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Lesson 3d: Keyword Targeting
Keyword Matching Options
• Overview
• Quiz
• Example
• Quiz
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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 on Google search pages.* Defining how broadly or narrowly your keywords 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. You can apply the following matching options to your keywords: *Note: Partner sites don’t recognize keyword matching options. Therefore, all keywords on these sites are treated as broad-matched keywords.
Broad match is the default setting for your keywords. Therefore, when you submit a new keyword to your ad group without quotes or brackets, it appears as a broad-matched term. Broad-matched keywords reach a wide audience and trigger your ad to appear whenever that keyword or similar term appears in a user's query. This means that your ad appears even if: Used book dealer
A phrase-matched keyword triggers your ad to appear for any query 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 narrows your reach by restricting your ad from showing on irrelevant variations of your keyword. 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 users enter the following queries:
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 — without any additional words or letters before, between, or after the keyword. To enable exact matching for a keyword, enclose it in square brackets. Example: For the exact-matched keyword [used book], your ad could appear when users enter the following query:
Negative-matched keywords prevent your ad from appearing when a search includes a keyword that isn't relevant to your ad. Your ad won't appear when a negative keyword you've 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 exclude. Negative matches may not restrict your other keywords as much as phrase or exact matches might. Example: For the broad-matched keyword used book and negative keyword -college, your ad could appear when users enter the following query:
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 movie or book, but not the actual movie 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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