The NEW Way Google Ads Keyword Match Types Work in 2024

Summary

This video offers a comprehensive guide to Google Ad's keyword match types, explaining the nuances of exact, phrase, and broad match types. It demonstrates their practical application in an account, showcasing performance metrics and search term behaviors for each. The presenter advocates starting with exact and phrase matches for precise control and high conversion rates, then incorporating broad match with caution to scale campaigns, especially when using smart bidding strategies. The video also emphasizes the importance of monitoring search queries and adding negative keywords to refine ad targeting.

Takeaways

• 📝 Google has three main keyword match types: exact, phrase, and broad match, each serving different targeting needs in advertising campaigns.
• 🔒 Exact match offers the tightest control over the search terms that trigger an ad, but it may not always be as precise as intended due to Google's interpretation of 'same meaning'.
• 💰 Exact match keywords tend to have the highest conversion rates but also come at a premium cost per click (CPC).
• 🔎 Phrase match is moderately restrictive, showing ads for search terms that include the keyword's meaning, indicated by quotation marks around the keyword.
• 📚 Broad match is the least restrictive, showing ads for a wide range of related search terms, which can lead to higher volumes but requires careful management of negative keywords.
• 🚀 Starting a new campaign? Begin with exact and phrase match types to establish a strong foundation before introducing broad match for scaling.
• ✅ Use Google's search query report to monitor and refine the match types by adding negative keywords to prevent irrelevant ad triggers.
• 📈 The success of broad match is often tied to smart bidding strategies, such as Target CPA or Target ROAS, which should be well-optimized before broad match is utilized.
• 🛠️ Manage match types dynamically within your account, adjusting as needed based on performance data and campaign goals.
• 📊 Conversion rates and click-through rates can vary significantly between match types, with exact match often leading in conversion but broad match potentially driving more volume.
• 🔑 Understanding and effectively using each match type is crucial for optimizing ad performance and achieving campaign objectives.

Q & A

What are the three keyword match types Google offers for advertising?

The three keyword match types offered by Google are exact match, phrase match, and broad match.

How does Google define an exact match keyword?

An exact match keyword is defined by Google as a keyword that will trigger ads for searches that have the same meaning as the exact match keyword phrase, indicated by brackets around the keyword.

What is the primary advantage of using exact match keywords?

The primary advantage of using exact match keywords is that they offer the tightest control over the search terms for which ads are shown, which can lead to higher conversion rates.

Why might exact match keywords sometimes not perform as well as expected?

Exact match keywords might not perform as well as expected due to the high cost per click (CPC) compared to phrase and broad match types, which can affect the overall return on investment.

How does Google define a phrase match keyword?

A phrase match keyword is defined by Google as a keyword that will trigger ads for searches that include the meaning of the keyword phrase, indicated by quotation marks around the keyword.

What does moderate matching refer to in the context of Google Ads?

Moderate matching refers to the behavior of phrase match keywords in Google Ads, which are less restrictive than exact match but more restrictive than broad match.

What is the recommended approach to using broad match keywords in Google Ads?

The recommended approach is to use broad match keywords only after a campaign is already performing well with exact and phrase match types and smart bidding strategies are in place and hitting performance goals.

Why is it important to be diligent with negative keywords when using broad match?

It is important to be diligent with negative keywords when using broad match because broad match can trigger ads for a wide range of search terms, some of which may be irrelevant to the campaign, thus requiring negative keywords to prevent wasted ad spend.

How does the script suggest starting a new Google Ads campaign in terms of keyword match types?

The script suggests starting a new Google Ads campaign with exact and phrase match types, and only introducing broad match types once the campaign is already performing well with smart bidding strategies.

What role do smart bidding strategies play in the effectiveness of broad match keywords?

Smart bidding strategies, such as Target CPA or Target ROAS, play a crucial role in the effectiveness of broad match keywords by ensuring that the ads are shown to relevant audiences and that the campaign meets its performance goals.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Understanding Google Keyword Match Types

The speaker introduces the topic of Google's keyword match types, emphasizing their importance for advertisers. They plan to explain the three main match types: exact, phrase, and broad, and demonstrate their functionality with a real-life account example. The speaker also mentions that Google's support page provides a good explanation of these match types, but they will offer a deeper dive into how to effectively use each one, including insights on which terms are triggered by each match type and their performance metrics.

