Keyword Matching Options
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You can use match types with your keywords to help control which searches can trigger your ad. Ranging from broad to narrow, here are the different match types: broad match, broad match modifier, phrase match, exact match, and negative match.
In general, the broader the keyword matching option, the more traffic potential that keyword has; while the narrower the keyword matching option, the more relevant that keyword will be to someone’s search. Understanding these differences can steer you in choosing the right keyword matching options and can help you improve your return on investment (ROI).
Different Keyword Match Types
Each match type, which is specified by a special symbol, will trigger your ad to show for a customer’s search in different ways.
The chart below serves as an introduction to the different match types:
| Match type | Special | Example | Ads may show on a search that | Example |
| symbol | keyword | searches | ||
| Broad | none | women’s | are synonyms, related searches, and | buy |
| match | hats | other relevant variations | ladies | |
| hats | ||||
| Broad | +keyword | +women’s | contain the modified term (or close | woman’s |
| match | +hets | variations, but not synonyms), in any | hats | |
| modifier | order | |||
| Phrase | “keyword” | “women’s | are a phrase, and close variations of that | buy |
| match | hats” | phrase | women’s | |
| hats | ||||
| Exact | [keyword] | [women’s | are an exact term and close variations of | women’s |
| match | hats] | that exact term | hats | |
| Negative | -keyword | -baseball | are searches without the term | baseball |
| match | hats |
How Match Types Work
Here’s an overview of each match type, in order from broad to narrow:
Broad match
The default matching option, broad match means that your ad may show if a search term contains your keyword terms in any order, and possibly along with other terms. Your ads can also show for close variations of your keywords.
Example
| Broad match keyword | Ads may show on searches for |
| women’s hats | women’s hats |
| buy ladies hats | |
| womens caps | |
| hats for girls | |
| womens hats | |
| Buy red hats for women |
Tip
Broad match keywords are the default matching option within AdWords. However, it is highly advisable to not bid on broad match at the beginning of a campaign because of the wide variation in search query results that might trigger your ad. Instead, consider bidding on exact match and phrase match keywords only.
Modified Broad match
You can add a modifier, a plus sign (+), to any of the terms that are part of your broad match keyword phrase. By adding a modifier, your ads can only show when someone’s search contains those modified terms, or close variations of the modified terms, in any order.
Unlike broad match keywords, modified broad match keywords won’t show your ad for synonyms or related searches. For this reason, it adds an additional level of control.
Example
| Phrase match keyword | Ads may show on searches for | Ads won’t show on searches for |
| “women’s hats” | women’s hats | girls hats |
| buy women’s hats | womens baseball hats | |
| womans hats | ||
| Women’s hats |
Exact match
With exact match, your ads can appear when someone searches for your exact keyword, without any other terms in the search. Your ad will also show when someone searches for close variations of that specific keyword.
To use an exact match keyword, simply surround the entire keyword with brackets. For example, [women’s hats].
Example
| Exact match keyword | Ads may show on searches for | Ads won’t show on searches for |
| [women’s hats] | women’s hats | buy women’s hats |
| woman’s hats | women’s hats on sale |
Negative match
You can use negative match prevent your ad from showing to people searching for certain terms. Your ad won’t show if a search term contains the keyword term you define with a minus sign (-) prefix. Negative keywords are an especially useful way to filter out irrelevant traffic and thus prevent unwanted clicks.
As shown in the screenshot below, negative keywords have their own section (which is minimized by default) below your keyword table. When you create a negative keyword (or make one from an existing keyword by adding the negative symbol), it will show up there. Note that you can use negative keywords in conjunction with other match types. For example, you could use an exact match negative keyword to prevent your ad from showing to people who searched for that exact keyword.
Example
If your keyword is baseball hats and you add the negative keyword -baseball your ad won’t appear for any searches that contain the word baseball.
| Negative match keyword | Ads may show on searches for | Ads won’t show on searches for |
| -baseball | women’s hats | baseball hats |
| sun hats | baseball caps |
It’s important to keep in mind that you should only add the minus sign (-) prefix to the keyword that you don’t want to trigger your ad, like -baseball as shown in this example.
Suggestions
- Since AdWords displays your ads for close variations in your new and existing campaigns, there’s no need to separate ad variations of your keyword.
- Keywords aren’t case-sensitive, which means they’re matched without regard to upper-case or lower-case letters. For example, you don’t need to enter women’s hats and Women’s Hats as keywords – just women’s hats will cover both.
Negative Keyword Match Types
Negative keyword match types work a little differently than traditional search terms, so make sure you think through each negative before adding it to your account.
Negative Broad match: if used correctly, this can filter out a lot of different variations. If a keyword is Negative Broad, then your ad will not show anytime the entire term is used within a search query. For example, if your negative is video game, your ad will not appear for someone searching for game video or video game deals. BUT know that this will not prevent ads from showing for variations of the word. That means that if you want to exclude both video game and video games (plural version) you need to add in BOTH as negative keywords. Also, Negative Broad match will not restrict ads from showing if someone searches on only one of the words. So if someone searches for board game you will still appear, as the word game on its own is not a negative.
Negative Phrase match: this match type works similarly to traditional search terms in that it will exclude the phrase. A negative keyword is designated as phrase match when quotations are used around the phrase. If someone searches for only one of the terms in your phrase, your ad will still appear. For example, if your negative is “fiction novels” and someone searches for history novels, your ad will still appear. This also means that if additional words are used in the search query, such as fiction romance novels, your ad will still appear as fiction and novels are not next to each other in the search query.
Negative Exact match: this match type will eliminate very little traffic as it only excludes searches for the exact term(s) in the order they are used. To designate a negative term as Negative Exact, include [ ] around the term. If someone uses any other terms in his or her search, your ads will still appear. For instance if your negative is [green sweater]and someone searches for ladies green sweater your ad will still appear as it does not match the negative term exactly.
This chart as a quick reference of the search queries that would be ruled out depending on your negative match type.
Choosing The Right Match Type
You should typically start with exact match and phrase match keywords in your campaigns. This will make it easier to control the types of search queries that are triggering your ad variations.
Tip
Create an exact match campaign and a ‘mirrored’ phrase match campaign with the exact match keywords negatived out.
As your initial keywords quickly gather impressions and clicks, review the search terms report to monitor which keyword variations triggered your ads. Use the information within the search terms reports to find new keywords to add to your exact match campaign.
In addition to finding new search terms, the report will also help you weed out any keywords that aren’t as relevant to your business by adding them as negative keywords.