Google is doing something strange with one of my campaigns, I wonder if anyone here can shed some light on it for me... First off, there's not a lot of competition for the keywords I'm using, but a fair amount of traffic. People search using several different variations of these keywords, but let's say they basically want information about "kissing a green toad." One of the *most* used variations of this phrase that searchers use is simply "kiss green toad." So that's what I started with, and I set up my keyword grouping like this: kiss green toad "kiss green toad" [kiss green toad] It's an awkward phrase, to be sure, and it was impossible to optimize my site content for that exactly so what I *did* use is 'kiss green toads' on my website (but I used 'kiss green toad' in this particular ad). Not sure if this will turn out to be significant or not, but maybe someone who knows more than me can tell me. SO - what Google is doing is showing my ad for all variations of these keywords *except* exact phrase match, e.g. it's appearing when I search 'kissing a green toad' and 'how to kiss a green toad', everything BUT 'kiss green toad'. Since I know that exact phrase is a highly searched term, I'd *really* like it to appear when someone searches for that. What's really strange to me is that there are NO adwords appearing at all when you search 'kiss green toad' (with or without quotes). I know people search on that exact phrase, and there are over 2 million results for it, so obviously other people also know that people are searching for it and are optimizing their sites for it. What this tells me is that if I didn't include 'kiss green toad' in my keyword grouping without quotes or brackets, my ad wouldn't be showing up at all! Anyone have any idea why this is happening...? Deborah
I would try making page just for those keywords and advertise it. Sounds like google is checking site and useing what is on that page.
I have the exact same experience. Showing ads for a misspelling and a phrase using the misspelling, a phrase with the exact keyword but no ads for the exact keyword alone. And there are no other ads competing for the keyword. My only thinking is that due to the higher traffic on the exact match keyword they think they can get a higher CPC and so hit me with the "Inactive for search" Your not alone. Maybe we can all figure it out.
rcj662, thanks for your thoughts but the problem is that the exact phrase is too awkward to optimize for. The content would basically be crap and then my conversion would take a nosedive. This is for a product of my own I'm selling. Google will never tell, but your theory makes sense, Gary. I set my CPC limit to .10, which is more than enough for the other pages where my ad's appearing with a few others. When I have some time to babysit my account to keep an eye on it maybe I'll try raising that by a lot for a brief period and just see what happens... Anyway, I'm glad I'm not alone at least. I'm not that seasoned at Adwords, and I was wondering if I'd made some stupid mistake or something.
Well if the keyword is 'inactive for search', the ad wont show up but the funny thing is that if your broad match keyword is active, google should pull that keyword even if you dont have an exact match for the keyword. >> Sounds like google is checking site and useing what is on that page. I doubt this is the case. In many instance we use words which dont appear on the website and these work fine.
Mystery solved... SORT OF. It seems that Google is trying to play the role of moral policeman. I wrote an ebook about a controversial subject. I give information about how to do something that isn't illegal, and it isn't illegal to share information about how to do this. But it's *about* a subject that is currently illegal. I'm not sure if I should say what it is or not, because some people think this is no big deal, but other people get freaked out about it, and I just don't want to go there. Anyway, I found an area of their website that clearly states Google won't advertise for sites that tell someone how to do this - that's their explanation for not showing ads for the exact phrase match 'kiss green toad.' Which is ridiculous, because 'kissing a green toad' and 'how to kiss a green toad' aren't ambiguous at all - they mean exactly the same thing. There are only two other advertisers using these keywords, and one of them is also using the exact phrase in their ad like I am. It makes no sense at all. But I'm not going to call Google out on this, or they might pull my ad altogether. Those people are NUTS - I guess the sooner I just accept this fact and move on, the happier I'll be.