Beware of the Sponge – Google Automatic Matching
posted in Affiliate Marketing |
It’s fairly rarely I initially get stumped for words or flabbergasted … and upon discussion with a friend, he quotes “I’m stumped for expletive free words… not so rare but unusual” … “Google. … the constant struggle to extract yet more cash from advertisers wallets continues” … If this is a sign of things to come forpaid search advertisers, then it’s quite disconcerting … so read on
My first and immediate concern IF this is rolled out, is to hold Google (a carnivorous annelid worm of the class Hirudinea?) in further disdain, that it is believed advertisers will be automatically opted-in … yep that’s right … you “could” wake up one morning to realise that your bank balance has been bled dry before you have had the opportunity to opt-out. Especially if you are unaware of the future potential changes (assuming this is fully rolled out).
A couple of days ago, some information was released pertaining to a private Google Adwords beta program they are testing called “Automatic Matching”. I haven’t yet ascertained if this is purely for the US market or across advertisers over different territories.
The perceived email being circulated is as follows:
“I’m excited to tell you that you have been selected to participate in a beta for our new Automatic matching feature which will be starting on February 28th.
Automatic matching automatically extends your campaign’s reach by using surplus budget to serve your ads on relevant search queries that are not already triggered by your keyword lists. By analysing the structure and content of your website and Adwords campaigns, we deliver more impressions and clicks while maintaining your current CTR’s and CPC’s.
For example, If you sold Adidas shoes on your website, Automatic matching would automatically crawl your landing page and target your campaigns to queries such as: “shoes” “adidas” “athletic”, etc., and less obvious ones such as “slippers” that our system has determined will benefit you and likely lead to a conversion on your site.
Be assured that automatic matching will try to never exceed your budget. If you’re already meeting your daily budgets, automatic matching will have a minimal effect on your account.”
So currently we have expanded match which I just call a form of contextual matching which systematically happens on both Google & major partner sites like AOL, displaying ads for keywords advertisers don’t actually bid on, which in itself makes a mockery of Google’s irrelevant “quality” score. Now we have the probability of Google’s so called & self proclaimed advocate of the holy grail of relevancy as nothing more than hollow spin. As you may have experienced this has been around for several years & a few so called networks & merchants still haven’t got their heads around this.
Whereby we might soon have Google’s algorithm “magically” choosing which of our keywords they will decide to “automatically match” by supposedly looking at our website.
Poppycock, only last week we set up various adgroups using the same ad copy & set of keywords, except for changing the display & destination url. Two of the display/destination url’s were for sites that didn’t exist, and guess what, yep the minimum bid requirements for the pages/websites that didn’t exist had lower minimum bid requirements.. 1/4 to 1/5 of the cost. Yet still we get these “quality” score advocates beating the Google drum.
This strikes me as nothing more than another opportunist attempt for Google to empty our wallets & rake in more cash by underhandedly manipulating advertisers to spend up to their maximum budgets each day.
The Google spin machine will probably go into warp over-drive by proclaiming it’s not intended to exhaust the budget, without giving credit to experienced paid search marketeers who know what delivers ROI for them and how to achieve the desired performance metrics such as CTR’s, CPC’s and so forth.
Another area this might effect are the keyword policies pertaining to existing affiliate programs whereby ads could appear for hybrid phrases, misspellings & even brand (if not registered with Google) due to this “automatic matching”, which may lead to these keyword policies changing from “you cannot bid on xyz brand” to “you cannot appear for xyz brand” … notice the subtle difference … For which in the latter case advertisers will have little control & will be at the mercy of the Google Adwords Automatic Matching Algorithm.
Even if this is only at beta testing stage at the moment, perhaps we need to be wary of what might unfold. The perception of the Holy Grail of ad relevance is no more .. so accept it.
This will naturally be advantageous to some lazy agencies who’s goal is to arrogantly blast thru the ignorance of their clients budgets each month with little thought for ROI or effectiveness, since they get a % of their clients ad spend.
Whilst, in tandem users will possibly see more irrelevant ads.
Will this subsequently push minimum bid prices up?
It could possibly be a coup for loose arbitrage sites!
As an advertiser I want better reporting & control over my ads, especially knowing what search phrases are triggering which keywords, so that I can add to my never ending negative keyword base /arsenal (sorry about swearing), allowing me to focus on those converting keywords. What about those niche keywords at low cost that advertisers may promote, they might find this once profitable route suddenly becomes a traffic jam in a cul de sac.
I know I have mentioned before, but there is something sinisterly wrong if advertisers are automatically opted-in.
Many advertisers have their budgets set way higher than they could afford, to ensure visibility & daily fluctuations in ad spend, which as mentioned could prove dangerous for them.
“Broader match means less targeted … Adwords users will spend more money to get more traffic of less quality … Adsense users of quality content sites will get more un-targeted ads annoying their visitors”
Why can’t Google simply further promote optional additional keywords rather than imposing, thinking in some draconian way they know the advertisers businesses better than the advertisers do themselves. It all seems a long way from the training manual Google use to brainwash their client servicing reps, just because they are trained it doesn’t mean they know. You should hear the template/flowchart reasoning, rebuttals & excuses I hear from some reps when I speak with them on the phone. I know of several ways Google could massively increase their revenue for some very simple verticals, but I’m certainly not going to divulge how.
If this does fully roll out and even for those who are unsuspectingly enrolled in the beta testing, at first glance this seems pretty outrageous … automatic opt-in is simply wrong … potentially exhausting advertisers budgets with no guarantee of ROI … potential jacking up of minimum bid prices of targeted campaigns … less relevant ads for users,… whilst making Googles pant pockets of wonga even deeper by squeezing the margins of advertisers & sponging every bob, dime or penny they can lay their greasy paws on.
