Google Ad Match Types for Marketers

Let's start by diving into match types. What are they? How to use them? So what are match types? Google Ad match types determine how closely a user's search query must match a keyword for an ad to be eligible to be shown.

And there are four major types of match types. Number one would be a broad match. Ads may show on searches that include misspellings, synonyms, related searches, and other relevant variations.

So this enables your ads to show for a wide range of search terms, and that offers the broadest reach of audience, but may result in less relevant traffic. Then there are phrase matches. Ads may show on searches that include the exact phrase or close variations of it with additional words before or after.

So it may include the entire phrase in the same order, but it may also have a few words after it, so it's a little bit more specific than a broad match, but not as specific as an exact match. Ads may show on searches that match the exact term or very close variations of it, right? This offers the highest level of control and ensures your ads are shown to users searching for your specific terms. And let me give you an example.

One of my clients is an energy company, and if we use a broad match for the word "energy," that could include people looking for energy drinks or for ways to restore their physical energy, right? And that would be less relevant to traffic. But if we use the word "energy"-as in "energy plans," "residential energy," or "commercial energy"-the algorithm says, "Oh, this is related to energy searches, right?" So, using an exact match or a phrase match in that instance will ensure that, even if we reduce traffic, the traffic we get is relevant to that particular brand and the service they provide, right? Negative keywords. Negative keywords prevent your ads from showing on searches containing specific terms or phrases.

And in the example I just gave, that brand could use a negative keyword, such as "energy drink". I don't want any traffic coming from people who type in energy drink because even though in a broad way that may, you know, that may, you know, drive traffic to my website could include the word energy. It's a variation of other ways that people are typing energy.

This particular variation I do not want. So, how do you use match types? You use broad match for reach, right? To get the widest audience. Use phrase match to be more specific.

Use a map exact match when you need precision, right? And you want to employ negative max to exclude irrelevant terms. And then you want to monitor these as your campaigns run and adjust as needed. If you see that your broad match is getting too much irrelevant traffic, you know, you're not getting a lot of click-throughs when those keywords, ad triggered by those keywords, show up in people searches, then you might want to make that more specific or employ a negative one, right? So let's go to the actual campaign manager and let's look at, you know, how this appears in your campaigns.

So if you go to your campaign, if you go to your campaign screen, you know, you click on campaign in the menu, and you click on a specific campaign. First, the first point is that the first screen shows all your campaigns, right? Remember, Google Ads is set up in three tiers: your campaign level, and you can look at the first page of the campaign section of the Google Ads campaign manager. As you saw in Google Ads manager, all my campaigns were listed, but when you click on a specific campaign.

Now you're going to see the next tier of Google Ads, and those are the ad groups: ad group one, two, three, and four. Now, if I click on each of those ad groups, I remember that a campaign can have multiple ad groups, and then each ad group can have multiple ads. So I'm seeing how all the ad groups compare to each other, right? On this one, if I wanted to look at the metrics for this, right? They would appear here ,and none of these campaigns have run in this particular time period.

So you're not seeing any results, but you would normally be able to see clicks, conversion rate, conversions, average cost per click, that type, those types of metrics. We'll get into that when we discuss reporting. However, what we're gonna do right now is click on an individual ad group, and lo and behold, my keywords show up, right? And I can see, against the energy brand, some of the keywords that are currently being used: the energy company, natural gas, and wind energy.

It tells me if it's a broad match or a specific match, and the first amount that we're seeing is all broad matches. And I can toggle that to make a phrase, a match, or an exact match right from here, right? So this is part of the campaign. Once you set it up and click the ad type for a search campaign, it will show you all the keywords you are currently using. You can make changes, and you can also see how these keywords are performing, right? So that is the extent of this; this is where you go to create or change the matches.

And this is where you also go to see the results of your keywords, right? Which of them are driving clicks and conversions? Okay, here's an activity to help you close this section. Pick a product or service category, ideally the one that you are currently involved in if you are marketing currently, and come up with a keyword strategy.

Do the keyword research either in Google Search Console or in a third-party tool if you have access to one. You know, use your seed keywords to determine which keywords are most likely to drive customer traffic. And then pick 10 to 15 relevant keywords, but also in this case, determine whether you're going to use a broad match, a phrase match, or an exact match.

Ideally, your strategy would include a combination of these, all right, to ensure you get reach, you're specific when necessary, and you use precision when necessary. Now you don't have to have different types of matches in each of your campaigns. In some cases, you might want the broadest reach, but you don't want that reach to result in irrelevant traffic, right? You might want to use, you know, the phrase matches, or at least a phrase match, if not an exact match, if that is the case.