05:02

🔍 Deep Dive into Exact and Phrase Match Types

The speaker discusses the exact match type, explaining how it has evolved from a strict match to a broader interpretation that can still be quite loose, sometimes behaving similarly to phrase or broad match. They highlight the importance of understanding the 'same meaning' aspect of exact match and provide an example using 'lawn mowing service'. The speaker also covers the phrase match type, which is less restrictive than exact match and can trigger ads for searches that include the meaning of the keyword. They discuss the use of quotation marks to indicate a phrase match and share their personal strategy of using a mix of match types, including exact and phrase, for better control and conversion rates.

10:02

🌐 Broad Match Insights and Smart Bidding

The speaker moves on to broad match, explaining its potential to show ads for a wide range of related searches, which can lead to significant scale but also requires careful management with negative keywords. They caution against using broad match without smart bidding, as it can lead to irrelevant ad placements. The speaker shares an example of how broad match can generate significant revenue when used correctly with smart bidding, but also emphasizes the need to start campaigns with exact and phrase match types before introducing broad match for scaling purposes.

15:05

🛠️ Best Practices for Keyword Match Types in Campaigns

In the final paragraph, the speaker outlines their recommended approach to using keyword match types in new campaigns. They suggest starting with exact and phrase match types to establish a baseline of performance and only introducing broad match once the campaign is hitting its goals with smart bidding. The speaker also promises a follow-up video on keyword research to help advertisers find the best keywords for their campaigns, encouraging viewers to subscribe and like the video for more insights.

Keywords

💡Keyword Match Types

Keyword Match Types refer to the settings in Google Ads that determine how closely a user's search query must match the advertiser's keyword to trigger the display of an ad. In the video, the speaker explains the three main match types: exact, phrase, and broad, and how they are used to control the targeting of ads. The script provides examples of how each match type behaves and the implications for ad visibility and performance.

💡Exact Match

Exact Match is a keyword setting in Google Ads that was traditionally used to show ads only for the exact phrase entered by the advertiser. However, the script clarifies that exact match has become less strict over time, and now may also trigger ads for searches that have the 'same meaning' as the keyword. The video demonstrates how exact match can still offer tight control but may not always provide the volume of traffic needed.

💡Phrase Match

Phrase Match is another match type in Google Ads that allows for ads to be shown when the user's search query includes the meaning of the advertiser's keyword. The script uses the example 'lawn mowing service' to illustrate how a phrase match could trigger for related terms like 'hire a company to mow lawn'. Phrase match is described as offering moderate control and is used when the wording is significant to the campaign.

💡Broad Match

Broad Match is the most flexible of the three match types, allowing ads to be shown for searches that are related to the keyword, even if the exact words are not used. The video script warns that broad match can sometimes result in ads being shown for unrelated searches, which is why it's important to use it with smart bidding and to be diligent with adding negative keywords to avoid irrelevant traffic.

💡Search Query Report

A Search Query Report in Google Ads is a tool that shows which search terms triggered an advertiser's ad to be displayed. In the script, the speaker emphasizes the importance of reviewing this report to understand how different match types are performing and to identify any irrelevant search terms that should be added as negative keywords.

💡Smart Bidding

Smart Bidding is a feature in Google Ads that automatically sets bids to help advertisers meet their performance goals. The script mentions that broad match works very well with smart bidding once it is 'dialed in', meaning that the bidding strategy is effectively optimizing ad performance. Smart Bidding is recommended for use with broad match to manage the broader search term targeting.

💡Conversion Rate

Conversion Rate is a metric in advertising that measures the number of users who complete a desired action (like making a purchase) divided by the total number of users who viewed or clicked an ad. The video script uses conversion rate to compare the performance of different match types, noting that exact match keywords often have the highest conversion rates but can be more expensive.

💡Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Click-Through Rate, or CTR, is the ratio of users who click on a specific link to the number of total users who view a page, email, or advertisement. The script provides CTR examples for different match types, indicating that exact match keywords tend to have a higher CTR due to their precise targeting.

💡Negative Keywords

Negative Keywords are terms that an advertiser adds to their campaign to exclude certain search queries from triggering their ads. The script discusses the necessity of using negative keywords with broad match to prevent the ads from showing up for irrelevant searches and to maintain the relevance and effectiveness of the advertising campaign.

💡Campaign Optimization

Campaign Optimization refers to the process of adjusting and fine-tuning various elements of an advertising campaign to improve its performance. In the script, the speaker describes a strategy for optimizing campaigns by starting with exact and phrase match types, then introducing broad match types once the campaign is already performing well with smart bidding.

