Interesting question on Reddit today:
“I am running a relatively small ad campaign for a local EV Charger installer. The PPC focus is for Commercial enquiries only.
I am targeting phrase match keywords such as “Commercial EV Charging” and “Commercial EV Charger Installations” among others.
The problem is these keywords are pulling in search terms like “EV Charger Installations” as an exact match (close variant). They are removing the commercial element from my keywords.
I am stumped. Even if I change to exact match, these search terms will still show as they are a close enough variant. Is there anything I can do? Can I instruct Google to strictly include the word “commercial” in all search terms?
I’d be reluctant to turn these keywords off, as they have by far the best search volume.
All help much appreciated.“
You gotta love close variants, right?
Here’s my response:
“Tricky B2B challenge here. Not uncommon though. Here’s what I would do:
1. Use a script to auto-negate all but your exact keywords (so every search term that pops up in the SQR is auto-negated unless it exactly matches your exact match keywords)
2. Try to pre-qualify the click via ad copy, i.e., add headline “for Commercial Enquiries Only” (be sure to pin the headlines/descriptions!)
3. Target specific B2B audiences and exclude typical B2C audiences“
– Nils