Niche PPC Phrases Update

September 29, 2008 2:19 pm admin Google Adwords

Following on from my last post about the restrictions on using niche phrases in Google Adwords, I’ve had an interesting discussion with a Google rep.  In a nutshell, the problem is that Adwords won’t allow adverts to be visible when people type what it considers to be particularly niche phrases.  So, if I wanted ‘red widgets with blue spots’ as a phrase to trigger an advert in Google Sponsored Link results, then the Google system would likely tell me that:

The keyword phrase that you have entered has a low search volume and is not showing any of your ads. 

In an ideal world it should really be my choice as an advertiser whether I have an advert appear when a certain phrase is typed, but Google is, apparently, God and so I have to do as I’m told.  Back to the Google rep …

One of the reasons that the Adwords system won’t allow numerous types of (what it considers to be) niche phrases to trigger adverts is that it would be open to abuse by organisations that have the money/resources to abuse the system.   Using widgets as the example, a company could set up numerous weird variations of phrases such as:

• widgets for midgets
• red widgets for churches
• blue widgets with green stripes
• etc.

…. with the sole purpose of attracting clicks from anyone who happened to type those phrases.  Those clicks, because the phrases would be so niche, would be really cheap, and the company would become a regular fixture in the Sponsored Links regardless of what variations people typed on a theme.  This would basically mean that the searcher could be pulled into clicking on an advert that may not actually deliver what they were looking for, which would be a negative experience for the searcher and so make them less likely to click on Sponsored Links in the future (which is a negative for Google).

While I fully understand that Google doesn’t want people to take advantage of the system by creating thousands of niche phrases that don’t result in a positive customer experience, is the answer really to penalise advertisers to the level they currently are?    To take an example, if an IT support company wants to advertise under phrases such as:

• Maidstone PC experts
• Computer support companies Maidstone
• Maidstone PC consultants

… because they can help people with IT problems in the Maidstone area, then surely they should be able to do so?  But no, because the Google system considers such phrases are ‘too niche’ then they’re penalised and instead are faced with advertising using more generic phrases that end up costing a lot more.

The big issue here is that surely the Google system can tell the difference between a major abuser of the system trying to capitalise on cheap clicks, and an advertiser with a limited budget and what is quite obviously a sensible campaign setup?

The answer, unfortunately, is that it’s a lot easier, and more profitable, for Google to stop companies from using niche keyword phrases, than to apply more thinking to the issue and start to understand that smaller companies won’t be able to afford the ever-increasing click costs for certain types of phrases and so will go elsewhere.   When that happens, the Sponsored Links will become purely a directory of those companies that have the deepest pockets and the smaller advertisers (which make up a huge number when their buying power is combined) will have found other ways to advertise their products and services.