A (0:00)

Foreign. Hello, and welcome to the paid search podcast. My name is Chris, and today I'm going to talk to you about existing exact match keywords and how they actually function. That is the topic for today's entire show. I am going to go through four examples of real keywords, what the results are from those keywords, and why. I think you should be extremely cautious in using exact match keywords and why. I think for some situations, it may be impossible for you to get results on Google at all or using exact match keywords themselves. So stay tuned. I have a lot of teaching to go through here. I'm gonna explain it all from top to bottom, and we're gonna start with this. I want to explain Google's explanation for how exact match keywords work. Okay. This is actual Google documentation that explains how exact match keywords work and how they function. Okay, we're going to go through this. So Google has always used this same example for decades in explaining keywords. They always use this running shoes example. I probably have podcast of using this exact sample example from a decade ago. But we'll use it again because it's in their documentation they discuss how the keyword red running shoes might function. Okay, so red running shoes is the exact match keyword. And Google says that a plural or singular form of that could show. Right, That's. That's an acceptable variation of when the exact match keyword red running shoes could show. Is the. The actual search red running shoe singular. Right. So there's a deviation from your keyword. Right, that's acceptable. Red running shoe. Red running shoes. Okay, everybody on board here. That's probably fine. A minor word reordering is another variation that Google allows for exact match keywords. Running shoes, red. Right. So my puts the descriptive word after. Okay, great placement of the adjective. I'm not too concerned about. Still very much what I'm looking for based on the original keyword. Now we get what's called close variance. Okay. And we're going to talk more about this in a second in the examples, because this is where we get into a lot of trouble. Close variance. The example Google gives is red runners. Red runners. The original keyword was red running shoes. The close variant, you'll notice, is very different from any other example they gave. This one doesn't have any of the original terms except the word red. Red runners. Okay. Right. It doesn't have the word shoes. It wasn't the word running. The word runners. Okay. I don't. I don't. Red runners is kind of weird. I don't know what that means, but okay, great. That's the close variant, match. And then last, Google says they can match your keyword because of implied meaning. So I could type buy red running shoes. Great, okay, yeah, obviously I'm selling red running shoes. Somebody wants to buy red running shoes. That's an acceptable variation, right? Hunky Dory, everything's fine. I'm very happy with this documented variation that Google gives us. And in order to determine this variation, Google tells us signals, they say things like user search context. Right? The context of the user's search helps Google determine the intent of what that search is. Right? So the user types something in Google uses its whatever to derive some kind of context about what the person's actually looking for. Their past searches. And this is a new thing. The third item here is new machine learning models. Okay, that hasn't been around. That's a newer thing and that's perhaps what has caused so much trouble that we're going to talk about today. And then quote, unquote, query meanings. So what, you know what the, what the query, what the search query actually means itself. So how do we wrap all this up? What does all this mean? Exact match, in essence is now intent based, not word based, not character based. Right? It's not based on the words that you type. Red running shoes may or may not be the search that you get. Very largely the case will be it is not the search that you will get, as we'll talk about in a second, because of close match variants that Google really, really pushes. Okay, so we're going to dive into these examples and I'm going to tell you the real facts about how exact match keywords work, what it looks like when you actually run them, and what you can do about it. So stay tuned because I'm going to go through that. Before I do, I want to tell you about the big announcement. If you have not heard, Optio has announced a special offer just for listeners. This is a new thing. This is an exclusive offer to try their new tool that they are launching. This is an early access invite to use their new AI integration into what's become now an Optio power tool with multiple channels. LinkedIn, Meta, Microsoft, TikTok, even where you can interact and chat with your data. It's no longer just a suggestion tool. It's a way to analyze your data, work through your data, get answers to questions in a way that you've never been able to do it before. It integrates directly with your Google Ads account, pumps through all the great things that Optio has always done and now has this power tool aspect to be able to get things done even faster with Opteo. So you can get exclusive access to this very limited offer to try this free before anyone else even gets to try it. You get an invite if you go to optio.com PSP this is a 28 day free trial of this exclusive early offer they are giving. That's O P-T-E-O.com PSP for a free trial. Okay, let's dive in. I'm going to give you four examples of real exact match keywords that have shown in the past month for many of the accounts that I'm working with running for my clients. Okay, so number one, headshot near me. This is an exact match. Obviously this is a photographer looking to do something very specific. Now I'm going to read through these very quickly. I don't want you to pay attention to any one of these individually. More about the context. Remember, this is an exact match keyword. Exact. If someone says the word exact, you assume this. You know, this is a very precise thing and I want to, I want to convey something here. And, and I'll get to it towards the end when I go through these examples. Headshot near me. Got the search. The search terms in the following order. Headshots near me, professional headshots near me Headshot photographer near me Headshot photography headshot near me. Where can I take headshots near me Best Professional headshots near me business headshots near me headshot studio near me photographer for headshots near me photographer headshots near me professional headshot photography near me professional photographer for headshots near me. Right. Okay. It goes on. I read about half of them. But what are you capturing here? Let's go back to what Google told us about. What are the acceptable variations that Google is supposed to give us for exact match? Remember plurals, implied