Google Ads Expands Exact Match To Include Same Meaning Of Words

Sep 7, 2018 - 7:29 am 7 by
Filed Under Google Ads

Google Ads Match

Google Ads has quietly expanded how exact match works by also including keywords in exact match to include close variations that share the same meaning as your keyword. This was first reported by Ginny Marvin at Search Engine Land who covered this in detail.

Like I said, Google quietly posted it in their help docs and didn't really make any mention of it beyond that.

Google said this is "powered by Google’s machine learning" and it will expand exact match to also "match with the intent of a search, instead of just the specific words." "This means your exact match keywords can show ads on searches that include implied words, paraphrases, and other terms with the same meaning," Google added.

Here is the example Google has given us:

Let’s say you’re marketing for a travel business. If you’re using the exact match keyword [yosemite camping], your ads may show on other terms like “yosemite campground,” “campsites in yosemite,” or “yosemite national park ca camping.”

In each case, the intent of the search still matches the original keyword: to go camping in Yosemite National Park. However, you wouldn't show on terms like “yosemite hotel” or “best yosemite camping,” because while both refer to staying at the park, the intent is different. Instead, these terms would match to the broad match version of this keyword.

click for full size

Back in 2014, Google expanded exact match to include plurals, misspellings and other close variants and then again in 2017 expanded exact match to include additional rewording and reordering of keywords. Now it can even mean similar meanings of the word!

Advertisers are asking why Google calls it "exact" match if it doesn't match exactly. Matt Van Wagner wrote:

I assume the PPC community is going to have a blast with this.

To learn more, Ginny has more details from Google on this at Search Engine Land.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

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