Google to further dilute exact match in AdWords will ignore word order & function words

Not just for plurals anymore, close variants will extend to include word ordering and function words in inexact match keywords.

In the good old days, “exact” meant exact. Then things got fuzzier. Now they’re about to get downright blurry.

On Friday afternoon, Google announced another change to the way exact match targeting works in AdWords. Matching for close variants — plurals, typos, abbreviations, adverbs and so on —  will be broadened to include variations in word order and function words in the coming months. With this change, Google may ignore word order and function words when determining whether an ad should trigger for an exact match keyword.



Google introduced close variants in 2012 as a way to capture plurals, misspellings, typos and other versions of exact match and phrase match keywords to broaden reach and coverage and save time building out keyword lists. Advertisers that wanted tighter control were able to opt out of close variant matching until 2014, when Google removed the ability to opt out of close variants for exact match and phrase match. Bing followed suit shortly the following year. The latest blurring of what exact match means is Google’s increasing trust in its machine learning and the belief that it’s now at the point where advertisers can let the algorithms take over and focus on other things. Google says early tests indicate advertisers could see up to 3 percent more exact match clicks on average while maintaining comparable click-through and conversion rates.

What the change means

There are many cases in which variations can change the meaning of a keyword. Take a recent example of [pancake mix] being matched to a search for “pancake mixer.” Those are not the same thing. However, there are many cases in which variations don’t change the meaning at all. Here are the nuts and bolts of how these changes are meant to work:

Function words

Function words are binding words phrases and sentences like the and that, conjunctions like and and but, prepositions, pronouns, quantifiers like all and some, modals like could and would and auxiliary/hedging verbs like be or might or will.  Essentially, they are words that don’t have meaning on their own. Well, hmmm, unless by will you mean a legal document.
With this change, function words may be ignored, replaced or added.

For example, the exact match keyword [restaurants cleveland ] could match to the query “restaurants in cleveland.” More examples from Google:

Word order

Notice in that last Miami cruise example, the function word changed along with the word order. Word order often doesn’t make a difference (in English), and users often don’t use natural word order when searching even though the intent is the same. Take a keyword like [teacher gift ideas]. The meaning doesn’t change with [ideas gift teachers] or [ideas teacher gift]. You’d never say either of those out loud, but the intent is clearly the same.


When word order is changed, Google says it will not add words to keywords (though it may change function words as shown in the Miami cruise example above).

Exceptions

One of the biggest concerns from advertisers will be whether Google matches queries to keywords that don’t have the same meaning. Google stresses it will not change word order or function words in exact match when it understands changes would alter the meaning of the query.

Take the case of a query like “LAX to JFK flights.” The user obviously doesn’t want to see ads for “JFK to LAX flights” or for “LAX from JFK flights.” That’s a pretty straightforward scenario for Google to recognize.

But something like [android compatible] does not mean the same thing as [compatible android]. Maybe Google will know, maybe it won’t, at least not right away.

These changes do not apply to phrase match keywords. And AdWords is still designed to prioritize matching identical keywords to identical search queries.

Google’s philosophy is: Spread a wider net, and then filter out what you don’t want, rather than build a net that might not be big enough to catch everything you want. Better to waste money on some bad keywords than to miss out on some potentially good ones.

Often this approach works. And it certainly works much more often than it did even a few years ago. It’s the rare person who misses building out endless iterations of keywords, but many will feel the pendulum is swinging too far in Google’s favor with this change. It strips more control from advertisers and puts the onus on them to say what queries they don’t want their ads showing up on rather than what they do want. There are financial implications to putting the emphasis on building out lists of negatives. Inappropriate variations are often discovered only after an advertiser has paid for wasted clicks and the variation shows up in a search query report. Precision control is being ceded to the machines.

How to manage these changes

This change means advertisers will have to be increasingly diligent about mining search query reports and thinking ahead about unintended consequences when word order matters.

There are a few things you can do to prepare for the coming changes.

1. Review existing exact match queries and determine if the loss of function words or a reordering of the words changes the meaning. Add those variations as negatives in your campaigns.
2. Review close variants in your Search Query Reports to see if other variations are currently being triggered that might be affected by these changes. Add those as negatives.
3. Starting in April, step up your mining of Search Query Reports, particularly for close variants.
4. Get ready to update your scripts. If you are using a script like the one from BrainLabs to make exact match exact, it will need to be updated. We will provide a link here when a new version is available.

