Changes are on the horizon for Google Adwords, and if you are not ready it could end up costing you. According to Inside Adwords beginning in September you will no longer have the option of turning off plurals, misspellings and close variants for phrase and exact match keywords. That is a lot of control they are taking away, and many advertisers are getting upset and starting to voice their complaints. If you want to advertise on Google’s network, you have to play by the search engine company’s rules, however, so I doubt complaining is going to get anyone far. I believe there are ways to manage this, and in many cases, people are doing it already.

“I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it further.” – Darth Vader, The Empire Strikes Back

Adwords Changing: It Is Here Now

When you set up a new Adwords campaign, this option is turned on by default:

Using this option saves you from having to put in every single variation of a keyword, keeps keyword lists and ad groups smaller and more manageable and in some cases gives you the opportunity to match up to additional relevant search queries. On the surface of it, the policy seems like no big deal – helpful, actually. In many verticals, I think if you manage the tool correctly it is not bad, and many people are doing it already, so they will not notice anything different when the changes take effect. For industries like ecommerce, though, the change could be a huge problem.

Potential Problems

With Google Adwords changing, here is an example of what I see as being a potential keyword matching issue: Let’s say you are advertising for a company that sells chef wear/food service uniforms. You could target a keyword like “food service clothes,” and if you had that phrase targeted with the option “Do not include close variants” it would show your ads only when someone types in that exact phrase. Starting in September, the potential exists for it to match to a query for “food service cloths” as a misspelling, which is actually a different keyword with an entirely different meaning.

What Can Be Done?

I would suggest taking a few basic steps to help minimize potential negative effects of the switch. If you are not already splitting keywords up into ad groups by match types, start. You are going to need as much control over these as you can get. Negative keywords are going to become even more crucial, as that will be the only way to prevent the “clothes/cloths” situation I described above. Watch your Search Terms Report:

This report will be a great resource for determining which terms are being matched, how they are being matched and what you should include or exclude as a negative keyword. Become familiar with it, and watch it like a hawk.

Google has made various changes to many different aspects of Adwords over the years, and it is not a trend I see changing no matter how much advertisers complain. In this case, I think a little preparation and vigilance will go a long way in making the transition smooth for your Adwords campaigns.