The Future of PPC Campaigns: What Google's Query Matching Update Means

 

Google Ads has rolled out several updates aimed at enhancing query matching and providing better brand controls. These changes signify an evolution in how keywords and search terms are managed. Let’s dive into what these updates mean for future PPC campaigns.

Key Updates

Brand Exclusions and Inclusions

Introducing Brand Inclusions

Google Ads now offers "brand inclusions" for search campaigns, allowing advertisers to target specific brands while using broad match types. This means you can ensure your ads appear for broad match queries related to your selected brands, moving away from fixed match types.

Example: If you’re a shoe retailer like Nike, you can use brand inclusions to make sure your broad match ads only show for searches related to Nike products. For instance, if someone searches for "Nike running shoes" or "Nike Air Max," your ad will appear. However, it won’t show up for searches related to other brands like Adidas or Reebok. This way, you maximize exposure to relevant audiences while filtering out unrelated brand traffic.

Brand Exclusions Across All Match Types

Brand exclusions allow advertisers to prevent their ads from appearing for searches related to specific brands across all match types, including Dynamic Search Ads (DSA). This helps block traffic from brand misspellings and variants, optimizing reach and performance.

Example: A fashion retailer like Zara can use brand exclusions to make sure its ads don’t show up for searches related to competitors like "H&M dresses" or "Forever 21 clothing," even if someone misspells these brands as "HnM dresses" or "Forever twenty one clothing."

Expanded Negative Keywords Coverage

Google has improved negative keyword matching to include misspellings and close variants. This update reduces the need for an extensive list of negative keywords, making campaign management more efficient and potentially saving money by blocking unwanted keywords automatically.

Example: Previously, if you wanted to block the keyword "cheap shoes," you’d have to manually add variations like "cheep shoes" or "chiep shoes." Now, adding "cheap shoes" as a negative keyword will automatically exclude all its common misspellings, ensuring your ads don’t show up for those searches without extra effort on your part.

Enhanced Search Term Aggregation and Reporting

Google is now aggregating more search terms into themes, offering a higher-level view of search data. This means fewer individual keywords will be visible in reports due to privacy thresholds, but the overall data provided will be more comprehensive.

Example: Instead of seeing separate entries for "running shoes," "running sneakers," and "jogging shoes," you might see a combined theme like "athletic footwear." This approach gives you a clearer picture of how users are searching for your products, helping you to make more informed decisions about your keyword strategy.

Maximizing Performance with AI and Query Matching

Leveraging AI for Improved Broad Match

Recent AI-powered improvements have enhanced broad match performance by 10% for advertisers using Smart Bidding. These improvements focus on quality, relevance, and language understanding, making it easier to reach customers regardless of their search queries.

Example: A bakery using Smart Bidding might find that its broad match ads now perform better, showing up for relevant searches like "artisan bread," "local bakery," and "fresh pastries," thanks to AI improvements that better understand and match user intent with your ads.

Managing Brand Traffic with New Controls

Brand Inclusions in Broad Match

Google has launched a recommendation for brand inclusions in broad match campaigns. This feature helps brands harness the reach of broad match while restricting traffic to selected brands. Advertisers can use Google’s recommended brand lists, edit them, or create their own.

Example: A smartphone company like Samsung can use brand inclusions to ensure its ads appear for broad match searches related to "Samsung Galaxy," "Samsung phone deals," and "Galaxy accessories," without showing up for other brands like "iPhone" or "OnePlus."

Improved Visibility in Search Term Reports

Google now reports misspelled search queries with their correctly spelled counterparts, increasing the visibility of search terms in reports. This change means that, on average, 9% of search terms previously categorized under “Other” due to misspellings are now visible.

Example: If someone searches for "YouTube" but misspells it as "Youtub," it will now show up in the search terms report alongside the correctly spelled "YouTube." This gives you a better understanding of how users are searching for your content, even when they make typing errors.

Blocking Misspelled Searches

Advertisers can now exclude all variations of a keyword with a single negative keyword, simplifying the process of managing negative keywords and enhancing control over search traffic.

Example: If you want to exclude traffic related to "YouTube," you only need to add "YouTube" as a negative keyword, and it will cover all common misspellings like "Yutube," "Utoob," etc. This ensures your ads don’t appear for searches that are irrelevant to your campaign, without the need to list every possible misspelling.

Source: Google

Here’s how the updates work

Let’s say you have the keyword music streaming. Out of the searches “YouTube music”, “music streaming”, “yiutube music”, “google music app”:

 

How These Updates Can Benefit You

Time Savings

Automatically blocking misspellings in negative keywords simplifies campaign management, allowing you to focus more on strategic tasks rather than tedious keyword adjustments.

Example: If you add "discount shoes" as a negative keyword, all variations like "disscount shoes" or "discont shoes" will also be excluded without additional effort. This frees up your time to develop more creative and effective ad strategies.

Brand Protection

The new brand inclusion and exclusion features give you better control over your brand-related traffic. You can ensure your ads appear only for your brand searches or prevent them from showing up for competitor brands.

Example: If you manage ads for a coffee shop chain like Starbucks, you can set up brand inclusions to show your ads for searches like "Starbucks coffee" or "Starbucks near me." Conversely, you can use brand exclusions to prevent your ads from appearing for searches like "Dunkin' Donuts coffee" or "Costa Coffee deals."

AI-Powered Performance

Utilizing Google’s AI improvements in broad match can enhance your campaign performance with minimal manual intervention, allowing for more efficient and effective ad targeting.

Example: An online clothing store using Smart Bidding can benefit from AI's improved understanding of search intent, ensuring their ads show up for relevant searches like "summer dresses" or "trendy jackets," without needing constant manual tweaks.

Conclusion

Google's updates to query matching and brand controls are set to transform PPC campaigns. By offering more refined targeting options, improved keyword matching, and better data visibility, these changes help advertisers optimize their campaigns, improve relevance, and drive better business outcomes.