There are 3 keyword match types that you can use to instruct the search engines (like Google) as to when your ad would be eligible to be displayed to someone’s search query when using paid search advertising. These match types include the following:
- Broad Match
- Phrase Match
- Exact Match
Each match type has its own unique set of rules to trigger your paid online search ad. Understanding how each one works will give you greater control of who should see your ad, whether it’s to a broader audience or to a more narrower one, or somewhere in between.
Tip: You can use more than one keyword match type in order to take full advantage of each one with running your online ad campaign.
Broad Match
With broad match, your ad would be eligible to be shown to someone’s keyword search query when it’s related to your keywords (or close variations) used in your ad campaign. Your ad would also be eligible to be shown for a whole bunch of other broader criteria including (but not limited to):
- Words in the search query can be arranged in any order to the sequence of your keywords
- Words in the search query don’t have to include any of your keywords, just as long as they relate to them
- Additional words in the search query can be used before, in between, or after your keywords
- Synonyms and paraphrases can be used in the search query instead of using any of your keywords
In addition, broad match may also consider other criteria to help bring about more relevant matches such as:
- Latest search history by user
- Landing page content
- Analyzing other keywords in your ad group to gain greater confidence of keyword intent
Let’s do an example using broad match keywords such as how to save money on your income taxes for your ad campaign. Your ad would be eligible to be shown for the following search query’s:
- Income tax planning to lower my tax bill
- Tax saving tips for doing your income taxes
- How to reduce income taxes
- Year-end strategies to cut your income taxes
- How to get the biggest IRS tax refund
However, with broad match, your keyword may be too “broad” in cases where you are just using one keyword. This could trigger your ad to a rather broad audience that may not be interested in your product or service.
For example, let’s use a broad match keyword like taxes to run an ad campaign. If you are an accountant that specializes only in preparing taxes for estates and trusts, your ad might also be eligible to be shown for someone’s search query for sales taxes, payroll taxes, gift taxes, corporate taxes, and individual taxes, etc.
Broad match will cast the widest net in getting you the most traffic from a larger audience, but the traffic will not be as targeted as it would be from other keyword match types like phrase match or exact match.
Phrase Match
With phrase match, your ad would be eligible to be displayed to someone’s search query when the words used in that search query includes the meaning of your keyword phrase (or close variations) used in your ad campaign.
Other words can be used in the search query either before or after your keyword phrase to trigger your ad, but not in the middle of your keyword phrase if the other words change the meaning of it (small functional words are acceptable to use).
The words in the search query can be arranged in a different order to your keyword phrase if the underlying meaning stays the same.
To signify phrase match keywords, quotation marks are placed around keywords – “keyword-1 keyword-2”.
Let’s do an example using a keyword phrase such as “Children’s Fun Toys” for your ad campaign. Your ad would be eligible to be shown for the following search query’s:
- Children’s fun toys
- Fun kids toys
- Buy fun toys for children
- Fun toys for children
- Fun toys for kids on sale
Compared to broad match, phrase match will give you more control of how close someone’s search query must be to your keyword phrase used for your ad campaign before your ad may be triggered.
Tip: Phrase match will give you traffic that is more targeted to that of broad match since there is a closer match of relevancy between your keyword phrase to someone’s search query. However, phrase match won’t deliver traffic as targeted to exact match.
Exact Match
With exact match, your ad would be eligible to be seen by someone’s search query when the words used in that search query have the same meaning to the keywords used in your ad campaign (or close variations) or when the meaning is the same if different words in the search query are used. The words used in the search query can be arranged in a different order to your exact match keywords just as long as the meaning stays the same.
To signify exact match keywords, square brackets are placed around the keywords – [keyword-1 keyword-2].
Let’s do an example using exact match keywords such as [Coffee Mugs] for your ad campaign. Your ad would be eligible to be shown for the following search query’s:
- Coffee mugs
- Coffee mug
- Mugs coffee
- Java mugs
- Mugs for coffee
Out of all the keyword match types, exact match will give you the highest degree of control of who you want to target with your ad so that you can highly align the interests of your target market to what you are promoting.
