In paid search marketing, users searching on specific
keywords will trigger ads by advertisers who have indicated those keywords are
relevant to their business by participating in the auction on those terms.
Beyond just bidding, though, there are many variables that come into play which
you can use to tactically enhance the effectiveness of your online campaigns.
One of the most important tactics to understand as a search
engine marketer is how keyword match types work.
Let’s say your advertiser is a bank who offers a special
high-yield checking account that they’d like to let consumers know about. The
actual phrase high yield checking account might only get a few thousand
searches a month. So, how do you reach those users? Well, by default, when you
initially load up your keywords into Google and other search engine marketing
platforms, they are set on broad match. What this means is that if any of those
terms appears in a user query, it could possibly trigger your ad. So, a user searching
on checking account, high yield checking or high yield account might be served
your ad. In addition, Google has expanded broad match to include synonyms or
common related words, so your ad might even be served when users search for top
interest savings.
Because high yield checking account is a bit too narrow of a
term to generate the kind of impression volume you’re looking for, you might
decide to bid on the keyword checking account because with broad match you’ll
be included in the auction for users who query anything relevant to your
advertiser’s product. However, what this means is that you will also be in the
auctions for checking account scams, account personalized checks, checking
student account, online checking, etc. Are those users really looking for what
your advertiser is selling? You don’t want to waste your budget on any searches
that aren’t relevant to your advertiser’s business. In a pay-per-click
advertising model, it’s almost as important to make sure to not get in front of
the wrong people as it is to get in front of the right people.
Here are the four main keyword matching types as outlined in
Google AdWord’s Help Center using the classic example of the keyword tennis
shoes.
Broad match
In your AdWords console, when you bid on a keyword by simply
typing it with no adornment, your ad may appear when any of the words appear in
a searcher query. This is the default option. If your ad group contained the
keyword “tennis shoes,” your ad would be eligible to appear when a user’s search
query contained either or both words “tennis” and “shoes” in any order, and
possibly along with other terms. Your ads could also show for singular/plural
forms, synonyms, and other relevant variations.
With broad match selected, ads may show on searches for
tennis, shoes, buy tennis shoes, tennis shoe photos, running shoes, tennis
sneakers, and so on.
Phrase match
In your AdWords console, when you bid on a keyword and
include it in quotation marks, as in “tennis shoes,” your ad is be eligible to
appear only when a user searches on the phrase tennis shoes, with the words in
that order. However, your ad can also appear for searches that contain other
terms as long as it includes the exact phrase you’ve specified.
With phrase match selected, ads may show on searches for red
tennis shoes, buy tennis shoes, tennis shoes photo and so on.
Ads won’t show on searches for shoes for tennis, tennis
shoe, tennis sneakers and so on.
Exact match
In your AdWords console, when you bid on a keyword and
surround your keywords in brackets—such as [tennis shoes]—your ad will only
appear when a user searches for the specific phrase “tennis shoes” with the
words in that order, and without any other terms in the query.
Ads won’t show on searches for red tennis shoes, tennis
shoe, buy tennis shoes and so on.
Negative match
In your AdWords console, when you bid on a keyword like
“tennis shoes” (with any of the above three match types) and you add the
negative keyword “-used,” (with a minus sign, indicating it is negative) your
ad will not appear for any searches that contain the word “used”
With negative match combined with another match type
selected, ads may show on searches for tennis shoes, buy tennis shoes, tennis
and so on.
Ads won’t show on searches for used tennis shoes, shoe used
for tennis and so on.
In Summary
Your account can contain the same keywords using each of the
three main match types. Certainly, there will be a difference in performance
for a term such as checking account on broad, phrase, or exact match. Just
remember, in most cases, the more narrow your match type, the fewer times your
ad will appear. There’s a good chance that your overall traffic could
significantly decrease if you many of your keywords don’t use the default broad
match and do use phrase or exact match. On the flip side, by casting a smaller
net, the chance of your keywords being more relevant to users may increase
dramatically.
Using match types to your advantage is tried and true tactic
that search marketers have used for years. Get too broad and you bring in the
wrong kind of users. Get too narrowly focused and you fail to reach users who
are searching for you but not using the terms in your account. It may take some
time for you to really learn how to use keyword match types appropriately, but
make sure you do not neglect them for your long-term SEM strategy.
Google’s new modifiers for broad match (not yet in the U.S.)
This is a relatively new way to handle match type and the
full explanation can be found here. Basically, many search marketers found that
Google’s broad match was “a bit too broad” and felt that they were losing a bit
of the control with that match type on too many synonyms and related terms. To
address this issue, in the UK and Canada Google is testing a feature which
allows you to specify which words in a broad match phrase are most important to
the advertiser. According to the Google AdWords help article:
You implement the modifier by putting a plus symbol (+) directly in front of one or more words in a broad match keyword. Each word preceded by a + must appear in the user’s search exactly or as a close variant. Close variants include misspellings, singular/plural forms, abbreviations and acronyms, and stemming variations (like floor and flooring). Synonyms (like “quick” and “fast”) and related searches (like “flowers” and “tulips”) are not considered close variants.
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