They're rolling out a beta version of what they call "Automatic Matching AdWords".

Basically, what this does is run your Adwords ads for keywords you have NOT targeted. Everyone OUTSIDE of Google agrees that this is simply a means to deplete any surplus daily budget in your account.

Of course, that's not what Google claims. They say it is intended to deliver additional traffic.

Ok, these are the same bozo's that have been running our freaking PPC costs through the roof if we have a low "Quality Score" which means our site must match our keywords.

WTF? I mean seriously, WTF? I have to match content, but Google doesn't?

This is a money grab and nothing more. It damn well BETTER be something you can choose to activate when it come out in full force.

That just means it's time to branch out to use the 'smaller' players like Yahoo or MSN. Actually, should have done so long ago.

They've been doing this for a while. The geniuses at Google have been sending traffic to synonyms and LSI keywords on one of my campaign's for months (I found out by searching for these phrases and seeing my ad) and it's impossible for me to track the conversions on this "ghost" traffic.

The funny thing is that campaign had a bid of $0.25 per click. And when I tried setting up a campaign for the keywords google was showing my ads for without my permission they slapped me with a $5.00 per click bid.

Or you'll do what?

A 800-pound bear is ambling through the woods. To him you're just one, lone, solitary ant.

Alex

This may be news to you, Alex but men kill 800lb bears all the time.

What will I do? Simple. Not buy PPC advertising from them. I've been mastering organic listings since they started this quality score, $10 per click crap anyway.

Funny, I watched a youtube video yesterday of Seth Godin giving a speech to some Google employees, and in it he says words to the effect of, "people only care about themselves, and google. Don't mess that up." Why oh why aren't they taking his advice? Maybe they didn't pay him enough..?

Men don't kill bears, bullets kill bears.

(disclaimer: I'm not advocating anyone "shoot Google")

LOL

Like they care. They've already proven they care more about their user's experience than they do about their advertisers.

Alex

The quality score system is a good thing, if you advertise on keywords that are nothing to do with your site then you are destined to lose large amounts of money anyway, the quality score system just speeds up the process.

As for them sending traffic from random keywords, that is just ridiculous, if that isn't optional I will be pulling all my ads, Im not paying for something that i cant specify, thats the whole point of adwords!

Only to the extent that relevance is part of the quality score calculation.

Bid price, CTR, and "other factors" make up the rest of the calculation.

Wouldn't it be nice to know how heavily weighted relevance is?

Alex

Moderate relevance and a bit higher click through seem to be worth a buck off the high bid price on some of my campaigns -

I've got running for a client in a hot space where the high bids are $7 to $10 bucks a word. I've found I have to match the high bid just to get above the fold - but then after a few days, the price we actually pay for the clicks is at least a buck, buck-and-a-half less if I can get click through over 2.5%.

But some of the competitors will pay anything - so bids can climb a couple bucks in a few days. A single deal landed from these key words will gross $100,000 or more. So, I'm guessing we'll see them in the $30 buck plus range very quickly.

Many of the competitors don't test ads, drive to general website home-pages instead of specific keyword land pages, and don't capture data. So, I'm assuming the secret to survival is winning that battle - though of course, they'll all catch on eventually. The irony is they are marketing agencies