I was recently introduced to the new Google Automatic Matching facility that Google AdWords customers are being opted into. Its a beta named Automatic Matching that enables surplus budget left in a campaign to be spent as Google sees fit for keywords and phrases that have not been introduced to the current campaign. This means they select additional keywords and generally direct how the money is spent.

Firstly I thought it sounded reasonable on face value but am now well and truly sitting on the fence. How is this going to affect cost per acquisition (CPA)? How will reporting be run / tracked in third party ad systems - which keyphrase did I bid on exactly? I think it will be very interesting to see how many satisfied customers there are and also how much control we have with their overall budget and campaign management.