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.

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

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:

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:

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:

The broad-match keyword used books will probably be too general to be effective for this ad. The ad would appear on queries such as used biology books or used shelves for books. As a result, the ad would probably accrue many impressions, but few clicks.

Similarly, the broad-match keyword Shakespeare might be too general. Common variations such as Shakespeare festival would trigger your ad, but will not bring visitors who are interested in your business to your site.

Adding "used books" as a phrase match better targets the ad by ensuring that it will appear only if users search on the terms used books in that order. You ad would appear if users search on Shakespeare used book or used books of play. You will know that you are reaching only people looking for different variations of used books.

The broad-match keyword Shakespeare plays does not differentiate between users searching for books of Shakespeare plays, performances of Shakespeare plans or auditions for Shakespeare plays. Adding the negative keywords -performance and -auditions would eliminate many unwanted impressions and possibly improve your ROI as well.

Adding Negative Keywords

To identify appropriate negative keywords for your account, you can use the following methods:

• Use the Keyword Tool: We recommend using our keyword tool, which has many features to help you refine your keyword list. You can access this tool by clicking Keyword Tool above the keyword table for the Ad Group you wish to edit.
• Add Ad Group or Campaign level negative keywords: You can apply negative keywords to all of the Ad Groups in a campaign or to an individual Ad Group. To apply negative keywords at the campaign level, click Tools on the Campaign Management tab and then click Edit Campaign Negative Keywords.
• Enter negative keywords manually: As described in the examples above, you can also manually add negative keywords to your keyword lists. To specify a negative keyword, place a negative sign (–) before the word.

The broad-matched, multi-word keywords used rare books and used Shakespeare plays may work well. Implementing phrase-matched keywords may eliminate unwanted variations that do not pertain to your service. As a result, phrase-matched keywords can be more effective with general terms. The keyword phrase "used book" is appropriate since the advertiser is selling used books, but does not offer text books or blue book estimates for used cars.