In today’s fiercely competitive digital world, Google Ads has emerged as one of the game-changing advertising platforms for businesses. Whether you own a small business or a global enterprise, this paid platform offers a range of options to reach your target audience within your budget.
No wonder Google Ads is marketers’ preferred platform to make a big impact with their ads and campaigns. Not to mention, Google keeps rolling out new updates to enhance campaign performance.
Recently, Google ads’ broad match keyword feature got a new makeover. Marketers are reporting a new beta feature in Google Ads called “broad match keywords.” It allows you to use broad-match keywords for your entire campaign.
This new keyword match rollout has got digital agencies in western Sydney and around the world wondering about its potential impact on marketing campaigns. In this blog, let’s unravel the mystery and learn about the trending update, its takeaways for marketers, and ways to adapt it.
Broad Match Keyword — A Mixed Bag for Digital Marketers
The broad match keyword features have always been a dilemma for marketers, especially when it comes to small businesses. Wondering why?
Read the complete breakdown of the updates –
Google’s Updates on Broad Match Since 2021
As more updates to Google Ads Broad Match Keyword unfolds, the marketers find themselves amid a debate – is it a game-changer or a disappointment?
Let’s see how the whole saga of broad match updates has unfolded in the past two years. Keep track, marketers, for it’s nothing short of an OTT series!
In February 2021, Google discontinued Modified broad match, the feature marketers used as a counterpoint to broad match. While it was not well-received, Google’s reasoning behind the change was that modified broad and phrase matches often serve the same use cases.
Six months later, in September 2021, the popular search engine introduced smart bidding with broad matches. It announced that with broad match advancing, you should not need to use multiple match types for the same keyword. Again, local seo companies weren’t too happy!
Ever since then, Google has been encouraging users to use Broad Match + Smart Bidding. It got evident in the last and latest October 2022 update. It released a campaign-level broad match in limited beta, which continues to push the same smart bidding feature.
What is Broad Match + Smart Bidding Update?
Let’s hear it from Google itself. Here’s how it’s shown in the Google Ads interface –
“Broad match keywords work with Smart Bidding to help you reach your campaign goals. Ads may show on searches that are related to your keyword, which can include searches that don’t contain the keyword terms.”
It can –
- Control who sees your ads with precise brand controls.
- Offer clear insights on what keywords are working for your campaign.
- Provide features that help Google Ads automatically improve your keywords.
Key Takeaways of the Update
While there is no certainty yet, marketers speculate that Google is ready to say goodbye to keyword match types.
The broader match will show your ads for more search queries. The positive is you can reach more audience than with exact and phrase matches. Your ad won’t get restricted to just your limited keyword list.
However, broader matching will also show your ad to queries with low commercial intent. People will click on your ad, but since they aren’t your target audience, they won’t convert. As a result, your CPC (Cost-per-Click) will reach the roof, but your conversion rate will fall.
How Can You Adapt to the Changes?
Google Ads specialist Benjamin Wenner mentions that adopting the latest beta “Campaign Level Broad Match and Brand Control” is tricky. It’s because a lot depends on the budget. So while large brands can get impressive broad results, the same might not be true for small and medium-sized advertisers.
Michelle Morgan, the international paid media consultant and speaker, only adds to this narrative by recommending to use phrase match, exact match, or dynamic search ads. However, she also advises trying the broad match if you have enough conversion data. Regularly reviewing your search queries is also vital in the latter case.
Our advice is you should be proactive while using a broad match or it might show ads for competitor searches and irrelevant search phrases. Try to stay on top of your keyword performance and maintain your negative keyword list to hit the right mix of target audiences.
That’s all for Google’s beta Campaign Level Broad Match rollout. If you want to keep receiving prompt breakdowns of Google’s updates, stay tuned with Netplanet Digital.
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