Close Variant Analyzer

Paste your Query/Keyword matching and KPIs (optional)

Paste up to 100.000 Query/Keyword pairs with related KPIs

Delimeter

Use column header names

Analyze how Google’s close variant matching perform in your account

Explore Google’s keyword matching
Paste up to 100,000 Query/Keyword combinations with related KPIs (optional)
Each Query/Keyword combination get a score for their similarity (how it’s done)
Use results for adding negative keywords or understanding why your performance worsen

See your results like this – click image to enlarge:

How does the Close Variant Analyzer work?

1) Paste your data

The first 2 columns should contain keywords and queries, and you can add more metrics as needed. If you only want to focus on close variant matching, you should filter your input data. Of course, you also use it for analyzing phrases, broad or modified broad keyword matches.

2) Download the File

After a few seconds, the report will be ready to download. Your provided data will have one new column. This column will have values from 0 to 100 and describe the similarity between the keyword and queries. The higher score you have, the closer match you will get.

How to use the data for further analysis

What do the worst matches look like?

What is the worst example of a query to keyword match we can find? You’ll find it right away when you sort by the matching score in ascending order.

How does the matching change over time?

By dividing your data to time periods (like week, month, etc.), you can monitor queries and matched keywords in Google side over time.

Feel free to weigh the matching scores with impressions or clicks. This perspective is very interesting for understanding how they force the close variant matches. Exact match keywords seem to be a thing of the past.

Matching Quality vs. Conversion Rate

What does the matching similarity mean for your conversion rate? Based on big numbers, you can group your performance metrics (if you provided them in your data input) to get answers by the matching similarity. If you like, you can create bigger buckets like 0-10, 11-20, …, 91-100 to get even bigger numbers per bucket. Then use the matching score to derive negative keywords.

Extra tip: also score the “not significant” queries that are hidden in Google Ads, but still available in Google Analytics.

Worst Matches of Close Variants

I was quite surprised what google is matching to exact keywords.

Matching Quality over time

Close Variants get more fuzzy over time. Google is forcing this heavily.

Matching Quality vs. Conversion Rate

Poor Close Variant Matches do not convert that well.

How to Clean Close Variant Matches by Using Negative Keywords?

Stefan Neefischer

17 Jan at 8:53 pm

The negative effects of close variant matches on overall performance will lead to more challenges over time. Here is an approach to solve the hidden “not significant” search query problems…

Close Variants Could be the Ultimate Move to Push Smart Bidding into the Market

Stefan Neefischer

11 Jan at 9:49 am

Google seems to have big plans for Smart Bidding. One can expect that they can alter their product in many ways for success. Close variants could be the ultimate move…

Analyzing Close Variant Matches in Google Ads with Python

Stefan Neefischer

8 Jan at 10:13 pm

We have lost exact match keyword and “not significant” queries with the updates in Google Ads. But we can still measure the effects with a smart Python solution. Here’s how.…