Beware Broad Match + Dynamic Keyword Insertion

We all know by now that dynamic keyword insertion can be a great tool.  Users are often more likely to click on an ad if it contains the wording that they used in their query, because it suggests a high level of relevance (of course, that relevance only goes as deep as the ad headline, not to the landing page). Recently however, I got a reminder that the technology on its own can lead to some unintended consequences if not carefully monitored.

Shortly after a client released a new promotional offer which we supported in paid search, an ad from a competitor appeared offering the same product.  Of course, this led to all kids of fears about corporate sabotage and bid wars, especially once we discovered that the competitor has no such product on the site anywhere.

To make a long story short, the query was for "category term + offer item" and the competitor was bidding on "cetegory term" on broad match with dynamic keyword insertion, leading to an ad headline that made it look like an ad for a specific promotional product(this is hard when I can't give any actual information out). 

The result is that right now that competitor is providing a terrible user experience, driving users to their site who will be frustrated by what essentially amounts to false advertising/bait and switch tactics.  Even worse, they are paying money to create a bunch of irritated consumers.  Worst of all, they apparently haven't realised that they are doing it, and it has been two weeks.

Example:  You have a company that makes gun racks.  You come up with a boss new gun rack for mounting in that little back window of a pick up truck, so you run on the keyword "pick-up gun rack" with an ad that talks about your product, and leads to your website.  Perfect.

Meanwhile, Chevrolet is bidding on the keyword "pick-up" on broad match, and using dynamic keyword insertion without any negatives.  So when someone types "pick-up gun rack" into Google, they see an ad like:

Pick-Up Gun Rack
Find Out About Big Savings on the 2012 Chevy Silverado Today!
www.Chevrolet.com/Silverado

Users will see this, go to the website, and then realize that they have been duped!  Chevy didn't start making gun racks, they just forgot to have negative keywords around their broad category terms.  They aren't tricking users on purpose, they just didn't consider the risk of dynamic keyword insertion.

As paid search marketers, we need to consider all possible outcomes when using any automated technology like dynamic keyword insertion.  It's easy to become complacent on matters like this, but it highlights how often we need to pull search query reports to scan for trending keywords that we need to add negatives around.  I can say for sure that at least one company hasn't done it in a couple of weeks for a brand, and that it is costing them money and goodwill.

I will be more careful in the future