Yet another interesting AdWords Issue that I have run into…
I have been re-working an account recently brought to me and encountered an issue which has me deeply concerned.
I have come to notice that many keywords, really great, relevant, exact match keywords are not being served with the following message.
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“This particular search term is already associated with an ad from one of your other campaigns or ad groups. Only one ad per advertiser may appear on a given page per search term. When two or more of your ads are eligible for a single search term, we show the one with the highest ranking at the moment.”
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As you can see the keywords shown in the screenshot above are “phrase” and [exact match]. The keywords DO NOT appear anywhere else in this account – no other campaigns or ad groups.
I started the troubleshooting process by adding negative keywords to ad groups. For example in the DUI defense Attorney ad group I added negatives for -lawyer – dwi, etc. It had no effect. I then added many exact match negative keywords i.e. -[dui defense lawyer], etc. still no effect. I next went with only [exact match] keywords in the two adgroups that gave me the most trouble, the problem persisted.
I contacted Google and bounced it off a couple of people and received a reply referencing this page in the help center.http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66292
This page explains how keywords will be treated when they fall into three different types of criteria:
1. the same keywords in multiple adgroups
2. Similar keywords to the search query within the same adgroup
3. Similar keywords to the search query within multiple adgroups.
I am fine with the details on #1. I am concerned about details on #2 and #3.
Here is a screenshot of details on #2
Within the same ad group, multiple keywords are similar to the search query.

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So now an [exact match] keyword can be trumped by another ‘similar, better performing or cheaper’ keyword? According to Google, Yes.
Then it keeps gets better…..
Here is a screenshot of details on #2
Keywords within multiple ad groups are similar to the search query
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I am concerned about what I am reading. If Google feels that the keyword is close enough, cheaper, or has a higher ad rank they will trump an exact match keyword to serve a different keyword from a different adgrop they deem better? That takes my control away.
How can I accrue CTR data to improve the account performance if Google will not serve keywords that exactly match a query because they like a price or adrank of another keyword? This also allows for the potential of the wrong ad text being served. What if I have specific landing pages set per keyword? How does that effect CTR? Ultimately, what if Iwas OK with spending more on the keyword because it converted better? Quality Score and CTR are not everything when it comes to PPC advertising. Sometimes keywords that are not your best ‘quality score’ performers are your best converting keywords what provide the best ROI.
Even with adding negatives and going with exact match only in specific groups I ultimately was never able to identify the ‘other keyword’ that was trumping my exact match keyword. I had to pause the campaign and slowly add back adgroups and keywords, watching all the time for the dreaded message. The account is a smaller version of its previous self which is fine because I am in the process of recovering the account CTR but I do get a little nervous anytime I add a new keyword.
Is there a ‘fix’ for this? Not that I am aware of…
Is this something that is being tested on limited accounts or is there the potential for this to happen on any account? I am currently seeking a comment from Google and will post here if/when I get a reply.
For the record I have only seen this happen in one client account. However I am starting to hear some talk in other places such as the AdWords Help Forum on the topic so I feel the blog post is warranted.
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