Keyword Match Types are Critical to PPC Success

Understanding the three different match types for your PPC campaigns is one of the fundamental skills any good search marketer must be able to master. Use these incorrectly and you will quickly blow your budget, not generate any decent sales volume and have a very unhappy boss to answer to!

The three match types:

• [Exact Match]
• “Phrase Match”
• Broad Match

Each match type is used for a different purpose and knowing how to best leverage each is very powerful. The search marketing arms of the big three each follows a fairly similar approach with Google AdWords and MSN/Bing adCenter using identical match types and terminology while Yahoo! Search is a bit more difficult to get at first. However, once you’ve mastered the individual terminology you’ll be fine.

Exact Match

This terminology is used by Google Adwords and MSN/Bing adCenter. In Yahoo! Search this is referred to as Standard Match. This match type is simple — your keyword or keyword phrase is only shown when the user searches for that specific keyword or phrase in the exact order and without any other terms in the search query.

In Google this is done with brackets [exact match], while in MSN/Bing you choose this as an option.

For example, if your Exact Match keyword phrase is [big red hat] then your ad will only show for that exact phrase with the words in that exact order – big red hat. It will not show for the search query red big hat or buy big red hat.

Advantages – you know exactly what keywords or phrases you are bidding on and your traffic is much more targeted. Conversion rates tend to be higher with exact match and you are able to better control your costs.

Disadvantages – this is the lease flexible of the three match types and you lose any longtail opportunities. This leads to significantly fewer impressions, clicks and may have you missing some tremendous sales opportunities.

Phrase Match

This terminology is used by Google Adwords and MSN/Bing adCenter. Yahoo! Search does not have an equivalent program for this. This match type is very versatile and your ads appear when the keyword or keyword phrase is included in the actual search query (all words must appear in the same order).

In Google this is done with quotation marks “phrase match”. If your Phrase Match keyword phrase is “big red hat” your ad would show in searches that contain additional terms as long as the search contains the exact phrase you targeted. It would show for – big red hat, buy big red hat or big red hat information. But will not show in searches for red big hat or information on red hats.

Advantages – it provides more flexibility than does Exact Match by giving you the opportunity to uncover new keywords or keyword phrases.

Disadvantages – you still lose out on some longtail keyword phrase opportunities when the search queries are not exactly aligned with your keyword phrase order.

Broad Match

This terminology is used by Google and MSN/ Bing. In Yahoo! This is referred to as Advanced Match. In all three search engines this is the default option and your ads will show for all singular, plural variations, and synonyms in any order. Google also states that ads will be returned for “other relevant variations”.

If your Broad Match keyword phrase is “big red hat” your ad may appear for a search query that contained any, some or all these words (’big’, ‘red’ and ‘hat’) in any order and certainly with other terms.

Advantages – this will give you the highest amount of traffic of any the various key match types and also the widest variety of keyword phrases. This can be very powerful when applying a strong negative keyword strategy.

Disadvantages – this tactic can also quickly blow your budget completely out of the water. In addition to out of control spending you tend to have a lower CTR (Click Thru Rates), lower quality scores and you have to be able to utilize advanced search query reports.

Keyword Match Type Strategies

Setting up your account with only phrase and exact matched keywords/ keyword phrases is considered a more pragmatic approach than is setting your ad groups and campaigns to only broad match. In our experience the best long term strategy is a wide net of keywords, utilizing all of the match types and tied into a clearly defined bidding strategy. This approach greatly enhances your traffic, keyword knowledge and ROI.

A key component of a well planned bidding strategy includes higher Max CPC for Exact Match and Phrase Match in order to achieve higher placement. This tactic leads to higher conversion percentages, quality scores and sales as these keyword phrases are highly targeted to your primary buyer profile.

On some of our accounts we have found that an overall strategy of 60% phrase match, 20% exact match and 20% broad match is ideal while on other accounts 50%, 30% and 20% are best. By following these general guidelines you should be able to develop a highly customized program that maximizes traffic, controls overall costs and better targets the campaigns for your unique niche.