Auto Applied Recommendations will now push traffic towards Broad Match

If you’ve opted into Google Ads’ auto applied recommendation to 'Remove Redundant Keywords’, then you should be aware that the scope of the changes it can make is about to get bigger.

Currently it removes keywords which are redundant - with no traffic and targeting covered by other keywords of the same match type. It’s useful for hygiene and to keep the elements in your account live and not full of swatches of redundancy. 

Last week, Google sent out email notifications to some Google Ads advertisers stating that, from January 19th, the recommendation will remove phrase/exact match types in favour of a broad match keyword in an ad group. This promises to change the ‘same match type’ redundancy to favour broad match keywords, which, combined with smart bidding, should technically be the most optimised way to target traffic using every signal Google has to offer.

Making this change to ‘help manage accounts more easily’, Google has said this won’t negatively impact performance, and will still allow ads to appear on the same searches.

So, what’s the issue? Well, your campaign or ad group structure may be built around match types, or have multiple match types within ad groups. The broad match strategy doesn’t necessarily work for all advertisers and for all budgets. This new expansion of the automated rule is seen by many PPC advertisers as another attempt by Google to shift accounts to broad match keywords only. 

Kinase recommends only maintaining this automated recommendation if you have fully tested broad-match keywords and determined that they work well for your account. Every advertiser has a subtly different search mix with customers coming through on different search terms best picked up by a different mix of targeting - broad match has been proven to be great for a high volume account running on smart bidding, but it can be less effective for smaller accounts. Additionally, you should note that if you applied the previous 'Remove Redundant Keywords’ recommendation, these new rules will take effect in your account in two weeks unless you opt out.