Why Understanding Keyword Match Types is Important

If you sold Chicago Bulls Tickets and bid on the keyword bulls you would show your ads for running with the bulls, bulls memorabilia, how to fight a bull, etc. Some keywords can bring in many stray clicks that cost you money but offer little value.

Or, if you were that same ticket broker, but bid on [bulls tickets] but did not bid on other versions you might miss out on people searching for tickets to Chicago Bulls games.

Using the correct matching type(s) allow you to reach as many relevant searchers as possible without sacrificing your ad budget and ad clickthrough rate by appearing before irrelevant searches.

The 3 Basic Match Types

The three most common match types are broad, phrase, and exact match. This Google video explains the matching types, which I also explained using text below.

• Broad match - most coverage, but potentially appears for many irrelevant searches. An ad for keyword (no quotations or brackets), will trigger ads for any search query that has the words search and term in it. With broad matching, synonyms to search term may also display your ad. If you decide to start off with broad matching, you should view the synonyms to ensure none of them are wasteful. This is especially true with acronyms or other terms with multiple, well-known meanings.
• "Phrase match" - in between the two other options. An ad targeted to “keyword phrase” (with the quotation marks) will show up on the search results page for a query that has keyword phrase anywhere in it, in the same order. This is called “phrase match.”
• [Exact match] - smallest coverage, but appears for the fewest irrelevant searches. An ad targeted to [keyword phrase] (with the brackets) will only show up on the search results page for the query search term. This is called “exact match.” Yahoo!’s exact match is a bit fuzzy, matching plurals and some common misspellings. Google’s exact match is more precise, only matching the exact search query. Using exact match may drastically improve click-through rates, but lowers ad display volume.

Google and Microsoft offer all three levels of ad control. Yahoo! offers exact match and Yahoo! groups phrase match and broad match in a category called advanced match. Here is a chart showing how the different match types work for a sample keyword:

Using All 3 Match Types in Conjunction

If you want to bid on all permutations of a core industry word or phrase it still makes sense to bid on all 3 different match types. This will allow the higher clickthrough rate of your exact match and phrase match ads to lower the click cost for those impressions, while still giving you the benefit of maximum ad exposure provided by broad match. You can use different bid prices to bid on all matching variations at the same time, to give exact match a premium and place less weighting on broader searches.

You can use analytics and the Google Search Query Performance report to see if any of your ad impressions are irrelevant. If you have irrelevant ad impressions, you can filter those out using negative keywords.

Negative Keywords

All the major global search engines offer a negative keyword matching option to filter out untargeted search queries. Any word that you do not want your ad to appear for can simply be blocked by placing “-badword” beneath your keyword list.

There are many words that would indicate a lack of desire to purchase anything. Words like crack, free, wallpapers, pic, and mp3 are often money losers if you do not remember to include these in your negative keyword list.

The following is an example keyword list showing a negative keyword; it should be much longer and more detailed, this is just an example:
eat cheese
buy cheese
-free

Thus, your ad would show up for many cheese queries, but for none that included the word free. Google also allows you to filter negative keywords at a campaign level.

If you are new to pay-per-click, you may want to use exact match and phrase match until you get a feel for it, unless you are using broad match to discover additional keyword phrases, and filtering out any irrelevant keywords using the negative keywords option.

Embedded Match

I suggest watching slide 12 in this Google video to understand exact match. Embedded match is an extension of negative match that is used when

• you wanted to buy traffic for something like Ipod accessories without displaying your ads on searches for Ipods, or
• you are bidding on multiple match types of a keyword at the same time

Here is how to use embedded match when bidding on multiple match types

Broad match keyword group:
my keyword
-"my keyword"
(this prevents broad match from matching phrase match searches)

Phrase match keyword group:
"my keyword"
-[my keyword]
(this prevents phrase match from matching exact match searches)

Exact match keyword group:
[my keyword]

Google's Broad Match Getting Broader

Expanded broad match may also show ads for the following unrelated search query after the original search. If I search for cheddar then search for knitting I might see a cheddar ad near the knitting search results. Here is a walkthrough.

Google Expanded Broad Match - Automatic Matching

Google made a broader version of broad match called automatic matching. If you have this enabled and have budget left over Google shows your ads near related phrases. For example, if you are bidding on Addidis shoes they may show your ads when someone searches for slippers. When this launched Dan Thies gave automatic matching a proper roasting for being a greedy low value service.

If you are running a branding campaign, or are in a small market where getting exposure is hard to get it may make sense to use this match type, but if you are ROI focused you probably want to disable automatic matching.

Checking Match Usage of Competitors

You can determine the match type a competitor is using.

1. Search for keyword A adfkafdjsadf keyword B, and if their ad still shows up, they are using broad match.
2. If their ad does not show up for broad match, search for keyword A keyword B dfadfkadfa. If it shows up for this check they are using phrase match.
3. If their ad does not show up for the phrase match, then they are advertising via exact match.

Any time you are checking competitors’ ads, you will want to refresh the screen multiple times as sometimes certain ads rotate in and out of the system. Google's ad preview tool allows you to view and click ads without costing the advertiser impressions or money.