Take Back Control of Broad Match with Skai’s Search Term Analysis

Blue Derkin
Senior Director, Product Marketing @ Skai

January 16, 2023

Managing keywords is one of the most important components of paid search marketing success, and the complexity rises exponentially with the combination of match types.

Over the last two decades of SEM, Google has changed how match types work to better help marketers engage customers through their search queries. Recently, there has been a push from Google for marketers to rely more on Broad Match and let its smart algorithms figure out the rest.

As we enter a new era in paid search in which Broad Match will be more utilized, marketers need new tools to stay in control. Skai’s Search Term Analysis helps your teams explore Broad Match insights to help you save time and money.

The pros and cons of the rise of Broad Match

In its help center article, Grow your Smart Bidding campaigns with broad match, Google recommends that advertisers use a broad match keyword strategy with automated bidding:

Broad match keywords pair particularly well with Smart Bidding strategies, including Maximize conversions, Maximize conversion value, Target CPA, and Target ROAS. Smart Bidding uses machine learning to optimize for conversions or conversion value in each and every auction—a feature known as “auction-time bidding.”

When you pair Smart Bidding with broad match, there’s no need to segment by match type to boost optimization. The bidding system sets a bid for each individual auction of each query and bids up or down depending on how well the query is likely to perform. Broad match keywords allow the algorithms to learn faster and find additional auctions that can help you reach your growth objectives.

While an increase in Broad Match usage may unlock better performance, there are some trade-offs. For example, bidding so broadly may mean less visibility and control. Performance could also actually suffer, as not every Broad Match click will be valuable to the advertiser or the consumer.

Consider an online bike store bidding on Broad Match for the term bicycle. Internet users who search for queries such as 10-speed bike, bicycle magazine subscription, how to change a bike tire, and what is the right bike for a toddler could potentially trigger ads. Of course, these four queries have completely different intents—especially if you’re trying to sell bikes.

Here’s the problem: appearing in less relevant search queries could lead to wasting budget on clicks that won’t convert. And worse, it may be eating up the budget so that your best-performing ads won’t get to show. Additionally, attracting consumers at the wrong point in their journeys could potentially lead to a poor experience, create negative sentiment, and drive future business away. For example, a user is at the beginning of their purchase path and your Broad Matched ad leads them to an unrelated product.

An over-reliance on Broad Match can cause other issues as well. By appearing in too many loosely matched queries, advertisers may see their click-through rates begin to decline, which can negatively impact quality scores and ad ranks. This could result in high CPCs, lower positions on the page, or even not appearing for relevant queries.

How does a search marketer use Google’s recommendation of more Broad Match but also bypass these negative issues?

Google’s search term report helps marketers better understand Broad Match

Google Ads knows that Broad Match can sometimes go off the rails. Its search term report provides insight into the searches that trigger your ads and how those searches are performing. This report also helps you discover new ideas for ads and landing pages to better align with what your customers are looking for.

So, every day, search marketers analyze these reports and look for opportunities to optimize their keyword lists.

Two key actions they can take:

Adding negative terms to prevent ads from showing in irrelevant searches. Google’s example: if you sell eyeglasses, and you noticed that the search term “wine glasses” is triggering your ads, you might want to add “wine” as a negative keyword.
Edit your match type on existing Broad Match keywords to Phrase Match or Exact Match in order to narrow the way Google chooses which queries where your ads would appear.

While the search term report helps to solve the challenge of using Broad Match, analyzing and optimizing this way can take a lot of time and effort. We’ve heard from marketers that they don’t perform query optimization as often as they’d like because of how hard and long this task takes.

This is where Skai’s innovative solution shines.

Skai’s Search Term Analysis (STA)

Skai’s Search Term Analysis saves both time and money by showing you where you’re wasting spend with irrelevant ad matching and helps you make quick and impactful optimizations, all while ensuring your customers find you when they search for you.

Skai’s machine learning algorithms scour Google’s search term report and find low-performing query trends. It then displays those queries in an intuitive, easy-to-use dashboard with the corresponding performance data, so marketers have the full context of how big a problem they have.

In a snap, practitioners can then choose to add negative keywords to their campaigns in order to ensure those queries are no longer matched to their campaigns. In minutes, search marketers are able to accomplish what may have taken hours before.

Skai’s Search Term Analysis dashboard identifies queries that could be wasting the SEM budget

Skai Search clients can quickly manage queries using negative keywords

Skai’s Search Term Analysis (STA) benefits

Skai’s best-in-class, AI and ML-driven solution puts advertisers back in control by surfacing learnings, delivering insights, and driving performance and program efficiencies that save money and drive growth.

Skai’s Search Term Analysis (STA) is:

Insightful. STA tells advertisers which keywords are performing and which keywords are spending without converting.
Actionable. STA presents learnings in an easy-to-digest, easy-to-implement UI that SHOWS you the estimated performance improvement before you pull the trigger.
Impactful. STA saves marketers money, improves the consumer experience, and facilitates alignment with industry trends and publisher best practices

STA is part of Skai’s Paid Search solution

As part of Skai’s omnichannel marketing platform, our Paid Search solution helps you stay ahead of your competition and reach consumers when and where they’re searching. Our advanced optimization and reporting is coupled with automated solutions, including tools for bidding and budgeting, and much more. As an early player in the paid search industry, Skai has a long history of innovation and an independent position you can trust. Client results include:

For more information or to see our Search Term Analysis functionality for yourself, please schedule a quick demo.

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