Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns are an essential part of any digital marketing strategy. And in the world of PPC, no search engine is more important than Google. With its expansive reach and comprehensive services, Google Ads is a powerful tool for driving traffic to your website and increasing conversions. But before you launch a campaign, it’s important to understand the different match types that can be used for your keywords. In this article, we’ll break down the differences between broad match, phrase match, and exact match so that you can make an informed decision about which type will best suit your needs.
Before we begin, here is an image from Google with their overview:
Broad Match: Broad match allows you to target a wide range of related keywords. This allows your ad to show on searches that are related to the meaning of your keyword, even if the keyword terms are not included in the search. Keep in mind, this is the default match type on Google so beware when setting up new campaigns and know what to expect. That tends to be the biggest issue, new advertisers using broad match not fully understanding what the match types. For your beginner advertiser, just changing from broad to phrase can turn your account around.
To help understand further, this is from Google’s broad match description:
To deliver relevant matches, this match type may also take into account the following:
The user’s recent search activities
The content of the landing page
Other keywords in an ad group to better understand keyword intent
The challenge with this above paragraph is that Smart Bidding doesn’t always work, especially with newer accounts with less data for Google to optimize based on. This is why we don’t recommend starting out with broad match. This is one of many areas where Google thinks their platform is more advanced than it really is.
Broad match can be an effective tool for reaching a large number of potential customers and expanding your visibility, as it allows you to show up in more searches. However, this strategy comes with some risks that must be managed carefully. With broad match, there’s always the risk of irrelevant searches, which can lead to poor quality traffic and wasted impressions and spending. It’s important to consider the goals of the campaign when deciding whether or not to employ broad match; for ecommerce accounts where purchases are the main goal, using it is often beneficial as it doesn’t matter what search term was used leading up to the purchase.
For businesses focused on generating leads or calls, the search term people convert on is incredibly important as it can be the difference between high quality or low quality leads. That’s why we generally only use broad match on more advanced accounts with an automated bidding strategy in place. To avoid this problem, we monitor search terms regularly and adjust them accordingly. Often times this needs to be done daily on newer accounts.
Phrase Match: Phrase match is similar to broad match in that it allows you to target related keywords but with more specificity. Phrase match allows advertisers to reach a wider range of users than exact match and fewer than broad match. It works by displaying ads for searches that include the meaning of a given keyword, even if the search terms are more specific or the meaning is implied. This type of targeting can be a good balance balance of flexibility and control, providing more opportunities to reach potential customers while still allowing advertisers to stay focused on relevant queries. Additionally, this approach can help ensure ads are seen by users who are interested in what you have to offer and have already expressed intention to buy.
This is directly from Google:
Let’s assume that you’ve added the phrase match “moving services NYC to Boston” to your keywords. With phrase match, your ads may show when a user searches for either “affordable moving services NYC to Boston” or “NYC corporate moving services to Boston.” The word order (and the additional emphasis on affordable or corporate moving) won’t affect the display of your ad because it’s clear that the meaning of the keyword is contained in the search: the user is in need of a service to move to and from the same cities.
However, if a user searches for “moving services Boston to New York City,” phrase match recognizes that the meaning of the keyword is no longer maintained, so your ads won’t show. With phrase match, a user’s word order matters only when it changes the intended meaning of your keyword.
While this sounds great in theory, we see examples regularly where Google doesn’t understand the intent correctly. For example, we have an adoption client and we primarily advertise to people looking to put a baby up for adoption, however Google generally can’t distinguish between search terms when the user is looking to adopt a baby vs put a baby up for adoption (see example below).
As time goes on, we are seeing a trend of phrase match search terms becoming increasingly similar to broad match. This is especially prominent for local businesses, as they tend to see their competitors’ names appearing in the majority of their search terms, regardless of whether they are phrase or broad match. While these searches may generate calls and leads, there is a chance that customers are not aware they are contacting a different business than the one they set out to find. This can result in an unsatisfactory customer experience, leading to missed opportunities and customer dissatisfaction.
Exact Match: Exact match is the most precise keyword match type available and provides the most control over who sees your ad. In theory, your ads are only supposed to show if the search term has the exact same meaning or intent of your keyword, however since the search terms can include misspellings, singular or plural forms, stemmings, abbreviations, and accents, often times that’s not the case. To continue with our phrase match example, that search term also triggered from the exact match keyword:
Unfortunately Google has continued to loosen up match types over time so this problem generally has been getting worse, not better. However, currently exact match keywords in most cases still give the advertiser the best control over the search terms. This level of specificity can help ensure that your ads are only seen by those that have a genuine interest in what you are offering. Although, it does often result in fewer searches being made than both phrase and broad match and generally we can’t only run exact match (this is the most expensive match type as well). As such, marketers must carefully balance their keyword match types to ensure they reach the right people without limiting themselves too much.
Conclusion:
When setting up a Google Ads campaign, understanding how each type of keyword match works will help ensure maximum relevancy while still allowing access to a large potential customer base—but don’t forget about monitoring and adjusting search terms regularly! There is no more important thing you can do to improve the value of your ad dollars. Whether you choose broad match or exact match (or something in between!), keeping track of which search terms are resulting in clicks and conversions will help ensure success with any PPC campaign. While there are advantages and disadvantages associated with each type of Google Ads keyword matching system—the most important thing is understanding their differences so that you can choose the one which best suits the needs of your business! Good luck!
Recent Blogs