Do these three things before Google changes the way keyword match types work

Google has announced a new round of updates regarding how the proximity version works.

Since September 2018, queries with the same meaning have been able to trigger adverts for exact match keywords. But now, similar variants with the same meaning may also affect phrase match and broad match modifier keywords.

Google expects advertisers to see a lift in clicks and displays for the affected keywords of about 3 to 4 per cent, 85 per cent of which is incremental to the account.

Since advertisers’ ads are now likely to trigger a wider range of queries, I recommend taking three steps to ensure that your account is able to capitalise on incremental leads while reducing the risk of queries from less relevant sources.

1. Automate bidding to avoid overspending on low-quality close variants

When new close variants of your adverts start appearing for keywords, don’t pay more than you should for this new traffic.

Proximity variants bring a new level of complexity to bid management, so it’s necessary to evaluate whether your bidding strategy is still the best one.

I’ve made this case before, and I’ll make it again: no one should have to manage bids manually.

This is certainly another fatal blow to manual bid management.

In short, given the complexity of positioning and bidding, it’s almost impossible for a person to manually manage bids and do it as well as an automated system.

The current changes to close variants may not require you to change the way you manage your account. However, the potential negative impact may be magnified if you are not already carefully managing queries.

Match types no longer exist that allow complete control over the exact words that must be included in the ad display query. As a result, keyword bids may now apply to dozens or hundreds of variants of that keyword.

Manual bids are taken from keywords regardless of the relevance of the query to the keyword, and highly relevant queries will receive the same bids as less relevant queries.

If you care about conversions, CPA, ROAS and profitability, then this is bad.

Advertisers need the tightest possible control to get the best results. In this case, it needs to be able to take every unique query in every auction into account to determine the right bid.

But only Google can set bids at auction, which means they’re the only company that can take into account the specifics of the search (including the query) when matching advertisers’ ads to queries.

This means that only Google can help advertisers achieve their CPA or ROAS goals by increasing or decreasing bids as appropriate based on the expected conversion rate and conversion value predicted by their machine learning system for the auction.

Since bidding at auction is the exclusive domain of ‘smart bidding,’ which includes Google’s Target Cost Per Conversion and Target Ad Spend Return Automated Bidding strategies, the only way to set the right bids for close variants is to use these tools.

My company, Optmyzr, recently created a handy table showing Google’s various bid automation features and how they interact with bid adjustments.

Bottom Line

Manual bids only allow bids to be set to keyword levels. All match types are broader than ever before, so a single bid at the keyword level is not enough for optimal results.

Only Google can set auction time bids that take into account specific queries.

Since proximity variants will soon allow Google to show ads for more unique queries, the best option to not overpay for additional traffic is to use Smart Bids and let Google lower the bids when needed.

2. Disable last-click attribution and let good close variants flourish

When bidding automatically, such as with Google’s Target Cost Per Conversion bidding strategy, the results can only be as good as the data you enter.

There are two aspects to providing good data to Google’s machine learning system:

Google monitors the effectiveness of different proximity variants to help it set the right bids to meet your goals.

Just like regular keywords, if you tell Google that only the last interaction before conversion matters (LCA), then it will start to lower the bids for proximity variants that contribute in the early stages of the journey but are not usually the last interaction before conversion.

As with keywords, using LCA means that bids for valuable proximity variants may be reduced to the point where Google decides to stop showing your advert.

Bottom line

The effectiveness of any automated system, whether it’s managing bids or finding negative keywords, depends on the data you provide.

By properly measuring conversions and assigning value to each step of the consumer journey, these automated features can help your ads show more of the really good proximity variants and less exposure to proximity variants that don’t contribute much to your bottom line.

3. Use automated layering to monitor proximity variants

The last thing you need to do to prepare for variant changes is to set up a monitoring system.

You may already be monitoring the effectiveness of search terms for negative keyword ideas, or adding search terms that work well as your own keywords to your own ads to improve quality score and reduce costs.

But it can be interesting to monitor content beyond search terms, especially similar variants. Especially if you have a curious manager or client who is always asking how Google’s latest changes are affecting their performance.

Fortunately, the task of monitoring Google doesn’t need to be done manually.

In fact, this is a prime example of what I call automation layering, the automated process of creating an automated process to monitor the ad engine.

As previously reported in Search Engine Journal, you can create reports in Google Ads or use a script to build a table showing keywords and their close variants next to them.

Just as exact matches work when they get ‘close variants that mean the same thing,’ it also works when the change involves phrases and modified broad match keywords.

However, you can take it a step further and use Google Ads Script to automatically add negative keywords for close variants that are too far away from the underlying keyword or that perform poorly compared to the underlying keyword.

Bottom Line

Approximate variants promise to increase clicks and conversions, but it’s always wise to monitor automated systems, especially newer, under-proven ones.

Automation layering allows you to monitor without spending a lot of extra time.

Conclusion

Proximity variants promise to increase traffic with less effort.

When combined with bid automation at auction, attribution modelling that focuses on every step of the consumer journey, and a monitoring system that ensures everything is working as expected, you’ll be able to take full advantage of this latest change to Google Ads.