We've seen it before. Google testing out features and their cover is blown by a blogger with a keen eye and too much time. No its not me, I am only the blogger in this case. A fellow PPC friend of mine, Clay, pointed out a top secret Google test. Ok ok, its not top secret but I suppose many paid search people such as myself were not aware this is happening until we look a little closer.

Google has begun testing out expanded relevance among Adwords ads. Now, I haven't seen this widespread yet but after it was pointed out to me I have begun to notice it happening a little in my accounts. Bidding on a word with broad match but having your ad shown on a completely different (but relevant) word. For example if you bid on the keyword "hire" you may see your ad shown for the word "jobs".

Don't believe me, here are some screenshots of a reliable stats tracking package recording the user query for "Kellie Pickler" but showing the ad for "American Idol." For those of you who may not be American Idol fans (or at least those who won't admit it it publicly), Kellie Pickler was a contestant on last seasons' American Idol, a hit star search type show on Fox. The keyword "Kellie Pickler" was nowhere in the account but yet the 'American Idol' ad was triggered. Also notice the misspellings, which triggered ads to show as well.

See the first image here which shows the term being bid on "American Idol" in Google:

And when we expand on the term we get this image:

Everything was double checked to insure there were no errors in setup, tracking or anywhere else. Not only can we conclude that Google is testing out expanded relevancy, it is also a solid confirmation to everyone that a good tracking system is of utmost importance.

PS - Hey Google, we caught ya!

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