Keyword Match Types are very important when you are working with Google Ads, with Google Ads being one of the best ways to get your brand or product in front of your potential customers quickly, without waiting for at least 3 months for SEO to kick in, it can help drive traffic quickly to your site.

However, without the right Keyword match types within your campaign and ad groups, you can be in danger of getting hit by Google’s Idiot Tax, which means you are running the risk of having a high wasted ad spend. As you can imagine, you do not want to waste your hard earned money on irrelevant clicks and give more money to Google.

This guide will help you get the most out of your Google Ads campaigns by looking at the different keyword match types that you should be using for your campaigns. We will take you through each of the match types with examples of how it works and the pros and cons.

What are the different types of Keyword Match Types in Google Ads.

Broad Match Type

Broad match is the default match type because it makes the most amount of money for Google. This term generally gets a lower CTR (Click Through Rate) For this match type, you will need to ensure that you are using a large number of negative keywords within your campaign. We will discuss the negative keywords later on.

Example of Match Type Keyword

Web Design Consultant.

Other words that can trigger your ads are variations, different words, different concepts related to the main phrase, synonyms, variations.

Pros of broad match type: 

• You can spend less time building a list of keywords
• If you are struggling to think of every variation of your keyword – this is great for discovering new ideas for keywords.
• This strategy can work with a larger budget account.
• In most cases, you are getting a cheaper cost per click for the term. This is not always a good thing.

Cons of Broad match type:

• You will spend a large amount of money very quickly on unrelated keywords that you are searching for.
• You will get a lot of irrelevant clicks on your ads.
• A low CTR (Click Through Rate) can have a negative impact on your overall quality score.
• This is one of the hardest types of keywords to drive conversions and overall brand awareness.

Broad Match Modified – Often known as BMM

One of our favourite types of keyword match types available, this term contains a plus symbol before the keyword.

Example of a Broad Match Modified

+web +design +newcastle

Your ads can show for when the search term contains the modified terms, plus any other terms. They can also show for in any order the user types in. Here are some examples of Broad match modified, that can trigger the above search term.

• Best Newcastle Web Design Agency.
• Web design agency newcastle
• Newcastle design and web company

Pros of broad match modified match type

• This is a great way to get a good amount of clicks to discover new ideas which you may not have thought of, while having some more control over irrelevant queries.
• This type can help improve Click through rate over the broad match type.
• It can give you cheaper cost per click than phrase and exact match types.

Cons of broad match modified match type

• This does not mean you should not have a strong list of negative keywords
• If the order of your keywords is important to you, you should use a different match type (Phrase match would be a better option)
• This offers a potential challenge to generate a good click through rate which can have a negative impact on your quality score.

Match Type: Phrase Match

Phrase match uses quotation marks to make sure that your ad only appears for searches containing your exact match keyword and close variants of the phrase. This also allows your ads to show up with words or phrases before or after the phrase within the quotes. The ad will only trigger if the search term or phrase contains your entire keyword or phrase in the exact order, unlike the broad match modified match type.

Example of a phrase match 

“Web design newcastle”

The thing to note about this phrase match type is that Google will not shuffle the phrase within the quotation marks.

Pros of Phrase Match type

• This gives you a lot more control of your search terms.
• It’s less unpredictable than broad match or broad match modified.
• Still allows you to discover new ideas for your campaigns.
• It helps to improve click through rate over broad match modified.
• Potentially gives a cheaper cost per click.

Cons of Phrase Match type

• You still need to watch for negative keywords.
• Limits search volume for search terms in different order than your keywords. You need to ensure that your ordering of the phrase within the match type is how your users will search for.
• Limits the quality of data and ideas you will get.
• Can be more expensive than broad and broad match modified match types.

Match Type: Exact Match

The match type Exact Match uses brackets around your keyword(s) to ensure that your ad will only show for queries containing your exact keyword, without any additional words or phrases before or after the term. Negative keywords are not really needed to supplement this match type. It’s good to know that this generally generates the highest click through rate and highest cost per click.

Example of Exact match type

[Web design newcastle]

What will also trigger your exact match type.

• Your ad will still trigger for misspellings
• Singular or plurals of the phrase
• reordered words which contain the same meaning for example mens shoes, shoes mens.
• Addition or removal of function words such as in, to.
• Synonyms of the words
• same search intent will trigger your ads, for example, images royalty free = free copyright images.

Match Type: Negative Match

Negative match types should be a large part of your Google Ads strategy. These can be broad, phrase or exact match variations. This type does not trigger anything within your ads, however, they are to be used as a preventative tool to help stop unwanted or irrelevant search terms triggering your ads.

Negative match uses the minus symbol ‘-‘ before the word that you do not want to trigger your ad. Here are the examples of negative keywords using the different match types.

Negative broad match type  -London Agency

Negative phrase match type -“London Agency”

Negative exact match type -[London Agency]

It is important to include these within your ad groups to avoid wasted ad spend. This will help to filter out unwanted search terms that will potentially trigger your ads to show up.

With this knowledge of keyword match types, you will be able to correctly structure your Google Ad campaigns. If you would like to discuss the correct way to structure your Google Ads correctly, please book an appointment with our digital marketing team via our contact page