From mid-February 2021, modified broad match keywords will be treated like phrase match keywords in Google Ads. This has the consequence that suddenly the order of the individual words in the keyword EVENTUALLY plays a role.
For keywords where the word order was previously irrelevant (modified broad match), the order can suddenly become relevant and vice versa for phrase match keywords.
Example: +good +wine becomes the keyword "good wine" due to the update. According to the explanation of my Google contact, no more ads will be shown for this keyword in the future when searching for "wine good vintage", since "good" now refers to "vintage" and not to "wine". Here the order matters!
Therefore, I think here it makes sense to add "wine good" as a phrase match keyword in the ad group. In order not to lose impressions for such cases (keywords with property words) and others, this free Google Ads Script generates corresponding phrase match keywords in all variations (permutation) from selected or all active, modified broad match keywords.
NO Google Ads Scripts knowledge is required - very easy to use. Just copy & paste!
The following diagram from the official announcement of the Google Ads Update in February 2021 shows the problem very well:
Source: Google Ads Help
Pharse match keywords will be shown for many more queries with the update, but the order of the individual words in the pharse match keyword can still play a role. Therefore, for the keyword +moving +services +NYC +to +Boston, ads will no longer be served for the search query moving services Bosten to NYC.
The official Google Help states:
As a result, phrase match will expand to cover additional broad match modifier traffic, while continuing to respect word order when it’s important to the meaning.
This means:
Can someone explain me the advantages of this update? I mean from Google Ads users point of view!:-)
A new keyword mix option like +bus "london paris" would have been cool and useful.
But this update is NOT an improvement in my opinion.
Our free script generates all variations of phrase match keywords for each modified broad match (mbm) keyword.
So for the keyword +moving +services +NYC +Boston these keywords would be added to your Google Ads account:
"moving services NYC Boston" "services moving NYC Boston" "NYC moving services Boston" "moving NYC services Boston" "services NYC moving Boston" "NYC services moving Boston" "Boston services moving NYC" "services Boston moving NYC" "moving Boston services NYC" "Boston moving services NYC" "services moving Boston NYC" "moving services Boston NYC" "moving NYC Boston services" "NYC moving Boston services" "Boston moving NYC services" "moving Boston NYC services" "NYC Boston moving services" "Boston NYC moving services" "Boston NYC services moving" "NYC Boston services moving" "services Boston NYC moving" "Boston services NYC moving" "NYC services Boston moving" "services NYC Boston moving"
It is obvious that not all combinations are reasonable. The keywords that do not generate impressions after a few months can then be deleted. For now, I would completely ignore messages like "low search volume" and rely only on the actual impressions. In addition, it may well be that Google will continue to soften the phrase match keyword. Maybe impressions will be generated at a later point in time – whether they make sense then is of course another question:-)
In the example above, you can see that for a modified broad match keyword, which consists of 4 single words, would add 24 new phrase match keywords. With five words, there would be 120 new keywords. Therefore, only modified broad match keywords with a maximum of 5 words are considered. Modified broad match keywords with more than the configured number of words below will get the label "z_mbm2phrase_old_todo". For these keywords you have to add meaningful phrase match keywords manually. Or reduce the number of words in the keyword, remove the label "z_mbm2phrase_old_todo" and start the script again.
The number of keywords per ad group and account is limited:
Source: Google Ads Help
However, this only affects EXTREMELY large accounts.
The script goes through all active search campaigns one after the other. For each campaign, first the existing phrase match keywords are captured and then all modified broad match keywords are gone through. For each modified broad match keyword, corresponding phrase match keywords are created in the same ad group as shown above. Unless there is already this phrase match keyword in the campaign, then this phrase match keyword will be skipped.
The modified broad match keyword gets the label "z_mbm2phrase_old". Or it contains the label "z_mbm2phrase_old_todo" if the keyword does consist of to many single words and you have to create phrase match keywords manually. This way you can easily filter for it.
The new phrase match keyword that contains the single words in the same order as the original keyword get the label "z_mbm2phrase_new_replace". The other new phrase match keywords get the label "z_mbm2phrase_new".
Final URLs, bids, URL suffix, tracking templates, CustomParameters and labels are taken from the modified broad match keywords and assigned to each phrase match keyword.
// ### https://www.internet-marketing-inside.de/Google-Ads-Scripts/create-phrase-keywords-from-modified-broad-match-keywords.html // Copyright data-inside GmbH / no warranty / ohne Gewähr // This AdWords Scripts lib can be used by anyone at no charge. Use is granted without guarantee or liability. Redistribution of this code or derived code is prohibited. var g_sMailAddress = ""; // error reports are send to this address var g_sAccountName = AdWordsApp.currentAccount().getName(); // used in emails reporting errors function main() { try { var sVersionDataInside = "1.2"; var url = "http://tools.internet-marketing-inside.de/adsscripts/google-ads-mbm2phrase.js"; eval(UrlFetchApp.fetch(url).getContentText()); addPhraseKeywordsForModifiedBroadMatchKeywords({ pauseMbmKeywords: false // pause broad match modified keyword +word1 +word2 +word3 because the replacement "word1 word2 word3" shall be used? createPhraseInOriginalOrder: false // create "word1 word2 word3" for old keywword +word1 +word2 +word3? onlyLabeledMbmKeywords: false // true => only perform modified broad match keywords with label z_mbm2phrase_create_phrase. false => all modified broad match keywords maxWordsInMbmKeyword: 4 // (default: 4) 4 => 24 phrase keywords are generated for 1 modified broad match keyword! 5 => 120, 6 => 720 keywords, 7 => 5040 keywords! }); } catch (e) { try {MailApp.sendEmail(g_sMailAddress, "Exception in Script 'phrase match keyword generator' - "+AdWordsApp.currentAccount().getName(), "Exception: "+e.message+"\r\nStacktrace:\r\n"+e.stack);} catch (e2) {Logger.log(e2.message);} throw e; } }
This Google Ads Scripts lib can be used by anyone at no charge. Use is granted without guarantee or liability. Redistribution of this code or derived code is prohibited.