What You Need to Know About PPC Keyword Match Types

Using match types allows you to set up certain keywords in a way that will help you control who sees your ad. We recommend using all three of the main match types when you first activate your new PPC campaign so you can maximize your exposure and learn which match type will give you the best results. Later on you can determine which match type is most effective and pause others if they’re not working.

Broad Match (keyword, no punctuation): Broad match allows Google et al. to display your ads for terms that are variations of, plurals of, or related to (enter expanded broad match) the keywords in your account.

Modified Broad Match (+keyword): Applied to Google ONLY. This is the term that Google has assigned to the plus (+) sign that is used to signify modified broad match in your keyword matches. To clarify, to properly utilize this match type, you simply type in the keyword or keyword string with a + before the keywords you want to modify and then signify the match type in the Adwords interface as “broad.”

Phrase Match (“keyword” in quotes): This match type will show ads when the keyword phrase from your account is a part of the actual search query (all words, in the same order). For example, your keyword is tennis shoes, and that keyword will show ads for searches such as tennis shoes store and big purple tennis shoes.

Exact Match ([keyword] in brackets): This match type is the obvious one: your keyword will only display ads when searchers enter this keyword exactly into the search engines.

Negative Match (-keyword, with minus sign): By applying negative match keywords to your account, you are telling the search engines NOT to display your ad for searches containing that term. This also applies to the Display network. Applying negative keywords in Display campaigns will prevent your ads from displaying on irrelevant sites.

Be sure to start off your PPC campaigns with all match types. Run your search query reports to find any negative keywords you may need to add. Again, match types are a great way to control who sees your ads, and they’re very easy to implement.