From what I'm reading, this seems to be an extension to the "broad expanded" match type so that it crosses campaigns which still have unused daily budget in them. In other words, your keyword inventory will still get impressions and clicks even when your daily budget is used, if another campaign in your account can subsidise it.

broad expanded can be a blessing or a curse depending on what you're selling and how you are tracking conversions. They can be useful as a source of extra traffic, but only if it converts profitably.

Combined with the Search Query report and your server referrer logs, broad match can generate some excellent and unforeseen keyword opportunities. I run these reports weekly and build up new keywords and negatives religiously. One of my advertisers has 1,232 negatives, more than all the other keywords combined.

If you want to avoid the possible risk of it, simply use phrase and exact match only. Advertisers selling specific makes and model numbers of equipment take heed, as you don't want your "hp ink cartridges" shown against "oki print cartridges" or some such.

For an illustration of what your ads will be seen against for expanded match, simply google your own product or service keywords and see what comes up. Then exclude these as negatives.

So a number of questions arise. What keyword inventory are they serving these "automatic match" types against? Broad expanded? What reporting capability will there be? Can we see what keywords came into play? Can we track conversions against them still? Will this option parasitically drain other campaigns? What control do we have? What implication does this have for Quality Score?

I look forward to learning more. I suspect and hope that this is just another way Google can give us more options, with the required level of control, and let the less attentive advertisers continue to pay the "stupid tax" at the expense of those willing to invest the time, knowledge and experience in their testing and tracking.

Best wishes!

David, you make some very interesting points.

It will be interesting to see how many people start using this as part of their campaigns.

Let's face it, the only reason google have put this in place is to scoop those left over daily budgets in to their own pockets. Whether it actually gets more conversions for adWords users is another thing all together

I can't believe that, what gives Google the right to take what isn't theirs.

Does this only apply to Max CPC bidding?

Is this broadened matching feature also to be rolled out across the automated bidding facilities such as Budget Optimiser?

Presumably, if conversions are your goal, given the choice, you will still be better off using their conversion optimiser.

Is Google trying to force people to lower their daily budget? They are giving their customers no other choice with such a greedy move.

All I can say is that I hope that there's a way to turn it off.

It's a great idea from the perspective of getting people to visit your site - and a horrible idea when it comes to getting conversions.

This can only dilute the quality of keywords in the marketplace.