“Today we’re announcing updates to search query matching and brand controls.”
It’s been a while since a single sentence from Google has elicited such a positive response from the PPC community.
Last month’s changes to queries, match types and negative keywords were a welcome reminder that Google wants agencies and advertisers to trust it.
In this article, I’ll explain each of the PPC changes to advertisers and agencies and how they give us clues about Google’s future direction for paid keywords and targeting.
Breaking down Google’s query matching enhancements
Ginny Marvin’s tweet may be the first welcome update in years. Interestingly, these updates match the idea of search topics and the future that Google Ads wants.
Brand exclusion and inclusion
We’ve been able to use brand exclusions – significantly different from negative keywords – by selecting from a database of brands and telling Google that you don’t want ads to appear in searches about those brands.
Now there is the opposite of what Google now calls “branding” for search campaigns.
You’ll have the option to turn off match types in your campaign and set it exclusively to loose match, and then layer tag inclusion lists to tell Google to only show your ad for loose match queries of anything as long as it’s related to your brand.
This is a great example of how Google has moved away from fixed match types.
Broader coverage for negative keywords
Until now, we had to add more negative keywords than was ideal because it didn’t account for misspellings and close variants. Google improves this “negative match”.
I’m not sure why it wasn’t there before. It’s one of those things that seems like an obvious move from the start. Maybe it’s because you’re actually losing money to Google when more keywords are automatically blocked.
Whatever the reason, I’m glad they’re improving how negative keywords work.
Improved search query aggregation and reporting
Continuing on the topic of streamlining match types into topics, tags now become a topic that we can include or exclude. It’s the same with search terms.
Google now collects more search queries, so it also blocks many keywords from search query reports for privacy reasons.
People are upset about it, which is both understandable and debatable.
By grouping keywords into search topics, Google will display more data indirectly. Instead of three different versions of the same keyword with typos, it can be condensed into one that is very close and contains more visible data. It doesn’t change that search topics are set to overtake keywords bit by bit.
Perhaps the biggest part is the Insights tab in Performance Max.
I’m grateful that Google is showing more search query data in Performance Max, especially compared to how it started. However, this is not a pure search term. These are search topics grouped into categories.
And that’s where it all goes.
My prediction: There will be no match types in the next 24 months
Google Ads is moving to the point where you set up a search campaign, add search topics, and then tell the system which tags to include and exclude.
Currently, only Performance Max has a branding exclusion, but Google has announced plans to bring it to Search.
Let’s say you have a general search campaign and you don’t want to appear on your competitors. Instead of adding negative keywords, you just exclude competing brands.
I like it because it covers a lot of typos, close variants and things of that nature.
While it’s a good extra level, I hope they don’t take negative keywords.
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Search topics: The future of keywords
Google as a platform is developing rapidly and significantly. It is unrecognizable where it was two years ago; in two years it will be nothing close to where it is now.
You can see this in the Google Ads UI redesign – some things are pushed back and hidden in certain menus, while others are brought forward.
When Performance Max first launched, search topics didn’t exist; they were just like any other audience signal and required you to build your own keyword list by intent.
It seems Google was quick to realize that since Performance Max uses DSA’s dynamic search component, it could incorporate it as a more standalone feature.
When you’re creating a Max Performance campaign today – and that’s much more important for Max Performance. non-shopping performance – the absence of product sourcing makes audience signals critical to reaching the right audience.
When there is a source, Google uses product data to find searches in the Shopping inventory and determine who your customer is. Without it, you use audience signals and search topics to tell the system who you think will buy from you.
In addition to all the best practices, search topics tell the system what kind of traffic is best to show for (ie specific search terms, topics, and anyone searching for “x” or “y”).
These are not necessarily directly related to what you are selling. These could be terms that people are searching for that indicate they would also buy your product.
If you look at the evolution of various features around keywords in the last few years, custom intent has largely become a search topic. They are more prominent and when creating groups of assets instead of taking one step below in audience signals.
Drive carefully: How wide is too wide?
Much of the resistance to Google’s changes isn’t so much about the technology, but about agencies and brands feeling they have less transparency and limited control.
A lot of the hype around bringing back the system doesn’t take into account how search itself has changed. Requests like wanting keywords to match exactly one-to-one usually come from a small subset of Google Ads professionals.
However, the criticism also has some validity.
There are (and always will be) certain industries where you need this specificity and regulation. Some of the biggest are pharmaceutical and legal, especially work accidents and car accidents. In these areas, the system may be too liberal.
It doesn’t hurt as much for bigger advertisers who spend millions of dollars. But if you’re campaigning for a local attorney on a $10,000 budget, those loose ends don’t make sense.
Once the free match finds out what’s up with your account, it’s pretty good at taking advantage of new opportunities. It will cost you time and money to learn what works, but what happens when the volume isn’t there?
In this situation, there are only three levers you can pull to make your search campaign appear in multiple auctions:
- Expand your target location. If you can’t serve outside of a certain area, you can’t target outside of it.
- Increase bids or decrease bid targets. This is expensive and not available to everyone. Plus, at some point you’ll raise your bids enough to grab up to 90% of what’s available. There’s not much more you can do.
- Add additional keywords or match types. This will certainly expand your reach, although not always meaningfully.
Combine a relatively common search (e.g. “car accident lawyer”) with a place with a small population (e.g. a small town of 10,000 people) and it’s hard to see a loose match ever getting to the point where in that type of situation it worked.
I hope Google plans to treat this scenario differently than it does for people in the US searching for sneakers. Otherwise, I see the platform becoming prohibitively expensive for several brands and businesses.
Use case in balance and relevance
In the past, Google has dealt with what’s best for all advertisers—that is, millions upon millions of customers with varying budgets, settings, and skill levels. He has to think about it from that approach.
But as an agency, we are only concerned with taking care of our clients.
My agency works extensively with healthcare clients and one of those verticals is called Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) – a very specific type of therapy for children with autism.
If I use a phrase or exact match for that keyword, it will bring in very targeted traffic from people looking for ABA therapy for their children. In the second test, we switched to free matching and got clicks from people searching for cognitive behavioral therapy and general therapy for people with autism.
Broad consensus shifts it from ABA to a more generic treatment, from children to adults and teenagers. None of this is relevant to my clients. At the same time, however, not all traffic is irrelevant – only around 50%.
When your budget isn’t as high as a Fortune 500, 50% of your irrelevant searches quickly add up.
For smaller and growing accounts, it’s usually a good idea to start with phrase or exact match and layer on broad match once you’ve captured at least 80% impression share if you need to increase lead volume. In doing so, you should understand that the quality of the lead may decline.
What you should do to prepare
You’d be hard-pressed to find a PPC marketer who doesn’t think Google could be doing some things better.
Google is changing from an analytics-based, action-oriented platform to an information exchange platform.
It’s important to stop thinking about clicks and conversions and instead consider audience, search behavior and creative assets.
We are almost reverting to traditional marketing or advertising thinking. To be completely honest, you should have made this transition at least four or five years ago.
I often think that someone starting out with Google Ads today is in a better position because they don’t have preconceived notions of how things were and “should” be done, nor longing for the good old days.
Mike Ryan of Smarter Ecommerce recently shared a presentation called “Decoding PMax” whose introduction resonates deeply with what I’ve always advocated: People often say that you can’t “optimize” Performance Max because you have to set it and forget it. , but the reality is that there is a lot to do. It just doesn’t necessarily have to be in the campaign.
Continuing to brute force Performance Max optimizations is a losing battle.
So focus on what really matters:
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