Last Updated on 2020-12-26 by ppcguybklyn
A common misconception for beginners of PPC marketing is that we only need to add the keywords from our keyword research to the ad campaigns and we are done. However, to fully utilize the potential of search ads, choosing the right keyword match type is as important as picking keywords. As paid search specialists, it is our responsibility to understand which match type can reach our campaign goal. In this article, I will introduce the basics of keyword match types, how they work and the principle of using them.
Broad Match
If we don’t specify before adding a keyword, the default option of keyword match type is broad match. As the name suggests, this match type is designed to broadly match all the search terms that are related to our keyword to serve our ads. This will include similar words, plural words, misspelling words and other relevant words in a search query. Because of this attribute, broad matches can easily bring a lot of irrelevant search traffic into our landing pages, resulting in high cost, low conversion rate and low quality score. This makes finding the best combination of broad keywords and ad copies more time consuming and it’s one of the reasons why most people in PPC don’t use broad match type in their ad campaigns.
Broad Match Modifier
To make up for the downside of Broad Match, we could use Broad Match Modifier. By adding a plus sign in front of our Broad keyword, the system will make sure the matched search result includes the word with the plus sign or the close variant of that word. In other words, if our broad keyword consists of two to three words, we could add plus sign to one of the words to ensure the accuracy of the keyword matching.
Phrase
Phrase Match is a match type that is more accurate than Broad Match. To use Phrase Match we will have to add quotation marks “ ” at the beginning and the end of the phrase we want to target to let Google Ads know we are using Phrase Match. The search term of our audience must include the phrase we are targeting to be matched with our keywords and be served with our search ads. The biggest strength of Phrase Match is the ability to target users who like to search with more conversational phrasing with multiple words. As long as these long search queries include our Phrase Match keywords. they could be the target of our ads. Phrase Match keywords typically have higher CTR than Broad Match keywords, but they also have the problem of bringing in irvelant traffic due to the nature of its keyword matching. Therefore we still have to pick our Phrase Match keywords carefully to avoid incremental cost.
Exact
Exact Match keywords are the must accurate keywords among all the match types. To use Exact keywords we have to put brackets [ ] at the beginning and the end of our target keywords to let Google Ads know that we are using Exact Match. The search query of our target audience must be exactly the same as our Exact Match keywords to be shown our ads. When we are certain that our target audience will always search for the keywords we pick without the help of Broad or Phrase Match to broaden our reach, it would be the perfect timing to use Exact Match. Exact Match keywords have the highest CTR among all match types but bring in the lowest traffic due to the match type’s constraint. If our goal is to maximize efficiency, then Exact Match would be our best choice. But if our goal is to raise brand awareness, then we would have to also use Phrase and Broad Match to go after higher traffic.
Close Variant
In Google’s previousupdatethey introduced the concept of close variant, which are words that have close meanings or misspellings of our keywords. After the update our Exact Match keywords will include close variants, only not as broad as Phrase Match. “Since Exact Match will cover close variants, does this mean we only have to use Exact Match from now on? “ One might ask. Not necessarily, the reach of Exact Match’s close variants still has its limit, so we cannot only rely on Exact Match when we are at the early stage of discovering effective keywords. Phrase Match and Broad Match are still needed in order to find more useful keywords.
Below are some examples of each Match Type from Google Ads support:
| Match Type | Keywords | Ads may show on searches that contain: | Searches that will not show ads |
| Broad Match Modifier | +men + shoes | discounted men shoes fashion shoes for men shoes for men men shoes and socks | men’s socks children’s coach |
| Phrase Match | “tennis shoes” | Red Suede Tennis Shoes Buy discounted tennis shoes Red tennis shoes | shoes for tennis Tennis training shoes Shoe laces |
| Exact Match | [Men’s Shoes] | Shoes mens Mens shoes men shoes shoes for men | men’s red shoes buy men shoes |
Negative Keywords
To resolve the issue of irrelevant traffic we mentioned above, we could utilize Google Ads’s useful negative keyword function. After adding the search queries that we don’t want to show ads to as negative keywords, Google Ads will not serve our ads to these keywords or similar search terms. To quickly add negative keywords, we only need to go to the “search term” section under “Keyword”, then choose the irrelevant search terms as negative keywords.
Negative keywords also offer different Match Type options so that we could choose the according Match Type based on our needs. The most important thing while setting up negative keywords is to determine whether to add these negative keywords at Campaign level or Ad Group level.
If we have a series of related keywords that we want to exclude from our ads, then we could use the negative keyword list function. For example, if I don’t want people to see and click on my ads when they are looking for jobs, I could design a list of keywords that are related to job search and add the list as a negative keyword list in my ad campaign. Another benefit of a negative keyword list is that it can be used repeatedly. We can simply add our existing negative keyword list the next time we are creating similar ad campaigns to save us time.
Strategies of using Keyword Match Types
It’s time to put all these knowledge we discussed into use. The follow is the most suitable strategies for Keyword Match Types based on my experiences:
- Use Phrase Match and Broad Match to dig for more keywords
At the very beginning of an ad campaign, we are not certain which keyword can bring us conversion and which keyword to exclude. Therefore, we still need continuous adjustments to find the effective keywords we might miss during our keyword research. This is when Phrase Match and Broad Match come in handy. By using these two Match Types and using Google’s algorithm to match the search terms of our target audience, we will find the keywords that bring many conversions but are not included in our ad campaign.
- Exclude ineffective words while we look for more keywords
Because we are using Phrase and Broad Match to find more keywords, we are bound to attract irrelevant traffic. We must exclude this traffic from our ad campaign using negative keywords to make sure we are spending our money in the right place. If we find a pattern of these negative keywords, we could consider using negative keyword list to make our work more efficient
- Use Exact Match To Lock In Keywords With High Conversions
After following the previous steps and finding the keywords that can bring us high conversions, we could add them as Exact Keywords to ensure we are only serving ads to these keywords or their close variants. This way we could maintain the efficiency of our ads. But if the keywords we discover have lower search volumes and we need more traffic to bring in more conversions, we could consider switching to other match types.
Conclusion
Maintaining PPC ads is an ongoing process, we must continue to discover and exclude new keywords in order to keep our ad campaigns efficient and profitable. How to use Keyword Match Types and negative keywords to reach this goal is a very important task. Paid search advertising is all about continuous testing and accumulating experiences. And it is the PPC specialist’s job to find the most suitable keywords through these tests in order to achieve the objective of our ads.