meaning, close variance, minor word reordering. Very few of those have that kind of minor word reordering or implied meaning. Most of those are what's falling under close variance. Okay. And I think the word close is doing a lot of work here. Close variance is. I mean I'm. And you'll see the examples. We're gonna do more Close variance is doing a major stretch here because this, these searches are. I just want to show up for a headshot near me. That's what I want to accomplish here. And yet Google's forcing me to show on hundreds and hundreds of other things. There's more. Let's do a completely different. We'll get into real estate, which I find to be an extremely frustrating industry nowadays. On Google search, the exact match keyword is listing agents near me. Very first most common click I got was real estate offices, brokerage near me. Find a Realtor, finding a real estate agent. How to find a listing agent. And there we go. There's our very first one that actually has the core word that I'm looking for, listing agent. This is important and this is a point that I'll be making later. The problem with Google right now, today, this very issue, is that a real estate agent, a photographer, anyone who has a distinct preference in what they want to show up for are going to have major issues. Because if you want to only show up to people who are looking for a listing agent, right, A realtor that can help them sell their house, right? That's what a listing agent is. Someone who's going to help you list your property, your home, whatever. These searches do not represent that. Even though the original keyword was listing agent near me, the searches were about brokerages and finding a real estate agent. How to find an agent, local realtors, property agents, real estate agencies near me. These are not listing. I want people that want to find a person to sell their home. So let's move on. Let's do another one. You know, maybe, maybe it gets better. It doesn't. But let's pretend, let's go with a completely different industry again, Rent car for Uber. Okay, now this one I picked specifically because there's an industry where Uber drivers can rent their vehicle in order to drive as an Uber driver, right? They can, they can rent a vehicle that's approved by Uber to become a driver for Uber and then, you know, have that, have that car that's specifically for driving their customers around. Okay. So it's very important that you get traffic that is not someone who wants to ride in an Uber car. It's very important that this person is wanting to rent an Uber car for a business purpose. This is a B2B transaction, business to business transaction. So the keyword is rent car for Uber. What do we get? The very first one, the one that I spent the most money on, Uber rental cars. And I know you immediately think, well, that sounds about right. But the problem, the point of this is its exact match. Why didn't I get rent car for Uber? And you'll see that that's extremely underrepresented. Underrepresented in this list. I'll get to it in a second. But the Very first one is Uber rental cars. Next one, Uber car rental. Uber car rental near me. Uber rentals. Uber cars for rent. There we go. Uber cars for rent. That's the first one, right? The for, you know, for rent is a great indicator of the intent of the person. Right? For the purpose of rental is what I'm looking for. Not just rental cars or car rental. I don't entirely know what the person means by it. But you know, in English when you say for something, for the purpose of something, it's much more clear. And that's the traffic that I want and I cannot get it, I cannot get is impossible because of this close match variant which has been around for a long time. But I think more precisely it is the machine learning module, let me say that again, machine learning model, not module model that has creeped into this, which I think is causing a lot of issues, which I'll get into in just a minute about what I think is happening and what the solution might be or lack of solution might be here. Let's, let's do one more. Let's do one, let's, let's change industries again. And this is one that, that has seen major declines. I found the industry is greatly suffering. I find in Google it is the, in home nursing services, you know, senior care type of thing where people you know, can, can offer services for seniors in their home and you know, home care, things like that. So the keyword is, and this is an important keyword, the nuance in this keyword is important, which I want Google to pay attention to and get me that traffic. The keyword is in home nurse care. Okay, so what does Google get me? Home health care, home care nurse, home health aides, home health aid agency. That's a stretch. Doesn't even have nurse or the word care or anything in it. Home health care services, home in care services. That's. You see what I'm looking for. I want in home, in my home, I want people that are in, that are wanting to hire someone to come to their house, their parents, their grandparents house, to do in home care. Yet I'm just getting home care and home health aides, right? And you say, well Chris, these are still relevant, you know, these are still somewhat close to what you're looking for. The problem is the nuance. If you've spent thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars on Google Ads, you're not going to be real patient with Google's close match variant. Bullcrap. Gonna be sick of it. Because you want the traffic. You want because you know what you want. Who's the business owner here? Does Google know better than me? Does Google know better than my client about what kind of clientele will convert for them or will be worth something for them? Does Google know or do I know? Do I not have the right. Is it no longer possible for me to be able to say in home nurse care and get that traffic? So I'm going to. That's the four examples I'm going to go through and I'm going to discuss what we learned from this, what conclusions we can draw. Right after I quickly tell you about Optio again, please check out their amazing new AI integration tool. It is the is not just for recommendations anymore. This tool has grown. It is something that many people have grown to love and use every day in their Google Ads account and now it's notched up to a new level. This is a whole new thing. And now it's not just for Google Ads anymore. If you have other channels, the power of Optio is now in LinkedIn, Meta, Microsoft, TikTok. It is an amazing power tool that they're growing. You can get free access, early access to the tool at the link in the description. That's optio.com PSP that's an exclusive link. Use the chat box to get them to give you that free offer by saying, hey, heard about the podcast offer. Can I get in? Boom. And you'll be in. Okay, so what do we learn from these examples? Well, the fact is is in my testing I've found