Google has unveiled the broad match modifier in the United States. Many questions and confusion have come up about when to use the broad match modifier and when to use the previous broad match feature. Also, many ask how the broad match modifier will improve my campaigns if I only run phrase and exact match type keywords?

Phrase match types will show your ads for the keyword you are bidding on, but the search query can also include  words before or after your phrase.  Essentially your keywords must be present in the search term somewhere in its original order..

Exact match types will only appear when a searcher directly types in your keyword. No plurals or misspellings will appear.  Also, no other words can be included in the search other than the keyword you are bidding on.

Examples:
Keyword you are bidding on:  solar panels
Broad: buying solar efficient panels, solar panel companies, solar system, solar universe, solar flare, planets
Phrase: buy solar panels, solar panels distributors, who sells solar panels
Exact: solar panels

The broad match modifier was created to have more control of your keywords and not have a large list for each misspelling, plural, etc.

Example:
Keyword: +solar +panels
Queries: solar panels, solar panel, buying solar panel, soalr panels for my home

The plus sign in front of the keyword acts as an “anchor” ensuring your core keyword showing for searches and no synonyms, but including the common misspellings and plurals.

Please check out other blogs about the broad match modifier:

MoreVisibility: New Match Type for Google Canada & UK
http://www.morevisibility.com/semblog/new-match-type-for-googles-canada-and-uk-adwords-interfaces.html

MoreVisibility: Using Adwords Editor and Broad Match Modifier
http://www.morevisibility.com/analyticsblog/using-adwords-editor-to-create-modified-broad-matched-keywords.html

Google: New Keyword Targeting Feature

http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-keyword-targeting-feature-rolling.html

Google: Broad Match Modifier Common Questions

http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=175280

In today’s economy, consumers are being more price conscious than ever, going the extra mile to research and find a reputable company with the right price for a specific product.

Advertisers want to place their product in front of consumers and have an ad/product that stands out. Shopping feeds, which provide another opportunity for advertisers, fall in the pay-per-click category of advertising.

Advertisers can chose as many or as few of these shopping feeds they would like. Below are a few benefits of using shopping feeds.

1. More Automation– When you upload your products to eCommerce sites, the photos will be adjusted in the feed based on the amount in stock. The cost of shipping calculated and price will be displayed as well.  When you make updates to your product feed, the shopping engine will automatically update the information to display. You can set the frequency of updates to the engine daily or at an interval you decide.
2. More Visibility – Your product will appear next to other products and be more visible, where consumers may have not noticed your product(s) from the others in PPC Results.
3. Targeted Leads – Also, research shows that consumers using, shopping feeds are more educated on the product and are in the final stages of making their decision.

Below are a few features of shopping feeds:

Keyword Bidding: Advertisers are now able to bid on specific keywords for their products.
Product Pricing: Advertisers can have specifications on what products will show. For example, they can omit products under $10 from showing in search results.

Below are two examples of Google searches.  The second image shows a more refined search. You can see how the search results change as the searcher narrows their search query.

Each shopping engine may be manually monitored by you, or there are also vendors that provide one upload portal. Vendors will often format the feeds for each specific search engine.

To learn more about Shopping Feeds, please review our other blog posts.
http://www.morevisibility.com/semblog/articles/shopping-feeds/

How do you optimize your campaigns? Do you pause or remove keywords that have the most spend with no conversions? If so you might want to take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

A couple of months ago Google launched a new “Search Funnel” feature in the AdWords interface. The data that you are able to view includes keywords that assisted in impressions and clicks, but did not receive credit for the final conversion. Previously you were only able to see the final keyword that drove the conversion.

To find the “search funnel” report in your Adwords interface, click on the Reports tab, conversions and to the left you will see the area of Adwords to view search funnels.

One strategy I have personally found helpful is to create a campaign with the assisting keywords in respective adgroups. This way you are able to control the amount of daily budget you would like to use on these types of words and you are not cannibalizing from your “core” group of performing keywords daily spend.

For example, you have a product where people do not know the particular name of your product, but they are able to explain it in a few words in a search query in Google. “I want to buy the machine that records TV shows. This might not be a direct keyword such as TiVo, DVR or another brand, but you are giving your product and company name visibility to the user at their beginning stages of the buying or research process.