💡Google Ads

Google Ads is Google's online advertising platform that allows businesses to display ads in Google's search results and on its advertising network. The script is centered around the use of Google Ads, specifically discussing how to effectively use keyword match types within the platform to optimize ad performance and achieve advertising goals.

Highlights

Google Keyword match types have evolved significantly over the years, impacting how advertisers should approach their campaigns.

The video provides a comprehensive breakdown of the three keyword match types offered by Google: exact, phrase, and broad.

Exact match keywords are indicated by brackets and are designed to show ads for searches with the same meaning as the keyword.

Phrase match keywords, denoted by quotation marks, allow for ads to show on searches that include the meaning of the keyword.

Broad match, the loosest of the three, can trigger ads for searches related to the keyword, often requiring careful management of negative keywords.

Exact match offers the tightest control over ad targeting but can be more expensive due to higher cost per click (CPC).

Phrase match is considered moderate matching and can be effective when exact match is too costly.

Broad match is best used with smart bidding and only after campaigns are already meeting performance goals.

The presenter shares a real-life account example demonstrating the performance of each match type, with exact match having the highest conversion rate.

Exact match keywords, despite their higher cost, often convert the highest among the match types.

The importance of monitoring search query reports to ensure match types are performing as expected is emphasized.

Broad match can generate significant revenue but requires diligent management of negative keywords to avoid irrelevant traffic.

The presenter's strategy for starting a new campaign involves beginning with exact and phrase match types before introducing broad match.

A detailed explanation of how to add and modify keyword match types within a Google Ads account is provided.

The video concludes with a teaser for an upcoming video on Google Keyword research, indicating a follow-up on finding the best keywords for campaigns.

The presenter's approach to using match types is based on extensive experience managing millions of dollars in ad spend.

The video aims to make viewers experts on Google ad keyword match types, providing practical insights for effective campaign management.

Transcripts

Google Keyword match types have changed

over the last few years and they're

highly important a lot of people I talk

to still don't quite understand how each

match type works and which match types

they should be using in their account in

this video I'm going to give you a

complete breakdown of the three keyword

match types Google gives you I'm going

to show you which ones you should be

using in your account and how to

effectively use each match type I'm also

going to show you a real life account

where I show you which terms are being

pulled for each match type and the

performance that I'm getting from those

match types so let's go ahead and dive

[Music]

