You may remember a few months ago when Joe wrote about Google’s Automatic Matching feature.   Well, there are rumblings (or grumblings) around the blogosphere this week that Google may be expanding the controversial feature just in time for the holiday season!

Our friends at SEO Roundtable are referencing some rumors in the Search Engine Watch Forums that speak of Google taking advantage of the holiday season to spend  more of your PPC budget than you may have expected.   Accuracast says they’ve recently seen an increase in accounts being added to the very limited test Google introduced in May.

As you remember, Google’s Automatic Matching expands the keyword terms you are currently bidding on to match similar phrases that are relevant “according to Google.”

What does this mean?  You’re ads are going will start showing to a wider range of search terms … automatically!  To stay on top of what keywords and phrases you’re bidding on, run a search query report on a more frequent basis.  If the report reveals terms that you know you don’t want included in your campaigns, add those terms to your negative keyword list.

So be aware PPC Account Managers!  This setting may be “turned on” without you knowing it.  Be sure to check your account settings, as shown below, to ensure you’re getting the most bang for your PPC budget!

If you’ve experienced an increase in accounts being added to the Automatic Matching feature recently, we’d love to hear from you!

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• PPC News Roundup for March 28, 2008
• Google Automatic Matching Test Only Generated 1 Click!
• What You Need to Know About Google Automatic Matching
• Adwords Automated Matching Beta: Another Ploy to Get Our Money?
• Happy Holidays from PPC Hero!

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 27th, 2008 at 7:00 am and is filed under Basic PPC Strategies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.