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Objective: Understand the various keyword matching options and how to use them to your advantage in your campaigns.
Keyword matching allows you to control how precise a user's search must be to trigger your ad. Defining how broadly or narrowly your ads are targeted helps you reach the audience you want. In general, the more targeted your keywords and ads are, the more likely you are to reach potential customers.
The primary matching options you can apply to your keywords are:
- Broad
- Phrase
- Exact
- Negative
AdWords also offers a more advanced matching option called embedded matching, which will be discussed in greater detail later in this lesson.
Broad match is the default setting for your keywords. Therefore, if you submit a new keyword to your Ad Group it will appear as a broad-matched term.
When your keyword is broad-matched, it will trigger your ad whenever that keyword or similar term appears in a user's query. This means that your ad will still appear even if:
- Other words are included in the query.
- Terms in the query are not written in the same sequence in your keyword (for example, if your keyword is x, your ad may be triggered by search terms xyz, zx or zyx).
- The query is similar to your keyword. This includes plurals and synonyms.
Broad matching is an effective way to reach a wide audience. To specify a broad-matched keyword, enter your keyword without including quotes, brackets or other punctuation.
Example: For the broad-matched keyword used book, your ad could appear when users enter the following queries:
Used book dealer
Buy used book
Used and rare book
Used book for sale
Used book finder
A phrase-matched keyword will trigger your ad for any query on Google that includes your keyword or phrase in the exact sequence and form that you specify. (Additional terms in a user's query can precede or follow the phrase.)
Phrase matching helps restrict your ad from showing on irrelevant variations of your keyword and target your audience more accurately. To enable phrase matching for a particular keyword, enclose it with quotation marks.
Example: For the phrase-matched keyword "used book", your ad will appear when Google users enter the following queries:
Ad will appear:
used book dealer
buy used book
rare and used books |
Ad will not appear:
used paperback book
book of used matches |
Exact match is the most precise method for targeting your keywords. Use exact match when you want your ad to appear only on a query that precisely matches the keyword you have chosen. With exact match, your ad will not appear for search queries that include extra words or letters or for queries that do not match the sequence of your exact-matched keyword.
Exact-match keywords are enclosed in square brackets.
Example: For the exact-matched keyword [used book], your ad will display when Google.co.uk users enter the following query:
Ad will appear:
used book |
Ad will not appear:
used book seller
used books |
Negative keywords prevent your ad from appearing when a search includes a keyword that is not relevant to your ad. Your ad will not appear when a negative keyword you have specified is included in a user's search query.
To specify a negative keyword, add a minus sign (-) before the keyword or phrase you want to limit. Negative matches may not restrict your other keywords as much as phrase or exact matches might.
Example: For broad-matched keyword 'used book' and negative keyword -college, your ad will display when Google.co.uk users enter the following query:
Ad will appear:
used book seller
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Ad will not appear:
used college book |
Embedded match is a sophisticated form of keyword matching that allows you to prevent your ad from appearing in relation to certain phrase or exact matches. This is popular when an advertiser sells merchandise related to a film or book, but not the actual film or book.
Example: An advertiser selling Toy Story merchandise might use the embedded match option of a negative and exact match on -[Toy Story]. This way, the advertiser's ads appear for Toy Story dolls and Toy Story products, but not for the exact match Toy Story./
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