the less Google understands your keywords or what it is that you're looking for, the worse the matching of the search terms. That could be a major factor for many people listening to this podcast. Now if you sell something that Google doesn't really understand, it's a niche. It's kind of in a gray area between two bigger industries. And you're kind of right in between. Right. Like the example of the Uber driver thing. Right. I cannot be B2C. It cannot be someone looking to hire an Uber driver. And it can't just be rental cars. It has to be someone want to wanting to rent an a car for the purpose of driving for Uber. That is a gray area right in between. And the less Google understands this niche, this middle ground, the worse the search terms will be. Why? I think it's because of this machine learning system. The close match variant combined with machine learning is absolutely decimating our ability to control our traffic quality. And I'm talking about exact match keywords because why would I Gripe about broad match or phrase match. Right. Those aren't designed in the same way that exact match was. So for those that are in really specific industries and want to get something really specific out of Google traffic, it may be impossible for you. It may be a losing battle. It can be very frustrating. You could waste a lot of money. Okay. Because this intent based type of interpretation of the searches, niche markets don't work very well. Google's going to look at the intent, they're going to see that person's search and say, oh, this person's looking for this, which matches to Joe's keyword. And Joe didn't want that traffic because no, their intent is not what I want. You're interpreting the intent of what my keyword means and the intent of the user's search is. And now we have two, two levels of deviation before I end up paying for that click. And by the time that happens, I've lost the value of that search. That search is no longer what I'm looking for. That's not intent driven. That's something else. I wasn't looking for that. I just wasted money. Google, you just spent my money on something I didn't want. So what does this mean? It means it takes longer for you to get results. It takes longer because you have to block unwanted searches. You have to, you have to spend more money to get what you're looking for because you have to essentially go through all the stuff you don't want to get the stuff that you do want. Now, if you're new to Google Ads, you might say, well, that's, yeah, okay. I mean, everything takes time to optimize. No, no, because jump back seven years and you could put in an exact match keyword and get that exact traffic that is gone. That is dead. I wish it would come back. I wish there was a Google Ads 2.0 to say, hey, you know, if you want the old retro Google Ads, you can sign up for it here. But you know, if you want to keep what you're doing, you know, that would be amazing. But instead we're forced to use this language, learning close match variant bullcrap. That wastes an incredible amount of money. So, so what do we learn? What we learned from this? So I'm being, I mean, I realize my podcast have been very negative lately, but I am serious. I think Google's taking a, a very deadly turn here. And I think some industries may never be profitable again. If you're in an industry where you struggle to have, have Google interpret and define what kind of traffic it is that you want, you may never be able to be profitable on Google, for example, real estate home services that I've talked about, I mean, the example in my keywords photography, you may be suffering immensely from the lack of precision in your traffic to the point that it is Google is no longer a viable option for you. And I got more bad news. Exact match keywords cost more because there's a higher CPC threshold. So essentially it costs more for an exact match keyword to make it to the level of getting an impression, right? So if you use a broad match, it may not cost as much to get an impression, but exact match if you want to. If you have the audacity, if you have the audacity to use an exact match keyword, well, you have to pay more because you know that's, that costs more, right? So now you're spending more money, you get less control. What does that equal? Well, it's just unprofitable. It just doesn't work. So I do think that there's plenty of opportunities for some industries to have successful Google Ads campaigns. But I think there are some industries that absolutely should probably move on. I've talked about this with home services because I wanted to take a definitive industry and just latch on and say, I think this bigger industry, the home services industry, is suffering and may never come back. Some industries absolutely may work because here's the final point. Here's why some industries may be able to continue to succeed and some industries will be doomed to fail on Google Ads. You ready? Your success depends on Google's understanding of the user's intent. And your keywords and your knowledge of the tool in the industry does not improve your success on Google Ads because it now relies on Google's interpretation of the intent. Right? If you can't see me, I did air quotes there. Intent. I'm going to say that one more time because you have to understand that the double layer of deviation that we're dealing with, where Google interprets the keyword and interprets the search term and then puts those together in the end, it's a gray mesh of soupy confusion. So now, what used to be the ability for you to understand the Google Ads tool, learn how to use it to get the traffic that you know you need, because you know what your, your client should be searching, right? They should be searching a certain way. So you build your Google Ads campaign to get that specific niche of traffic. Your success now depends on Google's understanding of that traffic that you want. And if Google doesn't understand it. If Google doesn't know it, then your account may never succeed. Not because you're not good at Google Ads, not because you don't understand Google Ads, but because Google doesn't understand what you want and it doesn't think that that traffic exists or is valuable or is what you're looking for. So it gets you other things. And I think that will be the death of many businesses on Google Ads, which I think is a very sad, sad day. There's nothing like Google Ads advertising. It is the only place that you can find in the moment traffic that is ready to purchase, buy, call, whatever in that exact moment. There's nothing like it. And at least for now, there's nothing like it. But because of this intent based language learning model stuff, we can no longer, we can no longer replicate the traffic that we're looking for to the precision that we need. And that is all I have to say on that. I'll leave it there today. Thank you guys. I'll catch you next week.