When planning a PPC ad campaign, you must be mindful of the money you spend on ads. Google Ads is a great way to increase both traffic and conversions. But ideally, you’d want to get value out of your money, which means ensuring that your ads reach the right audience.
That is why Google Ads provides a wide range of targeting options that lets you control who your ads will be displayed to. One such method is to choose the appropriate match type of the keywords you are bidding for. Match type tells Google’s algorithm how closely or broadly you want your keywords to match with search queries.
There are keyword matching options in Google Ads – broad match, phrase match, and exact match. In this comprehensive guide, you’ll learn in detail about these match types, how they affect the quality of traffic, you’re paying for, and, most importantly, how you can use them to optimize the performance of your PPC campaign.
What are Match Types in Google Ads?
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Match type is a way of telling Google how you want your keywords to match with search queries. See how each of the three match types work and the benefits of each.
Broad Match
This match type displays your ads on search queries that include your keywords and any other query that is closely related to your keywords. For example, if your keyword is “women’s jacket,” broad match can display your ads for search queries like “leather jacket” or “sweaters for women” as well.
By default, all keywords are set to broad match. If you specifically want to set a keyword for broad match, the syntax is to type in the keyword normally.
It’s the least restrictive targeting option, as it gives your ad better visibility over a wide range of searches. But when you’re increasing your outreach, you’ll be drawing in irrelevant traffic, too, people who are not interested in your product or content. When applying broad match, you must be careful not to waste money on the wrong audience.
Recommended for:
- Increasing traffic
If your business or website is more focused on traffic and visibility, broad match effectively increases the flow of visitors to your site. Startups or new websites would want more traffic on their site before they can start pushing for sales and conversions. Blogs and informative sites must consistently focus on drawing more and more people to their posts. So, in general, a broad match will be useful in putting your website out there for as many people to see and visit when a business prioritizes traffic over conversions.
- Businesses with a wide range of products
Broad matches can help you target potential buyers with just one keyword for different products. For example, a broad match for the keyword “men’s t-shirt” could display your ads on searches for ‘men’s sweaters,’ or ‘formal shirts for men.” If those products are also available in your store, you’re still reaching relevant traffic for different products with the same keyword. You’d be bidding on fewer keywords and reducing your ad spend.
Limitations:
Broad match is generally not the right choice for businesses with niched products and services. Consider an example of an online store that sells high-end, handmade designer leather bags. If they use a broad match of the keyword “designer leather bags”, their ads can also appear in results for “affordable leather bags,” which is a related search. However, people looking for budget-friendly options wouldn’t be interested in expensive designer bags.
So for niched businesses, a broad match may not provide good ROI.
Phrase Match
With phrase match, your ads will appear on searches that include:
- Your exact keyphrase with other words at the front and/or back
- Synonyms of the keyword/phrase
- Variations of the keyword/phrase
For example, a phrase match for the keyword “tennis shoes” may also show ads for:
- “buy tennis shoes” or “tennis shoes for sale” (other words with the keyword)
- “tennis sneakers” (synonyms of keyword)
- “best shoes for tennis” (variation of keyword)
While it limits your outreach compared to a broad match, it targets more people that are interested in your product. The syntax for implementing phrase match is to type your keywords within quotes, such as “keyword.”
Phrase match offers a balance between the quality and quantity of traffic. It’s not as restrictive as exact match, so your ads will appear on more search queries. But the algorithm will try to match the meaning of your keyword more closely than a broad match. So your ads will reach to people who are likely to buy your products, or at the very least, somewhat interested in them.
Recommended for:
Phrase match can benefit any business that wants to balance reach and relevance equally. Your ads are displayed to users searching for your products and services, filtering out irrelevant traffic. But your ads will also be shown to a wider variety of search terms, as synonyms and keyword variations with the same meanings are included.
So whether you have a fresh website or a well-established business, if you’re at the stage where traffic and conversion are equally important, phrase match is the ideal choice.
