AdWords Match Types?

One of the biggest factors that will affect the success of any AdWords campaign are the match types of your targeted keywords. Even top marketing experts don’t fully understand what the different match types are.

Firstly what are keywords? In AdWords keywords are selected to define what search term enables your ads to be triggered. In order for this to happen the keyword for the ad must match or relate to the search term. To what extend they have to match is defined by setting the keyword match type. There are 5 different types of match type in AdWords. Let’s explore each of them them using the keyword example ‘marketing expert’.

Broad Match Type:

If the keyword is set on broad match type, your ad will be eligible to be shown on search terms that:

1. Contain any or all the words in the keyword and possibly along with other terms in any order e.g. ‘marketing consultant expert’, ‘marketing professionals’.

2. Are close variation of the keyword: singular, plural forms, misspelling, abbreviations, acronyms, stemming, accents, related traffic and synonyms e.g. ‘marketing experts’, ‘advertising consultant’.

Broad Match Modifier Type:

Because broad match type keywords allows for such broad search terms to show your ads which could lead to ‘irrelevant’ clicks to your website, Google created broad match modifier type which could be used in conjunction with broad match type or on its own. For example if we had ‘marketing’ as broad match type and ‘expert’ as broad match modifier type (denoted as marketing +expert in AdWords) your ads will be eligible to be shown on search terms that are close variations of the word ‘expert’ but not a completely different wording (such as singular, plural forms, misspelling, abbreviations, acronyms, stemming or accents word forms ) in any order with the broad match form of ‘marketing’ e.g. ‘marketing experts‘ and ‘advertising expertise’ but not ‘advertising consultant’.

Negative Match Type:

Can be used in conjunction with a broad match type or on its own.Your ad will be eligible to be shown on search term that does not have this keyword.

Phase Match Type:

If the keyword is set on phase match type, your ad will be eligible to be shown on search terms that are:

1. Exact match of the keyword and possibly along with other term before or after the keyword e.g. ‘best marketing expert’.

2. Close variant of the keyword: same as broad match type except no synonyms.

Exact Match Type:

Exact match type of a keyword does not mean the search query has to be exactly the same as the keyword for your ads to be eligible to appear, like most people think. The keyword type allows ads to appear on search terms that are:

1.Exact match of the keyword without any other terms e.g. ‘marketing expert’.

2.Close variant of the keyword: same as phase match type.

As you can see using broad match types for your keywords would most likely to generate the most traffic potential due to having the largest set of search term that the ad is eligible to appear for. But on the downside alot of search queries will not be closely related to your keyword and consequently your ads and site which could lead to invaluable clicks and high costs. On the other hand exact match type for your keywords have the smallest set of search terms that the ad is eligible appear for but the search queries will be much more related to your keyword, ads and site which would mean that the searchers will be more relevant and valuable to the site.

There is no single best keyword match type for a marketing campaign.From my last blog I told you the key to making a good AdWords strategy is to constantly monitor and learn from your past AdWords results. Keyword match type is no exception. One of the most effective match type strategy I recommend is  start a campaign using broad match type keywords. After a while when data starts accumulating  use the ‘search term report’ from AdWords that shows the exact search query that triggered the ad or click to optimise your keywords list. If for instance nearly all the actual search term weren’t relevant to my site or business then consider changing the keywords match type to a much more targeted match type like phrase or exact.

Adwords is a powerful advertising tool . If you do it right your sales will rocket. Brief and partner with the best AdWords/PPC experts here.

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