To build your Search campaigns, you will set up keywords in every ad group. In order to have your ads appear when people search for your product or service, you must choose keywords to match the words or phrases that people search for.
For example, if you sell shoes, you can add, ‘buy shoes as a keyword in your Google Ads campaign.
When people type ‘buy shoes on Google search, your ad might appear on the search results page. To allow greater flexibility in defining what keywords can trigger your ad, there are different keyword match types in Google Ads.
They are, broad match, broad match modifier, phrase match and exact match. Note that each match type has its own symbol.
When you use broad match, ex.: Buy Shoes, Google Ads automatically runs your ads on relevant variations of your keywords. This includes synonyms, singular and plural forms, possible misspellings, stemming, such as floor and flooring, related searches, and other relevant variations.
For example, if you set a keyword like: ‘vegan shoes for kids’, with a broad match, your ad may show for searches like: kids vegan shoes, vegan shoes for toddlers ethical kids clothes, and vegan shoe brands.
Broad match is the default match type that your keywords are assigned if you don’t specify another match type. Broad will start you off widely, so if you want to be more focused with your keyword targeting, consider starting with other match types. In this case we can add unwanted terms/keywords in ‘negative keyword’ section to avoid negative clicks (like free, what etc).
Broad match modifier offers more control than broad match. This match type only shows ads to searches that include the words you’ve marked with a plus sign, or close variations of the plussed terms.
For example, the broad match modified keyword ‘Buy shoes’ with plus signs on each keyword (Ex.: +Buy +Shoes) can match search queries like: Buy red men’s shoes, Buy shoes for kids. But not search queries like: blue shoes, kids shoes, buy sneakers.
With Phrase match, your ad can show to customers who are searching for the exact phrase of your keyword and close variants of it, with additional words before or after. For example, the phrase ‘tennis shoes’ in quotations can match with queries like: red leather tennis shoes, buy tennis shoes on sale, or red tennis shoes. But not search queries like: tennis sneaker shoes.
With Exact match your ad can show to customers who are searching for your exact keyword, or close variants of your exact keyword, but without additional words before or after. The close variants include searches for keywords with the same meaning as the exact keywords, regardless of spelling or grammar similarities between the query and the keyword. For example, the exact word ‘shoes for kids’ in brackets., ex.; [shoes for kids], can match queries like: kids shoes, shoes kids, kids shoe, or shoes for a kid. But not search queries like: red shoes for kids, or buy kids shoes.
Now that you know these four match types, choose a simple keyword strategy that fits your needs.
One way to set up your keywords is using broad match modifier together with exact match keywords. The broad match modifier keywords will uncover and capture a wider range of queries. Some of these queries might have a large volume or exceptional performance. These specific queries can be added as exact match keywords to the same ad group. You can put these different match types in the same ad group, since only one keyword will trigger your ad at a time.
To come up with new keyword ideas or to see the estimated search volume of specific keywords, try using the Keyword Planner. Another very important component of keywords is negative keywords. Negative keywords prevent your ad from being triggered by certain words or phrases. Please note that negative keywords also use match types.
One great tool you’ll want to use is the search terms report, which identifies the search terms that triggered your ads. This report will show you a list of search terms and their performance, so you can decide which search terms have high volume and should be added as an exact keyword, and which search terms should be added as negative keywords.
When selecting a search term you can either add it as a keyword or add it as a negative keyword.
Don’t forget to add the match type symbol, in case you’re adding an exact phrase or broad match modifier keyword.
All the best.