Automatic matching is an optional feature that helps your ads reach targeted traffic missed by your keywords. It works by analyzing the ads, keywords, and landing pages in your ad group. It then shows your ads on search queries relevant to this information.
The system will continually monitor your performance on these queries and adjust its matches accordingly. Automatic matching aims to show your ads only on queries that yield a clickthrough rate (CTR) and a cost-per-click (CPC) comparable to or better than your ad group's current average CPC. This way, your ads receive additional targeted traffic at a similar cost to your current traffic.
Automatic matching won't allow your spend to exceed your budget, and it also won't affect the traffic you're currently receiving. For example, say your campaign's daily budget is $10, and on average you accrue $8 in traffic in a day. The automatic matching system may add $1 of relevant traffic per day, meaning it will not prevent your ads from accruing the traffic it normally does. Note also that automatic matching will not affect your campaigns if they already capture the majority of relevant traffic.
Here are a few more details about the feature:
- Opting in: Automatic matching won't bring your campaign additional relevant traffic unless you opt in on the Campaign Settings page.
- Google Network: Automatic matching does not affect your ad delivery on the Content Network. It does affect your ad delivery on Google and the Search Network.
- Quality Score: The traffic accrued by automatic matching won't affect your keywords' Quality Scores.
- Ad position: When ranking your ads on search queries acquired through automatic matching, the cost-per-click (CPC) bid will approximate the current average CPC of your ad group. Learn more about ad position for automatic matching.
- Performance statistics: Aggregated performance statistics for automatic matching will appear in each ad group's Keywords tab, in a line item labeled Automatic Matching.
- Search Query Performance report: You can see the search queries that triggered your ads due to automatic matching by running a Search Query Performance report. The queries will be labeled Automatic in the Search Query Match Type column.
See a list of frequently asked questions about automatic matching.
