How An Alphabet Became a Negative Keyword?

No, it isn’t about the English language alphabet, but about the company ‘Alphabet‘. Earlier this month Google announced the formation of their parent company which they lovingly named Alphabet. Not much was realized until a few small scale companies also named Alphabet started facing the brunt of this step.

Daniel Keane, owner of Alphabet Signs said:

It was my typical Monday. Very busy, working in the middle of the day. I do a search, and I see Google is now Alphabet. I’m like, is this a joke or something?”

Alphabet Signs, a Pennsylvania based company, noticed a steep drop in their traffic post the announcement. Though the decline could have been seasonal or merely a coincidence, but statistics proved that it was as a result of Google’s new company announcement.

Seeing the impact it was having on their business, the team took some difficult decisions. They blocked broader terms such as Alphabet and relevant terms such as ‘Alphabet Post’ from showing their PPC ad. That was a wise step. How? They ended up saving money on irrelevant search queries that intended to search about Google’s Alphabet.

Though the announcement might have shaken a few especially the ones who share the same name, but thanks to the controllable Google Ads platform, these companies saved themselves from depleting their PPC budget.

This instance teaches us some quick things:

1. Search about your company and brand on search engine platforms regularly
2. All irrelevant terms discovered should be analyzed and added as negative keywords
3. Negative keywords are indispensable and needs regular reviewing for a sustainable performance
4. Spend Time or use automation tools for negative keyword discovery.

Note: Karooya’s Negative Keywords Tool is now Free for accounts with ad spend less than $10,000 per month. Save 10-20% of your search ad spend for free. Sign up and start saving your ad budget now.

Daniel Keane summed up saying

The way that users search today and the way Google has developed its AI, it can easily discern queries for signs from search.  At worst, I may have to keep a close eye on my keywords and maybe add a negative exact match my brand name. I don’t want to accidentally create Google ads to promote Mr. Page and Mr. Brin!

You can read the Huffington Post article on the same here and the post by Daniel Keane here

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