Google has confirmed another bug with Google Ads where it accidentally attributed traffic to a match type that should not exist anymore - smart matching. Ginny Marvin, the Google Ad Liaison, confirmed the issue and said, "Advertisers will not be charged for these clicks, and we’ve reverted the change."
Thomas Eccel spotted the issue and said on X, "can you let me know what this new "Smart Matching" Match Type exactly is?" Ginny replied, "This is a result of a small traffic experiment between 8/13/2024 and 8/14/2024 that incorrectly attributed traffic under this previously turned down “Smart Matching” designation. Advertisers will not be charged for these clicks, and we’ve reverted the change."
Here is what it looked like in the Google Ads report:
The funny thing is we saw this match type back in 2021 and then Google said, "This filter option was the result of a bug that is now being fixed, but no traffic was affected. This experiment is one of many small tests that select advertisers have opted into. We don’t have anything more to share at this time."
So this is not the first time Google Ads had a bug like this.
Forum discussion at X.
