Google Ads (AdWords) Keyword Match Types

The option to use different keyword match types within AdWords is something that all businesses, or managers that run a campaign, should be familiar with. This is because the correct use of these can result in the campaign being more targeted and the budget being spent more precisely. Understanding these differences and choosing the right keyword matching options can dramatically help to improve your return on investment (ROI).

There are settings available within the AdWords interface for each keyword that help to control how closely the keyword needs to match a person’s search term in order to trigger your ad. It’s possible to choose one or more matching options for a keyword, depending upon how precisely targeted a campaign needs to be. The broader the keyword matching option is, the more traffic potential that keyword has, whereas conversely, the more exact it is, the more specific that keyword will be to someone’s search.

So those with the smallest budgets need to be the most tightly controlled from the outset, with exact match keywords. Conversely, those with larger budgets can begin by casting a wider net through the use of more broad keywords and then further refine these in response to how much relevant traffic those generate. However, broad match does need to be used carefully to ensure accurate and relevant targeting of searchers.

There are four keyword matching options available:

• the negative match type ensures that your ad doesn’t show for any search that includes that term. This helps to prevent wasted expenditure on irrelevant keywords;
• the positives that do allow the ad to be shown, range from broad to exact in the following order of least closely matched to most closely: broad (and broad match modifier); phrase and exact.

If you don’t specify a particular matching option, keywords are automatically considered to be broad match. (You can find more details about these keyword matching options here, or here. You can see more information about the difference between regular broad and modified broad matches here).

In addition to these specific keyword match types, when using the phrase and exact versions, Google provides the option to choose if those should include plurals, misspellings and other close variants. This setting is selected by default, so if the campaign is to be focused upon showing the ad when only very closely matched keywords are used, it’s necessary to change this to exclude those variants.

Through on-going keyword match type refinement, a well-managed AdWords campaign should evolve into a precisely targeted one, leading to a more focused audience that in turn results in better quality leads and enquiries and an improved ROI.

If you’d like more information on how the Web Marketing Workshop can help to improve your ROI through keyword match types, contact us now for further information.

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