What happened to the matching ability on this platform?

Question

I have 20 years of experience in SEM and over the past 2 months our CTRs went from 5-10% to .5%. No exact matches are working anymore and negatives are ignored. What happened that Microsoft has stopped adhering to the FUNDAMENTALS of search marketing? NOTHING IS RELEVANT in our search terms.

We've started pulling our campaigns as not even our brand name will perform well here. There's no sense spending money here - perhaps their AI has **** - artificial stupidity syndrome. Our spend, has gone through the rough - so I can assume it's a money making scheme for Microsoft in the face of their dying market share. Right now, it reeks of fraud.

Google, has been performing exceptionally well, so its not our site our our ads. Perhaps we have a final winner, and the MS advertising platform is dead.

Why was there such a drastic change in the effectiveness and function of this platform??

Answer 1

Hello Joseph Dornoff1,

Thank you for using our Microsoft Advertising Community Forum! 

 I am sorry to hear about the challenge you are currently facing. I would like to offer my support on this matter to find out the root of the problem.

Please be informed that the changes are continuously made to keep up with the advancement, but the base of matching remains the same as it always has been, searching trends have changed and they always change as well however, without checking the account in question, it will not be easy to pinpoint the exact reasons. I will be sending you a direct message asking for some further information and would kindly ask you to reply once you see it

Furthermore, I would like to provide some information about match types and how they work.

Keyword match types help Microsoft Advertising determine how closely you want your keywords to match potential customers' search queries. Keyword match types include broad match, phrase match, and exact match. When your keywords match with search queries, your ads are considered for the ad auction.

See here for information about negative keyword matching.

Based on the keyword match type you choose; your ad will surface on a wide variety of search queries (broad match) or specific search queries (exact match).

Broad match captures all the search queries of narrower match types and more. This means that a broad match keyword will match all the search queries of phrase and exact match keywords, and additional relevant search queries.

You can use auto-bidding strategies to help ensure that you're reaching the right audience at the right time and getting a good return on investment (ROI). Auto-bidding strategies work best with the broad match keyword type because it provides Microsoft AI with a wide variety of search queries that help us learn what bids are best suited for your ads.

Which match type is used?

If you bid on the same keyword on exact and broad match, exact match will take precedence when your ad is displayed. For example, if you bid on both the exact match keyword [red flower] and the broad match keywords red flower or flower, a search on red flower will trigger the exact match and not the broad match. Additionally, exact match is preferred over exact match close variants. Note: If you see "(close variant)" in your search term report in the Match type column, this means that minor variations of your keyword (e.g., misspellings, plurals, same search intent, etc.) triggered your ad to be displayed, so you can maximize relevant matches without having to add all of these variations yourself.

To avoid duplicate reporting, all reports, such as keyword performance reports, will only report the match type that took precedence. In this example, an impression would be reported for the exact match [red flower] and not the broad match flower.

How bids are inherited from one match type to another

Match types are on a spectrum from least restrictive (broad match) to most restrictive (exact match), in this order: Broad match > Phrase match > Exact match.

If you do not specify bids for all match types, bids are inherited from less restrictive match types. So, while bidding on broad match is convenient and easy to manage, bidding on each match type independently gives you greater control and allows performance data to be broken out by match type.

In the absence of a bid, the next less restrictive bid is inherited by the match type without a bid. This means exact match inherits the phrase match bid, and the phrase match inherits the broad match bid. If neither exact match nor phrase match bids are specified, then both match types inherit the broad match bid. This is never reversed: Exact match bids are never applied to a phrase match, and phrase match bids are never applied to a broad match.

Choosing the right match type

When choosing a keyword match type, consider your advertising goals, the audience you're targeting, and make sure to cross-reference your keywords with your bids and budgets. We recommend you use broad match because it can help you reach the best audience for your ads. However, please consider all regulatory policies and risks before using broad match if your ads are for highly regulated industries, such as adult content, financial products and services, gambling/contests, and pharmacy and health care products and services. For all regulatory issues and region-specific policies, please check with your legal team and review our guidelines.

I hope the information provided here will at least partly answer your question. Also, our support teams are happy to discuss your account in more detail via phone, chat or email to provide review assistance, please see our support page to reach out! 

Kind regards, 

Marwa | Microsoft Advertising Support Specialist | 800-518-5689