What is broad match you ask? Broad match is one of three match types (not includ­ing neg­a­tive key­words, which I will dis­cuss in Part 2) that Google offers when adding key­words to your paid search adver­tis­ing cam­paign. The match types are:

• Exact
• Phrase
• Broad
• Mod­i­fied broad

Exact Match Type

Exact match type refers to a key­word set­ting that allows your ad to show only when some­one searches for the exact phrase of your key­word. The exact match key­word “GPS soft­ware” will cause your ad to show only if some­one searches for “GPS soft­ware” or “soft­ware GPS” exactly, with no addi­tional words in the query.

Exact match is good for high vol­ume key­words but is not rec­om­mended exclu­sively in an account as it is too restric­tive. An adver­tiser would have to think of all the pos­si­ble vari­a­tions of a key­word – a daunt­ing task given that 20–25% of Google searches every sin­gle day are brand new.

Phrase Match

Phrase match refers to a key­word set­ting that allows your ad to show only when someone’s query includes all of the key­words in your phrase and pos­si­bly addi­tional words as well. The phrase match key­word “GPS soft­ware” can cause your ad to show if some­one searches for “win­dows GPS soft­ware” or “Android GPS soft­ware” for example.

Using phrase match, while def­i­nitely rec­om­mended, requires some fol­low up work to review the actual key­words that searchers used and to be sure these key­words are rel­e­vant. For exam­ple, if your site has GPS soft­ware, but not reviews of such soft­ware, you may not want to pay for traf­fic that is search­ing for “GPS soft­ware reviews” since they may be less likely to convert.

The com­bi­na­tion of phrase match and exact match are the min­i­mum match types that one should use in a PPC account.

Broad Match

Broad match refers to a key­word set­ting that allows your ad to show as a match to search queries that Google deems to be rel­e­vant vari­a­tions of your key­words such as syn­onyms, singular/plural forms, rel­e­vant vari­ants of your key­words, and phrases con­tain­ing your keywords.

Google’s idea of rel­e­vant may be dif­fer­ent than yours. For exam­ple I have recently seen Google serve up a housekeeper’s ad for the search query “naked house clean­ing”. Eek!

That doesn’t mean that broad match should not be used, just that it should be used care­fully and like phrase match, requires addi­tional fol­low up using the Search Query Report, to under­stand which key­words searchers have actu­ally used. These addi­tional key­words can then be used to cre­ate neg­a­tive key­words (which we will dis­cuss in part 2) or can be added to the account in phrase or exact match settings.

+Mod­i­fied +Broad Match

Mod­i­fied broad match is newer than the pre­vi­ous three match types and pro­vides more con­trol over broad match. Think of broad match with manda­tory key­words. You mod­ify the key­word 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’s (like “floor” and “flooring”).

Not con­sid­ered close vari­ants are syn­onyms (like “quick” and “fast”) and related searches (like “flow­ers” and “tulips”). The broad match mod­i­fier pro­vides greater reach than phrase match because it allows for addi­tional word(s) to be before, between, or after the key­word that has been mod­i­fied with the (+) sign.

Improv­ing exact match and phrase match

As of mid May 2012 Google will be “mak­ing improve­ments” to exact and phrase match so that your ad will be eli­gi­ble to dis­play when peo­ple search for close vari­ants of your key­words such as mis­spellings, sin­gu­lar and plural forms, acronyms, stem­ming, abbre­vi­a­tions and accents.

This means that “GPS soft­ware” as an exact match will now also show for the search term “GPS soft­wares” and “global posi­tion­ing sys­tem software”.

When this fea­ture goes live in Mid May, by default AdWords accounts will show your ads for close vari­ants of your key­words. You can restrict your exact and phrase match tar­get­ing for both exist­ing and new cam­paigns by going to the Cam­paigns Tab, select­ing the campaign(s) for which you’d like to change the match­ing options, then click­ing on the Set­tings Tab and scrolling to the Advanced Set­tings section.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of A Refresher In Max­i­miz­ing PPC Adver­tis­ing where I will dis­cuss neg­a­tive keywords.



Biography / Resume : Darlene has been doing SEO and PPC for over 10 years. She has worked with B2B and B2C clients in both North America and Europe who desire to increase their visibility within the search engines and achieve greater success with their PPC advertising campaigns. A recognized speaker and trainer in Ottawa, ON Canada, Darlene has delivered training on the subjects of search engine optimization and writing for the web, and has also taught web-based courses through the International Webmasters Association. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Carleton University (Canada) and an Honours Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from the University of Ottawa (Canada).