in all right let's start with Google's

support page on keyword match types I

think they actually do a pretty good job

of explaining the match types and how

they behave I am actually going to start

with exact match so you have three match

types you have exact you have phrase and

you have broad most explanations and

including Google they they for whatever

reason always start with broad mainly

because I think that's why they're

pushing broad so much on advertisers

right now which you don't exactly want

to do quite yet but let me show you so

you have exact match and in this example

they're using the keyword lawn mowing

service you have three match types you

could add this keyword so you have the

exact match and that's going to be with

brackets those brackets indicate to

Google this is an exact match keyword so

what searches could an exact match show

for and these are the the key terms you

want to know when it comes to your match

type so ads may show on searches that

are the same meaning as your keyword so

that the same meaning as your keyword is

highly important years ago an exact

match keyword literally would be the

exact match so if you had lawn mowing

service add as an exact match keyword it

would only show for lawnmowing service

that no longer exists and exact match is

pretty loose these days it does behave

very similar to like a phrase or even a

broad at times so what Google's saying

is you may add lawnmowing service as an

exact match but we're going to show your

ad for that keyword for any term that

means the same thing so in this example

grass cutting service so it's the same

thing it's just someone searched it

differently so exact mat is the tightest

control you're going to have on your

keyword match types we still use a lot

of exact match it's also going to be the

most expensive when you look or usually

when you look at your cost per clicks I

for whatever reason just think Google

somehow program that into match types

like you pay a premium to run exact

match match I like exact match though a

lot because it does give me that control

if you can get exact match keywords to

work you're going to find that they

convert the highest so usually they will

have the highest conversion rate however

sometimes exact match won't work as well

due to the premium cost you're paying on

those cpcs compared to phas and Broad in

those cases then you just have to live

with the phas and Broad match types of

those terms but exact match gives you

nice tight control that does limit you

though because of the tight matching you

may not get the volume that you need and

so there's a world to use all three and

I will show you a real life scenario of

that but just know exact match is as

tight as you can get in Google ads where

you can kind of control the searches

that you're showing for next you have

phrase match so again key terms here

what does phrase match mean according to

Google ads may show on searches that

include the meaning of your keyword so

again exact says it's the same meaning

as your keyword phrase

is it includes the meaning of your

keyword so using lawn mowing service

again they use lawnmowing Service near

me phrase match could fire for that hire

a company to moolan phrase match could

could fire that landscaping services to

cut grass now a phrase match uses

quotation marks around it so if you add

quotation marks around your keyword

inside of your account that will fire or

or indicate to Google that that is a

phrase match keyword so this is they

call moderate matching I still use I

know a lot of people only use Broad and

exact or a lot of people just using

broad now I still do find myself using

phrase match when the wording really

means a lot or if I'm not using broad

match yet and I'm just using phrase and

again I'm going to tell you how we still

manage match types within our accounts

and how we're having a lot of success

still because it's not EXA exactly what

a lot of people are talking about today

in some of the videos I'm seeing and

blog posts and podcasts and everything

else everyone is very much on just broad

match only now I think that world is

coming in the future but we are still

not there in my opinion so I am still

using a mixture of match types and I'm

going to share with you that exact

formula a little bit later on so stay

tuned in the video then next match type

we have broad match so in this case

lawnmowing Services broad match is

basically

ads may show on searches that relate to

your keyword basically you're saying

Google's like hey we can kind of it's

almost it's a theme so lawn mowing

service you're like well we'll show ads

for anything sort of related to lawn

mowing so here there's lawn ation prices

that is not technically what you

probably would want though if you were

bidding on La law mowing services so

most of the time for our clients we do

not sprinkle broad match keywords in

until we have a campaign that's already

dialed in it's already hitting our

performance goals we already have Smart

bidding whether that's targeted CPA or

targeted row as working and Performing

well then we sprinkle in Broad to

accelerate the volume of add Impressions

that we're going to get this will give

you scale broad match is great with

scale I only use broad match though when

I'm using smart bidding that's already

hitting my goal use you with exact match

or phrase match so be very careful with

broad match it will show for a lot of

unrelated things I will again show you

an example of that and so you have to be

very diligent about adding negative

keywords when utilizing broad but this

is going to give you usually the most

volume and Broad match works very well

with smart bidding once you have Smart

bidding dialed in so let's go show some

examples here further on Broad match so

here they give you an example low carb

diet plan you'll see it shows for

Mediterranean diet books it shows for

recipes low calorie recipes again this

is super broad they're just saying hey

these are related terms to low carb diet

plan but you may if you're bidding on

that term you may have a low carb diet

plan ebook that you're trying to get

leads to or sell and someone looking up

recipes or Mediterranean diet books

might have nothing to do with that and

so this is why you have to be extremely

careful with broad match then they give

you an example of some phay so tennis

shoes shoes for tennis buy tennis shoes

on sale red tennis shoes comfortable

tennis sneakers again they will not show

you for tennis store or shop for

sneakers broad match could but phrase

would not because again phrase has to

include the meaning of your keyword and

then exact match shoes for men basically

it's going to be men's shoes related

sech terms this is kind of a generic

shoes for men exact match keyword and so

it's not going to show you for like

men's tennis shoes or choose for boys in

that example sometimes I've seen it get

pretty broad though so you have to

always make sure you're looking at your

search query report when you're looking

at your match types let's actually dive

into a real account and I'm going to

show you how each match type is behaving

and what Search terms it's firing ads

for so let's go ahead and dive in okay

so I'm inside of an actual campaign

you'll notice I have broad match because

