{"id":1294,"date":"2025-04-29T21:06:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T19:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nilsrooijmans.com\/daily\/?p=1294"},"modified":"2025-05-07T11:01:27","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T09:01:27","slug":"phrase-match-close-variants-why-your-brand-cpcs-go-through-the-roof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nilsrooijmans.com\/daily\/phrase-match-close-variants-why-your-brand-cpcs-go-through-the-roof","title":{"rendered":"phrase match close variants &amp; why your brand CPCs go through the roof"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I came across a post on LinkedIn today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It made me laugh and cry at the same time:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"626\" height=\"458\" src=\"https:\/\/nilsrooijmans.com\/daily\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/image-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1296\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nilsrooijmans.com\/daily\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/image-1.png 626w, https:\/\/nilsrooijmans.com\/daily\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/image-1-300x219.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It&#8217;s an example of a trend I&#8217;ve spotted in many accounts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Google is increasingly matching our non-brand phrase match keywords to competitor brand searches!&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This also explains why so many of us see an increase in CPCs for our branded keywords. Google matches user queries for our brand to non-brand keywords of our competitors, thus increasing competition in the auction -> higher CPCs, higher spend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What can we do about it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not much, I am afraid. It&#8217;s Google being Google and trying to make some more money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One thing we can do: monitor the auction insights for our brand keywords and ask each and every competitor that shows up to add our brand to their account negatives. (Good luck with that.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What a Google S-show&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8211; Nils<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I came across a post on LinkedIn today. It made me laugh and cry at the same time: It&#8217;s an example of a trend I&#8217;ve spotted in many accounts: Google is increasingly matching our non-brand phrase match keywords to competitor brand searches!&nbsp; This also explains why so many of us see an increase in CPCs &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/nilsrooijmans.com\/daily\/phrase-match-close-variants-why-your-brand-cpcs-go-through-the-roof\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;phrase match close variants &amp; why your brand CPCs go through the roof&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-google-ads"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>phrase match close variants &amp; why your brand CPCs go through the roof - Nils Rooijmans<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nilsrooijmans.com\/daily\/phrase-match-close-variants-why-your-brand-cpcs-go-through-the-roof\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"phrase match close variants &amp; why your brand CPCs go through the roof - Nils Rooijmans\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I came across a post on LinkedIn today. It made me laugh and cry at the same time: It&#8217;s an example of a trend I&#8217;ve spotted in many accounts: Google is increasingly matching our non-brand phrase match keywords to competitor brand searches!&nbsp; This also explains why so many of us see an increase in CPCs &hellip; Continue reading &quot;phrase match close variants &amp; why your brand CPCs go through the roof&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nilsrooijmans.com\/daily\/phrase-match-close-variants-why-your-brand-cpcs-go-through-the-roof\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nils Rooijmans\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-29T19:06:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-07T09:01:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nilsrooijmans.com\/daily\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/image-1.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nils Rooijmans\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nils Rooijmans\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nilsrooijmans.com\/daily\/phrase-match-close-variants-why-your-brand-cpcs-go-through-the-roof#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nilsrooijmans.com\/daily\/phrase-match-close-variants-why-your-brand-cpcs-go-through-the-roof\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nils Rooijmans\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nilsrooijmans.com\/daily\/#\/schema\/person\/645ba0bda90c1467f9d23d332d1f3aa0\"},\"headline\":\"phrase match close variants &amp; 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