Adwords Negative Matching - 100% perfect?

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Hi,

I received a warning from CJ yesterday that I was bidding on a term "xxxxxxx Catalogue" and they gave the main details of the Ad. I cannot reproduce this problem and a second warning results in 50% reversal of commission! The worst of it is that the Ad Group in question is very low performing, so I may just delete it anyway...

Having looked at my Adwords account, there is only 1 keyword against the ad group and it is not "xxxxxxx Catalogue", but does contain the Catalogue term. The xxxxxxx brand term is also included in my Negative Keyword Matching at the campaign level and always has been.

I have sent an email to Google about this issue, but has anyone seen Negative Matching not working as effectively as it should?

Also, there is always the chance that an Ad has been created from another Adwords account (far fetched I know) to implement my account. I asked if CJ had the raw Adwords URL that was used but, unfortunately, they didn't but will try to if it happens again.

It's a big mystery this one, but one I want to get to the bottom of somehow!

Cheers,

Nick

[Barry]

What could have happened is before their team searched and found your ad they were searching for their brand or brand related terms.

Sometimes google takes into account what was previously searched for when displaying ads and some people don't understand or even know about it.

Ta

Barry

[Brigadoon]

Barry is spot on with this observation.

When you search for a specific term and then look for something completely different you sometimes get ads for both terms appearing on the same page.

It could be a bug in the Adwords system or simply Adwords making one last attempt to tempt you to click on an ad relating to your previous search. Very clever stuff, this Adwords system, I bet it makes money for someone!

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Hi,

Thanks a lot Barry, and Brigadoon, for very interesting and helpful answers.

Hopefully CJ will accept my explanations and wipe the warning slate clean. If CJ provided hard evidence in the first place (a screenshot would be enough) that I was in the wrong, the Adwords team would have the data to investigate why my Ad appeared despite negative matching being applied. As it is, the Adwords team cannot explain why my Ad appeared.

As far as I am concerned, I negative match on the brand term and that complies with the T&Cs as much as possible. I cannot control what Google do, much as I would want to!

Cheers,

Nick

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CJ continue to not accept my explanations, or provide much help except to state that them seeing the offending Ad is proof enough for them. They don't know the date or time and can give me no useful data, except for the Ad Copy. What are affiliates supposed to do? Could even be human error, who knows?

There are also 3 key affiliates that do bid, or not negatively match, or the term I am being warned about. Hopefully CJ pursue that route too and not just go after me when I have not done anything wrong in the first place...

I have never been particularly keen on CJ programmes and am really trying to control my frustration on this issue...

[Barry]

Sorry to hear that they are not willing to listen to you as a business partner and treating you like a small child and that your explaination has been totally disreguarded.

Ta

Baz

[Pete Taylor]

Sorry to hear that they are not willing to listen to you as a business partner and treating you like a small child and that your explaination has been totally disreguarded.

Ta

Baz

As a business partner, the affiliate is below the merchant with some networks.

The people who make money for the networks are actually the affiliates & this point seems to get lost in the fog!