Search engine Google sent customers an email yesterday that outlined changes to their ad relevancy algorithms. These changes are being made in order to improve the targeting of ads and members’ ROI.
Discuss Google’s AdWord changes at WebProWorld.
The motivation behind the algorithm changes is, according to Google, “designed to provide the most relevant, targeted ads possible.” By improving relevancy, Google believes this will help users find services that are being search for, and therefore, increase AdWords “stickiness”.
Google has set up a page outlining the upcoming changes, while giving an example of what they hope to accomplish:
“An advertiser specializing in Alaskan cruises may have selected cruises (broad-matched) for their campaign. Previously, this keyword may have been disabled due to poor performance on more popular queries such as Hawaiian cruises.”
“Instead of disabling all broad match variations of cruises, we will now show this ad for specific query variations that are more relevant to the ad, such as Alaskan cruises.”
Changes in AdWords relevancy may cause members to see differences in their ad click rates, with some rising and others falling. Google acknowledges that members may also see a “change in your website traffic and ad performance metrics, such as your clickthrough rate (CTR), cost-per-click, or ad ranking.”
If this occurs, Google recommends optimizing your current ad campaigns. They offer a link to an optimization tip page for any further information. Google also states that this will initially affect ads that use “broad-matched keywords.”
These changes have caused the SEO forums to light up with the news of Google’s changes. A post from “andrewgoodman”, a moderator on the SearchEngineWatch forum, says, “It appears the new treatment of broad matches might be aimed at countering the swamping effect’ that causes perfectly good ads to be disabled”
Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest search news.
