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Scrubbing Search Terms In Google Ads | SEO Idaho™
Let’s face it, there are not many Google Ads marketers who enjoy scrubbing search terms on a daily basis, right? Of course not, it’s boring, mundane, and gets old extremely fast. Especially when you’re having to Google every search term to make sure whether it’s relevant or not, or service based or product based. The last thing we want to do is to scrub (negative) a highly relevant search term. Sometimes it’s tricky, especially when acronyms are used and even singular or plural terms can make a big difference. Sure, we know what our clients’ businesses are but it’s hard to be an expert in every industry.
Having gotten that out of the way, we all know how important it is to scrub search terms to not only save our clients money, (how cringeworthy is it when you see a completely irrelevant search term that costs $40+ a click?), but it also teaches Google’s AI what we’re really wanting to target with our ads. There are some industries that Google seems to really struggle with, showing a lot of their ads with irrelevant search terms. Every Google Ads marketer knows what it’s like to have Google showing your ads for product based search terms when the client is service based only.
As a matter of fact we currently have such a client. It seems Google is insistent on putting this particular client in a product based category when the client is clearly 100% service based, having zero mentions or information on their website about any type of product. This led to us having to scrub the search terms almost every day in the first few months. After a while it started to work and it seems Google’s AI finally got the hint and started showing their ads more relevantly for the service based keywords we've been targeting all along. It’s still a fight but one we seem to be winning as long as we scrub and scrub.
It’s frustrating seeing your local service based client competing against Amazon for product based search terms but we know Google is still improving and their algorithms are getting better and better. If you’ve been doing Google Ads for more than 10 years you'll know exactly what I’m talking about.
Having gotten that out of the way, we all know how important it is to scrub search terms to not only save our clients money, (how cringeworthy is it when you see a completely irrelevant search term that costs $40+ a click?), but it also teaches Google’s AI what we’re really wanting to target with our ads. There are some industries that Google seems to really struggle with, showing a lot of their ads with irrelevant search terms. Every Google Ads marketer knows what it’s like to have Google showing your ads for product based search terms when the client is service based only.
As a matter of fact we currently have such a client. It seems Google is insistent on putting this particular client in a product based category when the client is clearly 100% service based, having zero mentions or information on their website about any type of product. This led to us having to scrub the search terms almost every day in the first few months. After a while it started to work and it seems Google’s AI finally got the hint and started showing their ads more relevantly for the service based keywords we've been targeting all along. It’s still a fight but one we seem to be winning as long as we scrub and scrub.
It’s frustrating seeing your local service based client competing against Amazon for product based search terms but we know Google is still improving and their algorithms are getting better and better. If you’ve been doing Google Ads for more than 10 years you'll know exactly what I’m talking about.
One piece of advice if you’re not doing it already is when in doubt copy the search term and paste it into Google, this will show you exactly how Google views the term. There’s been plenty of times I thought the keyword was one thing and Google viewed it completely different. I seem to do this a lot with local-based service companies, every now and then you’ll be amazed as to what Google’s definition of the term is.
Continue scrubbing those terms, it seems to be a never ending battle but one you'll win with time and persistence.
If you're looking for a company who are experts in Google Ads, have integrity, and put in the elbow grease then contact SEO Idaho™ today. We take pride in our work and you'll get 100% transparency from us. We're based in Boise, Idaho.
Continue scrubbing those terms, it seems to be a never ending battle but one you'll win with time and persistence.
If you're looking for a company who are experts in Google Ads, have integrity, and put in the elbow grease then contact SEO Idaho™ today. We take pride in our work and you'll get 100% transparency from us. We're based in Boise, Idaho.