More Google Mysteries (I think Google really screws us over)

I don't get it, if you wanted "how to drink beer" so bad, why didn't you just add it as a new keyword on exact match so that it pulls up your site. I think exact match is the only 100% way to make sure the keyword you want is pulled up all the time. If you put it on broad or phrase, Google tries to list you under other related items, but the system isn't perfect. I don't see how this means that "Google screws us over"?

Hi GeorgR,

I see nothing nefarious in what Google is doing in your scenario. There are a number of possible reasons why you are seeing what you are seeing, and none of them dubious on Google's part.

Every keyword phrase can be bid on separately, therefor "how to drink beer" will likely have a different bid level than "to drink beer". In addition you will have phrases like "how to drink" that may be competing in the first case, but not the second case.

Another thing to consider is that these different phrases will have different levels of relevance and potentially different quality scores. So these are two more reasons that the bid levels and competition will be different.

I have to assume that you are bidding really high to be sure that your ad is always in the top position for every possible variation of the keyword that will trigger your ad, and that you have a daily budget limit that is way higher than the most you would every expect to be able to spend on the highest click through days. I have to assume this because there would be no expectation for your ad to always appear if you didn't have both of these set at ridiculously high levels.

I also have to assume that you have created separate ad groups for each and every keyword and each individual match type, otherwise your quality scores would be all over the place and causing extremely high bidding requirements in some cases ($10.00+).

If you haven't already realized it yet, you do need to use every keyword phrase in your campaign that you want to get the highest QS and lowest bids for. If not, someone else will be able to bid much lower than you and get a higher ad position. This is what quality scores are all about, the most relevant wins.

dburk,

I dont have problems with QS now using phrase matching, negatives and sometimes exact.

In fact for THAT example adgroup i get "GREAT".

You are right, the "how to make money" or "how to whatever" phrases are on a different "bid level" compared to "to make money"....that's what i basically say in my post.

However, it strikes me as odd, with some research you can find some very good CHEAP keywords using phrases...as an example something like "i make money". Which would be included in searches like "how do i make money" whereas "how do i make money" would be more expensive than "i make money".

However, the confusion comes from the fact that Google tells me that my keyword "i make money" is maybe $0.10 - which SHOULD mean that every search containing "i make money" would trigger my ad.

(Why else would it show me $0.10 for "i make money" ?)

In reality this is NOT the case because "how do i make money" might be $4/CPC...and this HIGHLY makes me doubt the useability of phrase matching or at least HOW I UNDERSTAND IT.

Its like, Google says phrase 'i make money 'costs you $0.10, BUT you need to bid $4 for "how can i make money" and i cannot follow this logic/system AT ALL....the pricing informartion i get from google is worthless as well as Google's definition of "Phrase" matching when i do keyword research.

they should say "Phrase matching triggers all searches containing the phrase - but only up to your specified bid level for this 'sub-phrase' otherwise NOT " <-- something like that.

GeorgR,

Let me try to explain it this way...lets say 25 marketers have bid on the EXACT match "How to drink beer." Through the bidding process they have run the current high up to $4 for the EXACT match. And you have bid .10 on the BROAD match "drink beer." Why should Google select your ad for "how to drink beer" over the other marketers when they bid on EXACT match? If you want your ad to trigger when the search term "how to drink beer" is used, then you will need to use EXACT and compete with the others that use this EXACT phrase. This seems fair to me.