Google's Controversial AdWords Automatic Matching Goes into Expansion Mood!

“Would be nice to know if this is going to be an opt-in or opt-out feature cause the history on these types of things can often be a "hold on to your wallet" type of situation. The beta that popped up in an account was opt-out if I remember correctly.

It kinda makes one wonder about "quality" and "relevance" vs. pure Google profit when things like this are launched and you start to see the terms that are sending traffic.”

“So, as I've already mentioned automatic matching is not going live on 5/20 as was reported in the original subject line and first post of this thread. Instead, the existing (and very limited) beta is being extended to include a number of additional advertisers.

Bottom line: same beta, more testers, still very limited.

Here are the basic details.

On May 20th, a very small percentage AdWords advertisers will receive an email letting them know that they have the option to beta test automatic matching.

For the purposes of this limited beta, the feature is enabled by default. Please note, however, that automatic matching won't start running in these new beta accounts until June 3rd.

Advertisers being offered the beta option may opt out as early as May 20th (and, of course, at any time thereafter) – and, again, they will not receive any traffic before June 3rd.

Full instructions on how to opt out are provided in the email they will have received. Basically, though, advertisers who wish to opt out will want to uncheck a check box on the 'Edit Campaign Settings' page of each of their campaigns. They will want to do this before June 3rd if they want no automatic traffic at all – or at any point thereafter if they are not pleased with the actual results once they've seen them.

Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about automatic matching: