Does your targeted audience use search engines like Bing, MSN, Yahoo, or Microsoft Search Network? If yes, you must shift your focus from Google Ads (formerly known as Google AdWords) to Microsoft Advertising.
Microsoft Advertising doesn’t work similarly to Google. If you have been using Google Ads to generate sales while your audience uses a different search engine, there are all things wrong with the marketing strategy.
What is Microsoft Advertising?
Microsoft Advertising is a pay-per-click advertising system that allows marketers to place their ads on top of the search engine results. This increases their brand visibility, thus generating sales. You have to bid on the keywords you use in your ad. In a pay-per-click advertising system, you pay for every time a user clicks on the ad.
However, many advertisers are bidding on the same keyword. The more the bids on a specific keyword, the harder it is to target it. For this reason, bidding helps you acquire your right toward a given keyword. One tip would be to place a bid on a unique keyword that other advertising are not bidding on. Or bid higher to steal it from other advertisers.
This is where you will need to understand the need for keyword match types. The better you understand the keyword match type concept, the better you will be able to know which keyword you should bid on.
Explaining keyword match type in a brief
Broad match type
It is the least restrictive keyword match type. Using a broad match type on any keyword would mean allowing your ad to be visible to all search results that use the given keyword. It helps in gathering the most traffic – both relevant and irrelevant.
For instance, for the focus keyword ‘green tea,’ the ad will show for other search queries like:
Focus keyword | Ad will appear for search queries like |
Green tea | Benefits of green tea |
Buy herbal tea online | |
Herbal tea | |
Flowers | Buy flower bouquets online |
Roses arrangement | |
Moving services | Best movers online |
Moving services in Alberta |
Observe that the broad match keyword not only matches with the long tail keyword, it also matches with close variants like synonyms, stemmings (ing, er), plural/singular, and change in the order of words. This gets restricted as you change your keyword match type.
Phrase match type
It lies in the middle of the broad and exact match type. This means it is not too restrictive or too broad. It isn’t way too heavy in your pocket. It responds to keywords that match the focus or a long tail keyword. You can add words before and after the focus keyword but not in between.
Let’s understand with the help of an example:
|
Focus keyword |
Ad may appear for search queries like |
Ad will NOT appear for search queries like |
|
Summer vacations |
Best summer vacation places |
Best places to visit this summer |
|
Summer vacation/s in Bali |
Summer vacation spots outside Bali |
|
|
Summer vacations deals |
Vacation summer deals |
Here you will see that the phrase match won’t match for search queries that change the order of the words. It does match for stemming, plural/singular, and close variants as long as the meaning of the search query remains the same.
Exact match type
This is the most restrictive type of keyword match type. This is because it matches search queries that include the exact keyword used in the ad. It does take into consideration plural/singular changes and changes in the order of words.
Focus keyword | Ad may appear for search queries like |
Summer vacation | Summer vacations |
Vacation summers | |
Summer vacation |
As per the recent changes in Microsoft Advertising, broad match modifier keywords will now serve broad match keywords instead of phrase match keywords. [dated 15th March 2023].
This change has made it possible to extend the reach of keywords to a broader range. With BMM, the reach was somewhat restricted as it mimics a part of the phrase match type. But with the new update, your BMM keywords would behave just like a broad match, just enjoying the benefits of broad match type while keeping your cost low.
Broad match not only considers synonyms but also misspellings (spelling errors). This allows your ad to reach wide masses.
Pro tip: Unlike in the case of Google Ads, which uses broad match keywords as a default keyword match type, in Microsoft Advertising, it’s the reverse. If you haven’t selected any keyword match type, your ad by default matches for least restrictive to most restrictive match. If you bid for an exact and broad match on the same keyword, the ad will be displayed as an exact match, not a broad one.
In short, in Microsoft Advertising, the exact match takes precedence over the broad match.
Which match type should I use?
Microsoft Advertising suggests not using just one keyword match type but utilizing different match types independently to get better control over who sees your ad.
Advantages of knowing how keyword match types work in Microsoft Advertising
Smart bidding
Not in the sense that you should be using the Smart Bidding tool. But knowing how different keyword match types have the power to control the visibility of your ad will help you bid smartly.
Save your marketing budget
Keyword match types provide control over your marketing budget. A broad match type may be the most expensive, while an exact match type is the most affordable. The right and optimized use of these keyword matches help you generate more leads without spending your marketing budget all at once.
Make use of close variants and negative keywords
Once you know how keyword match types work in Microsoft Advertising, you will find yourself able to understand the use of close variants and negative keywords.
Close variants are keywords and terms similar to the focus keyword but aren’t a popular choice along other bidders. Negative keywords are the keyword that you do not strictly want your ad to target. Adding a keyword into your negative keyword list will allow your ad to not rank for them.
Happy bidding!