Tip: Exact match can give you greater click-through rates (CTR’s) and conversions over broad match and phrase match because the keywords used in your ad campaign will be highly targeted and relevant to the words that people will be using in their search query on virtually an exact match basis.
Close Keyword Variations
Your ad will be eligible to be seen by someone’s search query if there is a close variation of words or meaning between the keywords used for your ad campaign to what someone’s search query might actually be.
Some of the more common close keyword variations include the following for a match to occur to trigger your ad:
- Spelling or grammar errors
- Singular or plural word forms
- Root words ending with or without stemming’s (“ing”, “er”, or “ed”, etc.)
- Abbreviations, accents or acronyms
- Different word order if the meaning doesn’t change
- Functional words that have no impact on meaning (a, for, of, to, & the, etc.)
- Synonyms and paraphrases (running shoes vs. jogging shoes)
- Words that are implied or have the same intent or meaning
Negative Keywords
If you don’t want your ad to be displayed to someone’s search query because the search query may not be relevant, you can exclude your ad by using negative keywords. This will help to weed-out people who may not be interested in your products or services.
For example, let’s say you have an online business that sells books about flipping real estate for big profits and you want to use “books” as one of your keywords to trigger your ad for someone’s search query. With this keyword (which is way too broad), your ad would be eligible to be shown to people searching for all kinds of books including ones about history, business, music, sports, etc. To eliminate all these non relevant search terms, you could use each one of them as a negative keyword when setting up your ad campaign.
Negative keywords, however, don’t follow the same matching principals for close keyword variations to that of “positive” keyword match types. So, your ad may still show for close keyword variations even though you had no intentions of displaying it under such circumstances. You will need to set-up negative keywords for close keyword variations including singular and plural keywords, misspellings, and other types of words to have your ad excluded from being displayed to someone’s search query.
Negative Keyword Match Types
For online ad campaigns, you can use negative keywords for the following negative keyword match types:
- Negative Broad Match
- Negative Phrase Match
- Negative Exact Match
Negative Broad Match
If the words used in a search query includes all of your negative broad match keywords, regardless of their order, your ad will not be displayed. The search query can also contain extra words, in addition to all of your negative broad match keywords, and still your ad would not be displayed.
If the words used in a search query doesn’t include all of your negative broad match keywords, then your ad could be displayed.
Let’s use the negative broad match keywords car keys to illustrate when your ad could be displayed and when it would not be displayed:
Your ad could be displayed for:
- car key
- keys
Your ad would not be displayed for:
- car keys
- keys car
- buy car keys
Negative Phrase Match
If the words in a search query are exactly the same as your negative phrase match keywords, and are in the same order, then your ad would not be displayed.
If the words in a search query has extra words to your negative phrase match keywords, your ad would still not be displayed if the words in the search query are exactly the same as your negative phrase match keywords and are in the same order.
Let’s use the negative phrase match keywords “car keys” to illustrate when your ad could be displayed and when it would not be displayed:
Your ad could be displayed for:
- keys car
- car key
Your ad would not be displayed for:
- car keys
- buy car keys
Negative Exact Match
If the words used in a search query are exactly the same as your negative exact match keywords, and are in the same order, your ad will not be displayed as long as there are no additional words in the search query.
If there are additional words in the search query to your negative exact match keywords, then your ad could be displayed.
Let’s use the negative exact match keywords [car keys] to illustrate when your ad could be displayed and when it would not be displayed:
Your ad could be displayed for:
- keys car
- buy car keys
- car key
Your ad would not be displayed for:
- car keys
Finally
Learning about the different keyword match types for running online ad campaigns can help you as to who will (or who will not) be seeing your ad. As a result, this can greatly increase your return on investment (ROI) on your online advertising dollars.