“Previous Query” Refinement gets aggressive

by Patrick Altoft on April 14, 2008

Previous Query Refinement is where Google shows different Adwords ads based on your previous search history. So a search for “weather” and then “spain” could result in your search for “spain” showing some weather related adverts.

This is about to become a big deal as Google is rolling this out to the organic results as well as the Adwords results so I decided to take a look at how aggressive it is. What I found was quite surprising. Take a look at the ads appearing when I search for “loans” and then “search engine optimisation”.

Previous Query

Google is showing 5 ads for the subject I am searching for and 4 for “loans”. Interestingly the coveted top result is for “loans” rather than “search engine optimisation”. The Previous Query refinement system isn’t new but I can’t ever remember seeing it in action before which probably means it wasn’t as aggressive as this.

I wonder what the CTR is on ads that are not related to the current search?

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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

Damien van Holten 14 Apr 2008 at 11:35 am: I think in most cases the CTR is fine. Since Google assumes people are refining their searches in the same general direction (loans -> cheap loans).

However, if I would build this system I would check for the keyword direction for the current and previous keyword and wouldn’t display ads from previous query’s if they don’t belong together (as seen here with SEO and loans).
Dave 14 Apr 2008 at 2:32 pm: When I covered the patents recently (last summer) released pertaining to query refinement and user performance metrics I researched and played with a variety of approaches to find it indeed was fairly prevalent.

More here on the actual patent; http://www.reliable-seo.com/knowledge-base/technical_seo/ad_serving_and_user_performance_metrics.html

I also put a post on this topic (and more links) on the ol Blog (huomah)…. it is the implications for the regular SERPs that is most interesting. Confirmation of the usage of user performance metrics is like a Pandora’s box IMO. If this is the ‘tip’ of the iceberg, what is lurking under the surface.

Dave
kylah16 14 Apr 2008 at 6:43 pm: If they are rolling it out to organic results does this mean that no one will be able to claim top spot for a keyword anymore because it will be constantly changing depending on what the person searched for before?
julien 14 Apr 2008 at 8:17 pm: probably not a coincidence that ‘loans’ is a far more profitable niche than seo consulting.
Judd Exley 15 Apr 2008 at 2:41 am: Like most things with the Googlemonster, I’m sure it’ll get smarter over time.

For now, I shudder to think of what will happen when my wife sits down to search for the nearest carpet store here in Perth and gets ads for clown pr0n.

I keed, I would never Google that kind of thing. The results are rubbish anyway.