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Types of Keywords

For contextual advertising to bring interested visitors to the site, it’s not enough to choose keywords, it is important to use them correctly. One of the basic stages is the selection of a suitable type of compliance. In this article, I will tell you what types of keyword matches are and how to work with them.

How do match types work in Google Advertising?

1. Broad match

This type of matching is intended for the widest possible coverage: advertisements will be shown for all possible search queries related to the keyword: for phrases with errors, in different word forms, with different word order.

This type is advisable to use when you need to attract the maximum amount of traffic, or you are working with a very narrow topic.

When using broad matching for search campaigns, it is necessary to carefully select negative keywords (I will discuss this in more detail later).

In campaigns targeting the Display Network, keywords are more often used precisely in broad correspondence so as not to narrow the scope.

2. Broad Match Modifier

Using the modifier, you can control which words will be in search queries. At the same time, words can be in different word forms and with errors, and their order does not matter.

By default, you cannot select this type of match in the interface of your account or the Google Advertising Editor.

You need to choose a broad match and add a “+” sign to each word (for convenience, use AutoCorrect).

Please note that the keywords “+ buy + gift” and “+ gift + buy” are duplicates (the “keys” in your account that compete with each other).

Before prepositions and conjunctions, the “+” sign can be omitted so that advertisements are displayed both with and without phrases containing the preposition or union.

3. Phrase match

To fix the word order in a phrase, you need to enclose it in quotes. Thus, other words will be added only to the beginning or end of the phrase. Word forms can also be different.

4. Exact match

If you enclose a key phrase in square brackets, then avoid impressions on search queries that contain other words. When using this type of correspondence, the coverage is significantly narrowed, but it becomes possible to get the minimum number of irrelevant queries.

Note that even when using exact matching, a change of the word form is allowed.

How do matching types work for negative keywords?

In order to show ads to the right audience, you definitely need to find a “minus” – if you have these words in your search query, your ad will not appear. The broader the coverage, the type of matching a keyword phrase provides, the more carefully it is necessary to work out negative keywords.

In Google Advertising, you can choose a wide, phrasal, or exact match type for negative keywords.

1. Broad match

Prevents an ad from being displayed if a user enters any query that contains a negative word.

Please note that even in the broad correspondence for negative words, word forms or errors are not taken into account, so you should decline the chosen words and prescribe possible variants with errors.

If the user enters a very long search query and your “minus” will be located after the tenth word – the display will take place.

2. Phrase match

If you want to block the display only with a certain combination of words, use phrase matching. In this case, the ads will not appear if the search query contains an excluded phrase with the same word order (even if the user enters other words before and after the phrase).