Are Keywords Becoming Inputs Instead of Targets? – JumpFly, Inc.

As Google has gotten looser with its keyword mapping, it certainly feels like keywords have become inputs instead of targets. If you go through your search queries, you may be finding more and more queries that don’t even come close to matching your keywords, even with a solid negative keyword list and continuous adding of negative keywords.With Google’s “close variant” keyword matching, keywords really have lost a lot of their effectiveness as a target. You can have the same query mapped to multiple different keywords, and it makes keywords lose their effectiveness. I typically don’t only look at how a keyword is performing to determine its value, but the queries themselves I find more important. Even in ad groups where you only run exact match, the “close variant” feature will map queries to keywords that aren’t even close. If you have ever run ads for any kind of healthcare account, you may notice that your queries get flooded with random Dr. Names that don’t even work for the practice you’re advertising (or even have the same specialty!). Even with thousands of negative keywords of just names, this continues to be a problem.To make matters worse, Google is heavily pushing AI Max, which makes the keyword mapping even more unpredictable. It is essentially broad match, but even looser. One thing to note is that if you are running AI Max, be sure to turn off the “Search Term Matching” setting, especially if you are running ads for a lead gen account, as we have seen terrible results with AI Max search query quality.We’ve done a lot of testing with that setting on and off, and there is a noticeable difference in the quality of the search queries coming in. So, in this instance, your keywords quite literally become an input instead of a target, as Google turns your keywords into broad match and gives the system freedom to essentially make keywords based on your landing pages. We’ve seen a massive influx of completely irrelevant search queries that aren’t even close to the keywords, which led to a majority of the search traffic being wasted spend. We’ve learned that in lead gen accounts, if you are going to utilize AI Max, it is best practice to disable search term matching and turn off text customization and final URL expansion.If you want to have the most control over your keyword mapping, I recommend avoiding AI Max entirely, or at the very least, run it with search term matching off, and disable final URL expansion and text customization off. From there, I would recommend avoiding broad match as well, unless you are having trouble getting volume. Then have an extensive negative keyword list in place, and regularly go through your search queries and add appropriate negatives. While these new AI features can be useful, they can also be detrimental to your account if you don’t have those proper guardrails in place. You certainly shouldn’t just turn these settings on and “set it and forget it.”Get the latest on the world of digital marketing right to your inbox. .jumpfly-email-signup .wpcf7-email, .jumpfly-email-signup .wpcf7-text { color: #7a7a7a; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; } .jumpfly-email-signup input.wpcf7-submit { background: #a32400; text-transform: capitalize; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; border-radius: 5px; padding: 4% 7%; width:100% !important; max-width:188px !important; } .jumpfly-email-signup input.wpcf7-submit:hover { text-decoration: none; filter: brightness(1.1); } Copyright © JumpFly, Inc., All Rights Reserved  877.882.2850Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Top ▲877.882.2850Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Top ▲ Copyright © JumpFly, Inc., All Rights ReservedGet Our Marketing Insights Right To Your Inbox .jumpfly-email-signup .wpcf7-email, .jumpfly-email-signup .wpcf7-text { color: #7a7a7a; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; } .jumpfly-email-signup input.wpcf7-submit { background: #a32400; text-transform: capitalize; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; border-radius: 5px; padding: 4% 7%; width:100% !important; max-width:188px !important; } .jumpfly-email-signup input.wpcf7-submit:hover { text-decoration: none; filter: brightness(1.1); } Get Our Marketing Insights Right To Your Inbox .jumpfly-email-signup .wpcf7-email, .jumpfly-email-signup .wpcf7-text { color: #7a7a7a; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; } .jumpfly-email-signup input.wpcf7-submit { background: #a32400; text-transform: capitalize; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; border-radius: 5px; padding: 4% 7%; width:100% !important; max-width:188px !important; } .jumpfly-email-signup input.wpcf7-submit:hover { text-decoration: none; filter: brightness(1.1); } Fields containing a star (*) are required .wpcf7-form * { font-family: “century-gothic”, sans-serif; } .wpcf7-form input { border: solid 1px #7F7F7F; border-radius: 5px; } .wpcf7-form input, .wpcf7-form .message textarea { color: #7f7f7f; } .first-last-wrap, .phone-email-wrap, .url-company-wrap { display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: space-between; margin-bottom: 3%; } .first-last-wrap .first-name, .first-last-wrap .last-name, .phone-email-wrap .phone-number, .phone-email-wrap .email, .url-company-wrap .website-url, .url-company-wrap .company-name { max-width: 49%; } .wpcf7-form .website-url input, .wpcf7-form .message textarea { border: solid 1px #7F7F7F; border-radius: 5px; } input.wpcf7-submit { background: #44B5E8; color: #fff; min-width: 240px; border-radius: 5px; border: none; text-transform: capitalize; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; margin-top: 0px; } input.wpcf7-submit:hover { background: #0A203C; text-decoration: none; } .submit-wrap { text-align: center; } .wpcf7 .ajax-loader { display: block; margin: auto; margin-top: 10px; } @media only screen and (max-width: 500px) { .first-last-wrap .first-name, .first-last-wrap .last-name, .phone-email-wrap .phone-number, .phone-email-wrap .email, .url-company-wrap .website-url, .url-company-wrap .company-name { max-width: 100%; margin-bottom: 20px; } .first-last-wrap, .phone-email-wrap, .url-company-wrap { flex-direction: column; } .first-last-wrap, .phone-email-wrap, .url-company-wrap { margin-bottom: 0px; } } Fields containing a star (*) are requiredContent from Calendly will be embedded here Your Name (required) Your Email (required) Subject Your Message source