Limitations:
There are no major downsides to phrase match. But if your top priority is conversion, phrase match is still not the best choice to filter your audience.
Exact Match
With an exact match, the algorithm will only display your ads for search queries that:
- Contain your exact keywords
- Or only slight variations of the keywords, such as plurals and the inclusion/exclusion of some prepositions.
For example, exact match for the keyword “kids shoes” can also include searches like “shoes for kids”. The main purpose of exact match is to match both the meaning and the intent of user queries with your target keyword. The syntax for an exact match is to type the keywords within square parentheses, such as [keyword].
By limiting your ads to people searching for the exact keywords, you’re reach is highly limited. But your audience becomes more refined, meaning your money is well spent. The traffic you get from exact match type will mostly include:
- Potential buyers
- Relevant users with high commercial or transactional intent
- And generally, people who are greatly interested in your products
That is why it’s the most effective of the three match types for increasing conversions.
Recommended for:
The main aim of the exact match is to limit your reach to the most relevant users. So any business that wants to zone in their most prospective customers and drive conversions will never be from this match type. Maybe your website already has multiple traffic sources, but engagement is low. Or maybe your organization has a target to increase conversions by a certain percentage in the year ahead. Whenever you want to prioritize quality over the quantity of traffic, an exact match is the best option. It’s also highly effective for niche websites and businesses to target small groups of users for specific products.
Limitations
It’s obvious – the downside of an exact match is that it doesn’t boost your traffic. Start-ups with brand-new websites and little online visibility should avoid using exact matches and focus on generating traffic first. The only exception would be niche products that target specific customers from the get-go.
Negative Match
Although we said, there are three keyword-matching options, a fourth one works differently. A negative match instructs Google’s algorithm not to display your ads for specific keywords. So you also have control over words and phrases that you want to purposely avoid. Negative keywords can be added to any of the above match types. For example, you can set up a phrase match for the keyword ‘designer leather bags’ and set “cheap” or “affordable” as negative keywords. This will prevent your ads from appearing to people who are searching for low-cost leather bags.How to Use Match Types in Your PPC Strategy
You now know how match types work and what you can do with each keyword matching option. But if you want to leverage the maximum potential of Google Ads match types, here are some useful tips to consider.Mastering Keyword Research
Since match types work around your target keyword, it goes without saying that you need master keyword research. Matching options will not do you any good if you’re targeting the wrong keywords, to begin with.
Before experimenting with match types, you must pick the most relevant keywords for your ads. That means analyzing important metrics such as search volume, competitive difficulty, and cost per click (CPC) of a wide variety of keywords.
Determining Your Primary Objectives
Another important step when matching keywords is to have clearly defined goals. Advertising costs money, so you must be sure you’re spending it on the right audience. Take your time and be clear about whether your priority is traffic generation, visibility, or engagement and conversion.
Understanding User Intent
When focusing on keywords, it’s also important to consider users’ search intent. If you’re targeting a refined audience for your products, you should be targeting commercial and transactional queries. So apart from your main keywords, also emphasize words like “buy,” “rent”, “hire”, “price”, etc., which are commonly used by people with buying intent.
Performing Regular Performance Analysis
Measure the performance of your ad campaign to analyze the efficiency of your match types. You have to keep a close eye on both the amount and the relevance of your traffic.
Are you getting too many uninterested visitors from a broad match? Or too few potential buyers from the exact match? Matching options will not always bring you the exact results you expect. Regular analysis of your paid traffic and their behavior on your site will give you better insights into which match types work best for your ads.
Conclusion
The concept of match types isn’t too hard to understand. It’s Google’s way of letting you control your ad campaigns’ reach and relevance. Broad match prioritizes reach, exact match prioritizes relevance, and phrase match balances both. Keyword match types in Google Ads is a simple but powerful functionality that lets you optimize your ad spend, improve your ad reach, increase traffic and boost conversions.
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