Google Campaign Optimizer: "These Go To Eleven"

Who doesn't remember the scene from Spinal Tap with the amplifiers that go not to ten, but to eleven? Well, Google has apparently learned to apply a similar tactic with the release of its Campaign Optimizer tool today. SEL has covered it already, but for redundancy's sake it's an automated tool that spits out suggestions to advertisers for how they can enhance their already running campaigns. Typical suggestions:

* Change [read: increase] daily budget
* Add new keywords [never will the system suggest eliminating keywords]
* Change keyword matching options [always to broader, more expansive match types such as Phrase & Broad Match]
* Adjust keyword maximum cost-per-click bid [upwards, of course]
* Change ad text

GOOG will undoubtedly get some uptake from small to midsize advertisers who don't know better, but this makes no more sense for the advertiser than do amplifiers that 'go to eleven'. Decisions on daily budget, match types, keyword addition/deletion, campaign structure, CPC and ad copy are best made by inhouse or SEM agency teams that can look at both cost *and* revenue/margin data.

That said, however, bravo to the folks at the 'Plex for pulling a play from the Spinal Tap book.