Google has selected Moore & Scarry Advertising to beta test a new feature in Adwords, their search engine marketing platform which dominates with a 70% search engine market share. The new feature is an advancement to the ‘broad’ keyword match. Currently, keywords set to match ‘broad’ terms leave the advertiser little control over the searches that they show up in.

For example, let’s say we target the keyword ‘honda vehicles.’ A user searches for ‘gullwing motorcycles’ and Google knows that honda makes gullwing and a motorcycle is a vehicle, so it displays our ad. Clearly, as an automotive advertiser, we missed our mark. In the past, this would require lots of negative keywords or a workaround.

Now with the Broad Match Modifier that Google is beta testing with Moore & Scarry, we can use a ‘+’ to tell Google to closely match broad search terms. For example, if we target ‘+honda +vehicles’ (the plus signs denote the new advanced feature), Google will only return results that closely match our search, such as honda cars, honda trucks, honda vehicles, etc.

“This advanced feature will allow [Moore & Scarry Advertising] to have a much higher degree of control in regard to our paid search. This will eliminate a lot of non-relevant clicks and traffic. In the examples we just gave, we’ll remove all the traffic for people looking for Honda motorcycles, scooters and lawnmovers by simply adding a plus sign. It’s a much better option and we’re glad Google’s testing it with us,” said Annemarie Wheeler, a search strategist at Moore & Scarry Advertising.

Moore & Scarry Advertising has pioneered single-keyword phrase matching as a work-around to Google’s ambiguous broad matching system. This new feature, in combination with Moore & Scarry’s arsenal of search tools, will help our clients draw more relevant traffic for a better overall ROI.