targetted keywords overtaken by generics?

Yep, it's EBM (expanded broad match) at work. The short version is Google has decided that broad matched terms with high bids should show for more queries.

I touched on this subject in a recent post: How Google Suggest Changes Paid Search. The part specifically related to your question:

Reason 1: Google cranked the dial on EBM (expanded broad match) to a whole new level in 2007.

As recently as 2005 - 2006 you could set up a new campaign with 10's of thousands of long tail exact matched keywords and reap the benefits of your precise targeting via an extremely low cost per click. Odds are most of your keywords would have little to no competition and as long as you could maintain a decent quality score your ad would stay live and your bids would stay low. Each term would not produce many clicks but cumulatively the clicks/traffic for your 100,000 keyword account would add up to numbers that most would consider "significant".

For example maybe one of your exact matched keywords was something like "1997 honda accord replacement left mirror". Odds are you wouldn't have much competition on that specific phrase so even though it may only be handful of queries a year you could still capture that traffic at a very low cost. All those big name advertisers bidding $20 a click on broad matched terms like "cars" and "auto parts" wouldn't be an issue, they were not chasing the tail. Google realized they were leaving a ton of $$ on the table and loosened up EBM. Once that happened all those advertisers spending big money on broad matched terms started showing up in the space and driving up costs for everyone else. Whereas before you may have been 1 of a few ads showing on the page, Google decided via EBM that people bidding on "cars, "auto parts", "mirrors", "autos", "honda", etc should start showing up for a wider variety of terms that they deemed relevant.
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targetted keywords overtaken by generics?

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GuyFromChicago Permanent Peon

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targetted keywords overtaken by generics?

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