http://www.search-mojo.com/wordpress/?p=200

If you are nervous about your account’s performance and are afraid you will not be able to make the necessary changes to reach your goals (be they clicks, conversions, etc.), then I would recommend you start with phrase and exact match. And to Michael’s point regarding “conversions over sheer quantity” I think this is mostly true. Generally speaking phrase and exact match keywords will have higher conversion rates. But some of my best converting exact match keywords only came about because I used broad match first, looked at my analytics, reviewed my search query reports and then said, “Hey, this keyword rocks, let’s put it in as exact match!”

Dave - to bluntly answer your question, YES, I would recommend you use broad match from the beginning (given that you can run and read PPC reports!).
Michael - thanks for adding to the conversation! You’re PPC Hero’s best commenter.

I can’t speak for the heroes, but I think there’s a time and a place for both techniques.

Using broad with proper negatives ensures that your traffic will be high (in most cases) and it might also pull in some queries and keyword opportunities that you didn’t know about. (Keyword tools won’t always tell you the crazy things actual humans will think to search on.)

Phrase and Exact will cut out all the riff-raff, so to speak. You won’t get near as much traffic, in a lot of cases, but you’ll see higher CTRs (an thus, quality scores) and the traffic you do get will be more likely to convert.

So, I think the usage should apply to your need. If you’re concerned about traffic first and conversions second, use broad. If you’re concerned about conversions over sheer quantity, go phrase & exact.

What do you think, John?

I concur - great job with this article. You guys really do consistently pump out great quality articles…

I do have a question though…

It sounds like you definitely advocate the use of broad match as long as you keep a close eye on incoming queries and adjust accordingly with negatives. But would you recommend implementing broad match right away (i.e., at the start of a new campaign)? Based on this article, it sounds like you would — especially to jumpstart the process of finding out which words to add as negatives…is that right? The reason I ask is because I’ve heard others say to always start with phrase and exact only, so as to get CTR up (and consequently, assist with quality score).

Also thanks for the great tip about not forgetting phrase and exact match for negatives…

- Dave

Thanks so much for the kind words! All of us (Joe, Amber and myself) strive to provide information that we find the most useful in our daily PPC management. It’s great to hear that you find just as much benefit from that information as we do!