How Google’s phrase match and BMM update will affect your PPC strategy

According to Google, the aim of this move is to offer more control and better reach to advertisers. However, like with any update, being willing to adapt your PPC strategy is key to making the most of these changes.

To help prepare for these developments, here are three key points that are likely to have the most impact on advertisers:

1. While support for BMM will end, phrase match will expand to include additional broad match modifier traffic.

2. According to Google, the new phrase match will continue to respect word order ‘when it’s important to the meaning’.

3. Google will no longer trigger for queries deemed inappropriate based on semantics, meaning that the new phrase match type will not trigger all the same queries it used to.

Previously, using full broad match could be a risky strategy for advertisers, because the matching process would allow for too wide a range of search queries to be triggered, which often resulted in poor quality clicks and weaker conversion rates. However, the BMM update announcement also stated that ‘broad match now looks at additional signals in your account to deliver more relevant searches’ – landing page content, for example, is thought to be among these signifiers.

These matching improvements to full broad match are likely to interest advertisers, who want to widen the scope of their traffic but are concerned that the updated phrase match may limit searches that used to be eligible from BMM keywords.

Brands that utilise smart bidding will also benefit from auction time bidding at search query level – meaning that if the new full broad match keyword does trigger a search query that under-performs, then over time, these will automatically be reduced below first page bid.

These developments could prove profitable for advertisers, but individual brands will have to discover what works best for them. At Jaywing, for example, we are in the process of conducting a series of incrementality tests to measure the value of full broad match versus updated phrase match, to see just how much additional volume and efficiency this can yield for our clients.

With the above in mind, here are five tips to help you adapt your strategy to make the most of the new developments:

1. Accustom yourself to the changes by looking at Google’s examples of keywords that will no longer trigger after the update.

2. Keep an eye on search term reports to monitor the impact on relevancy while adding negative keywords into the accounts to ensure that click-through rate percentages remain strong.

3. Test out the update for yourself by running low volume A/B tests, with full broad match enabled, to measure the incremental impact of this match type against the new phrase match type.

4. Resist the temptation to move to a full broad match strategy, which can lead to weaker conversion, unless you have tested it out and know it will serve your brand.

5. Moving forward, it is best to build granular account structures, ensuring that longer-tailed keywords are built into the account, with different permutations of each phrase. This will minimise the impact of future updates.

Updates like this can sometimes be a cause of panic for advertisers, but there’s no reason to be alarmed. This isn’t the first time that Google has changed its keyword mechanisms and will by no means be the last.

Remaining responsive and adaptable is the key to making sure your PPC strategy continues to be the best value for your brand.

Sean Healy is head of PPC at Jaywing.