Website Content Grouping and Broad Match Keywords in Google Ads

In early May, a conference was held in midtown Atlanta at the Google offices where digital marketing agencies and Google Ads Account Managers gathered to learn the latest in lead generation for small businesses.

The half-day event featured presentations from the global heads of various departments of Google Ads who each took the attendees on a deep dive into specific topics designed to assist with lead generation for small businesses.

Below we’ll explore some of the interesting items discussed, as well as topics that were not included but may be just as important for small businesses in the quest for quality lead generation.

How Your Website Content Impacts Ad Display Using Broad Match Keywords

There were two presentations that hit on one of the most eye-opening topics of the conference which as the impact of website content on broad match keyword campaigns in Google Ads.

Specifically, the following was revealed:

1. Using its AI engine and tools, Google Ads does crawl and assess your website’s content to assist with displaying ads in broad match keyword campaigns.
2. In addition, it was also revealed that your website content can aid in your ads displaying for search terms that are NOT actively being used in your campaign but are deemed to be relevant by topic by Google Ads.

These findings offer the following items for consideration for any website owner who advertises in Google using broad match keywords:

1. How well is the content on my website organized by topic?
2. Should I consider an overhaul or how my website content, menu, and other elements are architected?
3. If we are paying high costs for some search terms, would adding more content on those topics to our website eventually lower our overall ad costs because more ads would display for related search terms?
4. I should be looking at my top converting pages and measure the inbound conversion paths beginning with search terms.
5. What pieces of content are too thin, or, not valuable enough and could be grouped together with another page to not only add more value to Google Ads but to the user experience as well.

Lead Quality and Google Ads

Lead quality was discussed, and a strong emphasis was placed on conversion tracking, enhanced conversions for web, and enhanced conversions for leads.

The importance of being able to coach Google Ads into learning the most valuable lead type and conversion action for your campaign will help to drive the best possible cost per conversion, click costs, and other important metrics.

Campaign Architecture in Google Ads

In addition to the above topics, a session on proper campaign architecture was  also conducted.  A four-step process was discussed that included steps of campaign creation, learning, and clean up that would better allow the AI engine behind Google Ads to learn the campaign intent, goals, and conversion actions.

Campaign Asset Creation in Google Ads

One of the fun segments of the conference was the discussion of asset creation in Google Ads.  Generative AI through Gemini offered an interesting approach for how campaign assets can be created, modified, and even exported for other uses.  Three key points were made during the discussion:

1. No two images are ever the same.
2. The prompts by which assets are created matter greatly and the more descriptive the prompt, the more detailed the asset will be.
3. Assets created within the Google Ads platform aren’t subject to copyright and thus are allowed for use on other platforms.

Topics That Were Not Discussed But Are of Equal Importance

Quite a bit was covered at the conference and for a half-day event, the team at Google Ads did an excellent job.  Below are some additional topics that assist with lead quality, spam reduction, and overall good account hygiene:

1. Negative keyword management.  Adding negative keywords at the campaign and account levels help to save budget by avoiding wasteful ad clicks and visitor sessions.  In addition, it coaches Google Ads to serve only the most relevant keywords in your campaigns.
2. Geographic inclusion and exclusion.  This may seem like an unnecessary activity for account management but making sure that audiences only in your targeted geography see your advertisements matters.  Without any restrictions in place, it may leave open the possibility of ads being served outside of the areas you are targeting.
3. User location inclusion and exclusion.  For more specific user targeting, making sure that your campaign settings are set to target those in your geographic area versus showing an interest in your geographic area will assist in driving only the most relevant visits to your landing pages.
4. The best bid strategies for various industries.  Bid strategies were touched on during the conference but only very lightly.  It would have been interesting to learn more about the insight Google Ads has gained regarding how industries use Maximized Clicks, Maximized Conversion, Conversion Value, Target Cost Per Acquisition, and Targeted Return on Ad Spend bidding strategies.  Testing these bid strategy types is worth exploring and can unlock significant gains in conversions once the right balance is found.
5. Keyword match types other than broad match for spam reduction.  Broad match keywords are great.  However, if there is a specific brand, service, or product that requires greater targeting then exact match or phrase match keywords are worth exploring.  These can also assist in the reduction of spam or unrelated visits to a website that can sometimes occur with broad match keywords.

In Summary

Overall, the conference in Atlanta was fast paced, well planned, and informative.  The team at Google Ads is planning aggressive moves in the AI space that will also involve measurement of Google Ads performance against other digital advertising activities like social ads.

With the convergence of these measurement tools, AI tools, and the merger of website content into when ads are displayed, Google is creating a platform that will become increasingly valuable for its users and more formidable for its competitors.