

Dan: to receive relevant traffic, and "mimic' the intent of

broad match, would require tremendous effort in permuating

thousands of options... why not just make broad match more

accurate?

support: Well many of our advertisers have the exact opposite

problem. Instead of receiving a flood of traffic, they're not

receiving enough. So we want to get them as much relevant

traffic as possible and typically broad match benefits them

since they can't possibly think of every search variation

users type in.

Dan: "as much relevant traffic"...

Dan: exactly... so please fix broad match, ok?

Dan: there is tremendous frustration and anger on this issue

support: I'll be sure to pass along that feedback. I can

understand how it's frustrating, but in the meantime we can

focus on strategies to help your campaigns perform well with

the current system.

Dan: i can personally attest to hundreds/thousands of

ludicrous search queries

Dan: and i'd be interested to hear you explain the rationale

behind this kind of practice

support: Well we generally recommend against using one word

broad match terms

support: We definitely wouldn't call them irrelevant clicks.

And it's possible that certain keywords may even merit being

deleted if you find that they're not converting well and you

don't believe they're generating relevant traffic. We're not

trying to scam anyone.

Dan: my point is: if an advertiser uses a one or two word

broad kw... should they really be forced to pay

this..."stupid tax", for not understanding how they are

really getting royally screwed?

support: As I've said, we're not trying to scam anyone. There

is a learning curve involved when people first get started

with AdWords but if they take advantage of the resources

we've made available online and our customer service they

have access to details about all of our best practices.

Dan: this broad match leniency is way too loose

support: Are there any other questions I can address

regarding your current account?

Dan: yes, why not make exact match the default match type?

Dan: not every new client is "savy"

Dan: shouldn't adwords try to "warn" their clients as to

these dangers?

support: Because the odds that a user will type in an exact

search query are so low, many new advertisers would see an

extremely low number of impressions.

Dan: or better yet... make broad match more relevant

Dan: and they would be less apt to waste money on clicks too.

who would benefit more?

support: Well keep in mind that if an ad is truly irrelevant,

a user won't click on it. Why they click on the ads they do

is difficult to predict, but if there are broad match

keywords which are triggering an ad when it's not very

relevant to what a user needs, we should see a lower click

through rate reflecting that.

Dan: i just recenlty read about paid search bots...

Dan: this really scared me

Dan: clicking every ad on a page?

Dan: why/who would create this?

support: We are always working to improve how the technology

works. We want to cut down on irrelevant traffic as much as

our advertisers do in order to be deserving of their trust

and business.

Dan: yes, a low ctr also hurts the account!

support: And yes, click bots are included in that so we've

put an advanced system in place to monitor for invalid

clicks.

support: It can in the long run, but again when advertisers

reach out to us with data showing their account isn't

performing as well as they'd like we're always open to

looking at it with them to see how we can help them do

better. Really, it's in our best interests as well for them

to be happy with our services and the traffic we send to

their site.

Dan: in conclusion: I, as a veteran user, GAP...I am

profoundly dissatisfied with broad match

support: Thank you for making us aware of that.

Dan: its a catch 22, can't live without it, spend too much

time tweaking and adding negatives

Dan: i just checked a client's account today...

support: I understand. Well if there's anything else we can

do to help your campaigns perform better, just let us know.

Dan: 80% of budget went to broad match!

Dan: and i am certainly adding new kws, but broad match just

keeps trumping and getting the lion's share of...

Dan: irrelevant clicks... it is basically a losing battle

Dan: imagine how a "non savy" advertiser would normally just

get screwed, and not even know why

support: I'm sorry that I can't understand many of these

campaigns, or I'd be happy to offer some suggestions to

improve your performance. But if you see that there are

certain keywords which are noticeably low performing, you

should consider pausing or deleting them. And negative

keywords, as you know, as a key tool to cutting down on

irrelevant traffic. So even if it's frustrating at times, it

sounds like you have the tools to be successful.

Dan: my point is... without being extremely skilled and

experienced, and using all the tools at hand... most

advertisers are at an extreme disadvantage, and highly likley to be paying for irrelevant traffic from broad matched kws

Dan: i don't think this should be the rule, rather the

exception

Dan: and for myself... i'm just tired of having to

"compensate" for this "broken algo"

Dan: which seems to me to benefit adwords primarily

Dan: at the expense of the client

Dan: relevance should be king

Dan: even for broad match

Dan: how are "slippers" related to "tennis shoes" for g-d

sake?

Dan: sure its easy to suggest i give up on broad match....

support: Relevance is still king. But some keywords are more

likely than others to branch out to variations that you're

unhappy with. We do our best to educate every advertiser with

the tools they need to continually monitor their performance

and improve it. Thank you for all of the examples which

you've passed along.

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