A beta test of a new feature for Google’s AdWords clients turns surplus budget into additional marketing opportunities for advertisers, and extra revenue for Google.
Search marketers receiving notices from Google about the beta test they have been opted into at Google’s discretion expressed concern at what looks like a money grab by the dominant search advertiser.
“If Google sees you have extra money in your account, they want it and will take it by automatically matching your ads for keywords you did not specify in your keyword match list,” Barry Schwartz said at Search Engine Roundtable.
Google’s timing should make this a hot topic at the SMX West conference taking place this week. The announcement from Google arrived in the inboxes of some advertisers, and Dan Thies blogged it’s a bad idea:
The broad match feature of Adwords is bad enough, folks. Now they’re offering you the exciting opportunity to bleed every penny of your budget every day, advertising against keywords that you didn’t want to bid on. Sure, if I sell Adidas shoes, why wouldn’t I want to get some traffic from people who searched for slippers? I mean, it’s not like I’m trying to turn a profit or anything, right?
The whole point of search marketing aims at connecting an advertiser with consumers expressing a specific need. Some retailers benefit from broadly matching queries, when they offer a range of brands or types that fall under a general category.
Going the other way, by broadly matching links when a retailer only wants to market a small selection of specific items, looks like a bad deal for advertisers. If Automatic Matching has an off switch, we anticipate search marketers reaching for it when the beta test begins.
