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Evan Magers, iSearch Media


When is it best to put your AdWords keywords in broad match, phrase match, or exact match? Well, for some of you it might help to start out with a few definitions.

  Broad match:

This is the default keyword matching option. Basically, if you add a keyword to one of your Ad Groups and you don't do anything special like include brackets or quotation marks around the word or phrase you choose, you've put your keyword in broad match. For sake of simplicity let's use one basic example throughout this discussion. Let's say you're trying to drive traffic through an AdWords campaign to your website selling nothing but watches. The first keywords you'll probably think to bid on will be 'watches' and 'watch' (you almost always should include as many reasonable variations of your keywords as possible - singular and plural versions specifically). So you're generating your keyword list, and you type:

watch
watches

Again, no brackets, no quotation marks around these words. What does this mean? That's right, you've added these keywords in broad match. So what exactly is broad match anyway?

Well, it makes sense that a keyword's default matching option would be broad match, because this is the matching option that allows Google to deliver your ads more often than either phrase match or exact match (= more money for the house). Broad match means that the Google system will not only show your ad when a Google user searches for 'watch' or 'watches' exactly, but your ad will also be triggered by any phrase that includes 'watch' or 'watches': 'search engine watch', 'celebrity watch', 'watch movies online', 'bay watch'. You see now why, when most of your keywords are in broad match, you have to be careful to include the right negative keywords to prevent irrelevant search terms from triggering your ads (see my article on negative keywords). Broad matched keywords will show your ad on any term that includes your keyword, whether or not it's related to what you're selling.

  "Phrase match":

Phrase match, the second matching option, is denoted by quotation marks. Let's say you decide to bid on the keyword 'watch store'. You type it in with quotation marks around it, like this:

'watch store'

You've now put this keyword in phrase match. This means that for your ad to be triggered, a Google user has to type in the phrase 'watch store', in that word order; 'store watch' won't bring up your ad. BUT 'watch store san francisco' will trigger your ad, so with keywords in phrase match, once again you need to go on a hunt for negative keywords to prevent irrelevant searches from triggering your ad.

  [Exact match]:

This is the third and final matching option, and as you can probably guess, it means that your ad will be triggered only when a Google user searches for the EXACT word or phrase that you've included. Exact match is denoted by brackets, like this:

[watch store]

If you include 'watch store' as an exact match keyword, 'watch stores' won't trigger your ad, 'watch store online' won't either - anything that isn't 'watch store' exactly won't trigger your ad, no exceptions.

So, when is it best to use broad, phrase, and exact match? I'll tell you how I decide, how I was taught to do it while working at Google.

Don't overcomplicate the issue. I see a lot of novice AdWords advertisers running their campaigns with all their keywords in nothing but exact match, and I always tell them that by doing so, they're not casting their net wide enough. There are a lot of variations of your keywords, some of which you probably haven't even thought of, that could bring you really strong, valuable, high-potential traffic; and by having all your keywords in exact match, you really limit yourself in this respect. I'd say a good rule of thumb for most advertisers is that the lion's share - let's call it 70% - of your keywords should be in broad match. In keeping with the watch store example, imagine that you figure, hey, why even bother with broad match and negative keywords, why not just put all of them in exact match? Off the top of my head, here's a keyword list you might come up with:

[watch]
[watches]
[buy watch online]
[buy watches online]
[watch store]
[watch stores]
[watch shop]
[watch shops]
[watch online]
[watches online]
[watch store online]
[watch stores online]
[watch shop online]
[watch shops online]

Now, granted, some of these will probably be some of your very best keywords, since many of them are so targeted (though I strongly encourage you to stay away from single-word keywords like 'watch' and 'watches', since the competition for such broad, popular terms will be stiff and therefore the price you'll pay per click will be very high). But 'watch store online' is a good keyword, one you'd definitely want to include if you run, well, a watch store online. Makes sense, right?

The problem with this keyword list is that it doesn't allow for any variation on the selected terms, since they're all in exact match, which means you're leaving a lot of good traffic on the table. Think about it: maybe you sell Seiko watches, so of course you'd want your ad to be triggered when someone searches for 'buy seiko watch online'. Though this is very close to your exact-matched keyword 'buy watch online', your ad won't show for this Google user, this very promising customer lead, since you have 'buy watch online' only in exact match. This is a simple example, but it doesn't take a great deal of imagination to think of countless others that also apply.

As I said earlier, a successful AdWords campaign almost always requires the keyword net to be cast as wide as possible (while still remaining relevant to your product or service). To this end, the best strategy is to focus mostly on broad match, and then spend that extra time finding a strong list of negative keywords. Phrase match and exact match I use for two purposes: 1) to test to find out which iterations of my most popular keywords lead to conversions, and 2) to give me a little Quality Score boost on my highest-traffic keywords. The first reason is easy enough to understand, so I won't go into it in too much detail; basically, if a keyword draws a great deal of impressions and clicks, I want to hone in on the precise variations of it that lead to sales. Remember, clicks don't equal revenue, and even if your CTR is huge for a certain keyword, if it's not leading to conversions then it's only hurting you, since you're paying for lots of clicks that are delivering no return. So if I'm spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on a keyword, I'll always add it in all three matching options, and then keep a close eye on their respective conversion stats (and this discussion, by the way, assumes that you have Conversion Tracking in place. It's an absolute must, as I explain in another article on this site). Often all three convert pretty similarly, in which case I just let them all run at the same time. Sometimes, though, one of the three matching options see a lot of clicks that for whatever reason don't lead to sales. If this is the case, you have to be scrupulous, ruthless, heartless, and unemotional about doing away with poor converters; even if a keyword seems ideal for your product, if it's not leading to sales, you have to get rid of it right away, before it costs you any more wasted money. Often it's hard to tell why a keyword doesn't convert. Even so, don't question the stats; if it ain't converting, it ain't converting, so all it's doing is hurting your bottom line.

The second reason I ever put a keyword in exact match or phrase match has to do with Quality Score. The AdWords system does give a little preferential treatment to keywords in exact match or phrase match, over those in broad match. Another way to explain it: say three advertisers are bidding on the same keyword, 'buy watches online'. All three have the same Quality Score for that keyword, all three have the same maximum CPC set for it as well. But advertiser X has it in broad match, advertiser Y in phrase match, and advertiser Z in exact match. Whose ad shows first? Z will show at the top of the page, Y will come next, then X will show lowest, since he has the keyword in broad match and the system gives preference in this case to exact match then phrase match then broad, in that order.

This makes very little difference on anything but your most highly trafficked keywords.

  In summary:

A broad match keyword will trigger your ad on any search term that includes the keyword as part of the search term, even if the term is totally unrelated. Including mostly broad matched keywords demands that you find many negative keywords to prevent your ad from showing at inopportune times.

A phrase match keyword will trigger your ad whenever that exact phrase is included in a search term, even if other words are part of the term as well. So "watch store" would allow the ad to show for the query 'watch store san francisco'.

An exact match keyword will show the ad only when a Google user types in that exact term. [watch store online], in other words, won't trigger your ad when someone searches for 'online watch store'.

Again, many advertisers make the mistake of sticking with exact match in their keyword lists, which limits their traffic in a big way. Put most of your keywords in broad match, take the time to find the right campaign-level negative keywords, and use phrase and exact match on your most high-traffic, competitive keywords; they do just two things for you: give you a little boost on these important terms, and provide you with more information to make intelligent decisions based on conversion stats.