4 Reasons Why You Should Advertise on Facebook

Facebook Ads are a great way to get your business in front of new prospects. In today’s article, we’re giving you 4 reasons to consider using Facebook Ads for your business.

1,230,000,000.

That's how many active daily users are on Facebook.

Digital marketing has drastically changed over the last decade. Ten years ago, Facebook had just switched from being a platform reserved for college students to a platform that everyone could access. The profile pages looked completely different and "Newsfeeds" and "Timelines" didn't exist.

Fast-forward to today. Not only does Facebook now use algorithms to filter what they think you'll find most interesting, they also feature opportunities for businesses to use the platform as a way to advertise to users.

If you're still unsure about why investing in Facebook Ads is a good place to spend your marketing dollars, read below for the four main reasons they can be a smart investment for your business.

1. Everyone is on Facebook

With 1.23 billion daily users and 1.86 billion monthly users, Facebook is one of the most popular websites in the world. Which means that Facebook Advertising creates an extremely valuable opportunity for businesses to get in front of prospective clients who are on Facebook.

While other social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and Snapchat have gained popularity over the years, Facebook is still the king when it comes to social media. In fact, Facebook has more than double the amount of adult online users than any of the other platforms.

The other key thing to consider about Facebook users is that they span across all age groups. While the most popular age group on Facebook is 18-29 year olds with an 88% user rate, the drop off is minimal for older age groups.

In 2016, 84% of 30-40 year-olds and 72% of 50-64 year-olds used Facebook. Even the 65+ age group still came in at 62% usership.

The bottom line is any type of customer you might want to attract is on Facebook. Which means you can harness its popularity for your advertising.

2. Facebook Ads Can Be Laser Targeted

The challenge with having access to so many users is making sure your ads get in front of your target customers.

Luckily, Facebook advertising allows you to be highly targeted with the audience your ad will be in front of. You can use the following targeting options:

• Demographics that can be broken down by age, gender, geographical location, etc.
• Interests based on what the user likes, shares, clicks on, comments on, as well as the apps he/she uses
• Behaviors based on activity on Facebook, as well as 3rd party partner data from Acxiom, Datalogix, and Epsilon. This includes purchase activity, device usage, and travel preferences.
• Key pages visited on your website (aka retargeting)
• Lists of email subscribers or customers in your database

You can even ask Facebook to find other similar users, called Lookalike audiences, after you create an audience using the options above.

The specificity of Facebook's targeting capabilities paired with the amount of information they can gather on their user's interests makes it a great option for advertising.

3. With Facebook Ads You Can Set Clear Goals

There are two general types of Facebook Ads you can run and each type achieves a different goal for your business.

With Engagement Ads, the goal of your campaign is to engage your audience by encouraging them to take action and interact with your post. The focus of these ads is to help get information out about your business and grow and nurture your audience. This also helps you learn about the messaging and content your audience connects with and can inform the future ads you create. With these posts, you may not even realize they are an ad at first because they're meant to blend in with the typical organic posts you interact with.

With Direct Response Ads the goal of your campaign is about driving leads and sales. These ads will have an offer and a call to action to "sign up" or "call now" or "click here." The offer and call to action are two critical components to successful direct response advertising. These are great if you're trying to sell a specific product or offer a new deal.

First, determine why you're running the ad campaign (exposure vs. response) and then you can use Facebook's goal setting options to ensure you achieve that goal.

4. Facebook Ads are Easy to Track

Tracking the success of any ad campaign is extremely important. It allows you to measure the number of leads and sales generated directly from your Facebook ad campaign.

The process to set up Facebook conversion tracking is simple and similar to other ad networks.

The first step is copying your unique tracking pixel and adding that to every single page of your website.

Once that's complete, you have two options for tracking conversions:

1. Track custom conversions using a webpage URL. For example, if you want to track demo sign ups, then you would copy the demo sign up thank you page URL and tell Facebook to track that page as a conversion.
   
   
2. Event tracking using Event codes. This is a bit technical because you’ll need to copy a line of JavaScript and paste it at the end of the pixel code (before the </script>) on the webpage you want to track. For example, if you want to track demo sign ups, then you would copy the Lead Event code, which “fbq(‘track’, ‘Lead’);” Then you would paste that code right before the </script> of your pixel code on the demo sign up thank you page.

If those steps seem advanced, then there’s also the option to email the code and directions to your developer. For most websites, this should be an easy, pain-free process. :)