Over the past few weeks, Google has released some updates about how it will match keywords in AdWords. Exact matching has worked on close variants for a while, that picks up abbreviations, singular or plurals, and misspellings. With the new version, this match type will cater for even more fluid matching of query variants.1) Function WordsGoogle now deems it useful to insert or remove “function” words on exact match keywords. These are likely going to be participles, such as “to”, “from”, “around” and so on. For example:Keyword ‘Beach holidays april’ could pick up query ‘beach holidays in/for April’2) Word OrderIn addition to adding or switching function terms within a given keyword, we will also see more instances of exact match keywords being switched around. An example of this scenario might be:‘Beach holidays april’ and ‘april beach holidays’[caption id="attachment_2628" align="aligncenter" width="294"]
"Exact match, but no cigar", as illustrated by the great Jack Nicholson[/caption]What Does This Update Mean For Performance?Ultimately less control of precisely what queries trigger your ads. This means a slight risk of lost relevance. It will mean more impressions on your exact match (and close variant) content. This might add more volume, but we’ll be scouring search term reports for new keywords/negatives – and expect more use of negative keyword lists on exact match content. Just so you know that the world isn’t coming to an end, AdWords will still give preference to those keywords identical to search queries. Hallelujah!David Walby, Biddable Account Director
