Match type is the possibility to determine when ads will show for a particular keyword. There are 3 different match types: broad, phrase or exact. Let’s take an example with the keyword Copper Jewellery.
Broad match
Setting it as broad match means that your ads can appear if someone types Blue Copper Hand-Made Jewellery. As long as the 2 words from your expression are found in the search query your ad can appear. Any number of other words can be added.
Phrase match
Phrase match means that your ad will only appear if the exact expression has been typed in Google or if words have been added before or after the expression. For example your ad can appear if someone types in Cheap Copper Jewellery Basildon. Your keywords need to be delimited by single quotes like this: ‘copper jewellery’.
Exact match
Your expression is delimited by square brackets [copper jewellery] – means you only want ads to appear for this exact combination of keywords. If additional keywords are typed in or the query is not exactly as you specified your ads won’t appear.
Synonyms or Broad Match Modifier
Google also introduced a feature where your ads can appear for synonyms of the keywords you bought no matter what match type they are. This can sometimes lead to mixed results so in order to avoid this, simply insert a + before the keyword. For example if you don’t want ads to show for broad synonyms of jewellery, simply type your expression this way: copper +jewellery. Google will then only show your ads for close variants of the word jewellery.
What match types should you use?
When starting a Google Adwords campaign it is recommended to use broad match and exclude synonyms. This will allow you to be seen for keywords you had not
necessarily thought of and to get a good volume of traffic. You should however be careful with broad match as it can quickly lead to big spends.
To avoid this just set up a low daily budget while you’re running your campaigns on broad match. After a few days or weeks, go into your adgroups and check the search terms.
This is a very useful feature on Google Adwords where you can see the exact search terms that have triggered your ads over a period of time. You will get the same information you get for your regular keywords, including CTR, impressions and CPA.
Anytime you see a search term that’s performing well, simply add it to your adgroup. If it’s a short tail keyword (usually an expression with 2 or less keywords) it is recommended to add it as an exact match, if a long tail one add it as a broad match. You will also find some irrelevant search terms, these will help you build your list of negative keywords.
Once you have gathered enough stats on your campaigns you can start playing with match types. If for example you have identified a keyword with a high volume of impressions and good conversion rate, add it as an exact match. Keep the broad expression too in a separate adgroup with a limited budget.
