Running successful PPC campaigns in Google AdWords can be pretty complex. At first, the system seems pretty straightforward and easy to use, and that’s true. However, there are many levers and buttons to pull and push. If you don’t really know what you’re doing it’s easy to exhaust your budget quickly and not get anything out of it! So, to avoid this frustration, we’ll share some important knowledge about keyword matching options, because this really has a huge impact on the performance of your ppc campaigns.
Keyword Matching Options in Google AdWords
First, there were 4 keyword matching options to choose from that controlled how your ads are being shown – to a very wide audience, loosely related to the keywords you chose, or very specific and focusing on only a very small niche.
These options were:
- Broad Match
- Phrase Match
- Exact Match
- Negative Match
For a detailed explanation on what these exactly mean and do, read about keyword matching options
Now, there is also a 5th matching option, that is relatively new and is actually one of our favourites because it’s kind of the missing piece of the keyword matching options. It’s called Broad Match Modifier. This new AdWords targeting feature lets you create keywords that have greater reach than phrase match and more control than broad match.
How To Start Using It
To implement the modifier, just put a plus symbol (+) directly in front of one or more words in a broad match keyword. Each word preceded by a + has to appear in your potential customer’s search exactly or as a close variant. Close variants include misspellings, singular/plural forms, abbreviations and acronyms, and stemmings (like “floor” and “flooring”).
However, synonyms (like “quick” and “fast”) and related searches (like “flowers” and “tulips”) are not considered close variants. Be sure there are no spaces between the + and modified words, but do leave spaces between words. Examples: Correct usage: +formal +shoes. Incorrect usage: +formal+shoes. Incorrect usage: + formal + shoes.
Why You Would Use It
If you mainly use exact and phrase match keywords today, adding modified broad match keywords to your campaign can help you get more clicks and conversions at an ROI comparable to that of your phrase match keywords.
Compared to using only phrase and exact match keywords, using modified broad match can greatly reduce the number of keywords needed to generate desirable volume because each keyword can match countless word order and spelling variations. If you mainly use broad match keywords in your account today, you may consider using the modifier with keywords you’ve inactivated due to poor ROI or unwanted matches too difficult to manage with negative keywords.
It’s also important to know that switching high volume existing broad match keywords to modified broad match will likely lead to a significant decline in click and conversion volumes and will not directly improve Quality Score.
Some Visual Help
To get a better understanding of how the different matching options work, please see below image:
Conclusion
Every keyword matching option has its pros and cons. Which one to use really depends on the kind of industry you’re in, your budget, the competitiveness and amount of the bids, and your goals.
From our own experience, we can say that we like the newer Broad Match Modifier a lot – we’ve seen CTR and traffic gone up, while avoiding wasting dollars on irrelevant stuff that could be triggered by using the regular broad match options. We encourage you to give it a try for your next ppc campaign!
If you have any questions or want to know how we can help improve your ppc campaigns, check out our pay-per-click services or contact us!
