Table of Contents
In this article, I will keep you updated with the most important Google Ads News, changes that really matter, and will influence your Google Ads campaigns.
February 4, 2021 – Phrase Match Expands To Broad Match Modifier
Starting in February 2021, phrase match will begin to incorporate behaviors of broad match modifier (BMM) to simplify keywords. With this change, both phrase and broad match modifier keywords will have the same matching behavior and may show ads on searches that include the meaning of your keyword. Read more about it here
Very important is that the updated phrase match will continue to respect word order when it’s important to the meaning.
For example, the phrase match keyword “moving services NYC to Boston.” will continue to cover searches like “affordable moving services NYC to Boston.”
It will also cover searches that traditionally only matched under broad match modifier, such as “NYC corporate moving services to Boston.”
But be careful, Phrase match won’t show ads for searches where the direction is reversed, for example, “Boston to New York City”.
What’s happening to BMM?
BMM keywords will continue to work using the new phrase matching behavior.
During the transition, you will still be able to create BMM keywords using the BMM notation (+keyword). BMM keywords will behave the same as the updated phrase match using the quotation marks (“keyword”). Read here about Google Ads keyword matching options
Therefore, it’s recommended to only create phrase match keywords going forward.
Conclusion
Now the phrase keywords will be more extensive and it will be necessary to monitor them and put them as negative if they do not match well.
October 12, 2018 – Google changing the attribution criteria for TrueView video ads on YouTube
What Are TrueView for Action Ads?
TrueView for action campaigns are available for video campaigns on YouTube and can run only on the in-stream ad format.
With TrueView for action, advertisers can display a call-to-action banner at the base of the video during and at the end of the video. The branded banner can be tailored to a specific action goal such as “Book now”, “Get a quote” or “Learn more”.
Starting October 12, YouTube changed ‘engagement’ for action ads, from 30 seconds to 10
YouTube is changing the attribution criteria for TrueView for action video ads.
There are two key attribution points that are changing:
1. YouTube will now count an ‘Engagement’ whenever a user clicks or watches 10 seconds or more of a TrueView for action ad when using maximize conversions or target CPA bidding. That’s a change from 30 seconds.
2. A ‘Conversion’ will be counted, by default, when a user takes action on an ad within 3 days of an ‘Engagement.’ If you want this changed to another time interval, you will have to ask your Google rep to customize this time frame. That’s a change from 30 days.
Google says the benefits would be:
- More accurate conversion counting
- Faster ramp up times for your target CPA campaigns
- More current reporting thanks to reduced conversion lag
Anyway, what matters and remains unchanged is that the advertisers “will continue to be billed on an impression basis“.
Conclusion
I don’t know yet what will be the measures of this change, but my advice is to monitor youtube campaigns and watch budget and performance changes.
September 6, 2018 – Google expand exact match close variants: Now include same meaning variations
Google announced another change to what is considered close variants of an exact match keyword to include variations that share the same meaning as the keyword, including implied words and paraphrases.
Google says “The exact words are no longer the sole trigger for your ads to show on exact match keywords.”
Example of the exact match keyword [yosemite camping]. With this change, [yosemite camping] will now match to queries such as “yosemite campground” and “campsites in yosemite.”
If Google’s system understands the intent of the query is different than the keyword, it will not match it.
It’s important to know this change will roll out for English keywords through October, with more languages to follow over the next few months. Read the full article here
For Google, it’s an advantageous move, more clicks, more profits, and more data for machine learning. But for advertisers, these changes are new headaches and additional costs. If we used the exact match, we’ll have to watch campaigns carefully, add negative and new keywords, as appropriate.
Conclusion
In conclusion, exact match becoming so close to phrase match meaning, so in further this change of exact match has me looking at phrase match again.
My opinion is that as an advertiser if you needed variations for exact matches, you can get them from the other types, don’t need to be imposed.
Hello there!
I hope you find this post useful!I'm Mihai, a programmer and online marketing specialist, very passionate about everything that means online marketing, focused on eCommerce.
If you have a collaboration proposal or need helps with your projects feel free to contact me. I will always be glad to help you!