there's nothing no brackets or

quotations around it I have exact match

keyword here you see by the brackets and

then I have phrase and that's from those

quotations when you're adding keywords

you can do it yourself so let's say best

modular sectional I would

add that to add it as phrase I would

add the brackets to add as exact and

then if I wanted to go broad I would

just type it out like that so that's how

you add those match types you can also

change so here's a broad match I can

come here and change the match

type inside of your column match type

there so it's super simple to add

keyword match types now let's look at

how these terms are behaving you'll

notice fact I mentioned this this this

is actually a perfect example my exact

match has the highest conversion rate my

phrase match has the second highest

conversion rate and my broad is the

lowest now I get most my volume from

this broad keyword in this account

obviously we've spent quite a bit of

money here in this example over

$100,000 and then my return is the

lowest on the broad uh highest on exact

and second highest on phrase it doesn't

always work that way this is just a

perfect example I guess to show you

though on how some of these match types

behave again this is usually going to be

the loosest you see my click-through

rate on my exact match is almost 9%

phrase is about 5.8 and then it's about

a 7.7 on Broad that's fairly normal that

you're going to have a high higher

click-through rate on your exact match 2

because it's so tight in the targeting

where broad's going to show you a bunch

of stuff so let me show you let's start

with the exact match so we have modular

couch so I'm going to click that I'm

going to hit Search terms these are all

the terms that it fired this keyword has

fired for so they've got 7500 clicks

here they're not all modular couch now

more than 50% of them are are literally

the exact search modular couch but then

the rest are different variations of

modular couch but it means the same

thing so I am going to put search term

does not contain couch sofa sectional or

let's do

modular and now you'll

see here's the reason I'm showing this

you'll know these are all just

misspellings of sectionals so I don't

need to worry about that but basically

every single click that I've received

had the meaning of couch sofos sexual or

modular in the search term so that means

it's doing a really good job of showing

Search terms that mean the same thing as

modular couch that example will make

more sense when I show you how broad

works so let's look at phrase real quick

I'm going to do the same thing you'll

notice it gets a little looser right

sectionals with removable covers modular

sectionals Ikea modular sectionals which

is kind of a a that's a obviously a

store Cloud sectionals so this gets a

little looser but it relates to modular

sectionals so I'm going to do the same

filter does not contain and we'll do

couch sofa sectional and then

modular and again a lot of these are

misspellings I have no idea how a

product sort of number got pulled here

that's a bit odd to me but you'll notice

out of 84,000 clicks from that term only

two of them came from basically these

what I would call broad search terms

here so phrase is fairly it's not as

tight as exact but it's it's still doing

a pretty good job now the reason I'm

showing you these Search terms and how

they're being pulled cuz look at this

broad match now so I'm going to pull

broad match broad match has had 35,000

clicks I'm going to do the same thing

though so search term does not contain

sectional sofa couch I think every time

I've spelled this out differently but

here we go boom 2,000 clicks have come

from terms that don't even contain

sectional sofa calra modular so now

let's look at that furniture with

removable covers boy that could mean a

lot of things that's super broad futon

with storage we don't sell futons so

this would be a negative keyword I need

to add for futons tiny house furniture

that is very Broad and I don't know how

that has anything to do with modular

couch I'm sure people buy modular

couches for their tiny houses but this

is very very broad let's look

at some more studio apartment

furniture stayhome body I don't even

know what that means americanmade love

seats this is a modular sofa it's the

keyword is literally modular couch and

it's showing love seat

terms so I wanted to show you that

because you've got to be very diligent

on negative keywords when dealing with

broad match because it goes so broad

however I cannot argue the results this

is the filtered keywords here out of

about 600,000 in Revenue 400,000 of it

was generated from that broad match part

of that is Google does a really good job

with broad match it gives you more

signals intent signals with smart

bitting so it works wonderful

wonderfully with smart bidding if I was

manually bidding modular couch as a

broad term or using maximize clicks it

would do horrendous 99% of the times I

have a full video by the way on bid

strategies I will add that to the

description and we'll also add it to

this video here go check that out on how

on what bit strategies you should be

using and when but in this case with

match types you do not want broad match

being used unless you already have Smart

bidding working in a campaign it's

already hitting your goal so how do we

use our match types when starting a

campaign out if I have a campaign that's

new and I don't have my goal being hit

yet I usually start with exact match and

phrase match then once I get my exact

match and phrase match working and in

some cases exact might not work because

it the costs are too high so I have to

pause it out maybe it's just phrase

match it could be a combination but I'll

start with phrase and exact match terms

then once I get those terms dialed in

I'm getting conversions they're hitting

my goal whether that's a CPA goal or a

Raz goal and I'm using smart bidding

whether that's Target Raz or Target CPA

then to get increased scale from my

campaign then I start sprinkling in

those broad match terms however I never

start with broad match terms in very

rare cases I will do that a year from

now I may have to update this video

because maybe starting with broad match

is the way to go I know some people are

claiming that today they say just go

ahead and start with broad match I still

have more success starting with exact

and phrase and then moving to Broad

match once my campaign's dialed in that

is what we still have the most success

with with our client accounts managing

millions and millions of dollars and

spend so utilize broad as kind of like

the accelerator to your campaign but do

not start with broad start with exact

and phrase there you go you are now a

guru on Google ad keyword match types

make sure to stay tuned I have a video

coming out on Google Keyword research

how to find the best keywords you should

be targeting in your campaigns you now

know the match types and what match

types you should be adding keywords in

this video is going to break down how to

go find the top keyword words you should

actually be targeting within your

campaigns so make sure to subscribe make

sure to like this video and I'll see you

on the next video

[Music]

thanks