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Lesson 3d: Keyword Targeting
Keyword Matching Options

Objective: Understand the various keyword matching options and how to use them to your advantage in your campaigns.

Overview

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:

  • Broad match
  • Phrase match
  • Exact match
  • Negative match
AdWords also offers a more advanced matching option called embedded match, which is discussed in greater detail later in this lesson.

*Note: Partner sites don’t recognize keyword matching options. Therefore, all keywords on these sites are treated as broad-matched keywords.

Broad Match

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:

  • Other words are included in the query
  • Terms in the query are not written in the same sequence as your keyword
  • The query is similar to your keyword. This includes plurals and synonyms.
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 Match

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:

Ad will appear:
used book dealer
buy used book
rare and used book		 Ad won't appear:
used paperback book
book of used matches

Exact Match

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:

Ad will appear:
used book		 Ad won't appear:
used book seller
used books

Negative Match

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:


Ad will appear:
used book seller 		Ad won't appear:
used college book

Embedded Match

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.

 
 
Implementing Keyword Matching Options

Objective: Learn the benefits of different keyword matching options and how to implement them in an ad group.

Choosing Matching Options

When choosing between different matching options, determine what you want to accomplish for the ad group.

Here are some things to consider:

  • Broader matching options tend to give you more impressions but accrue higher costs. Therefore, include other matching options (like phrase- or exact-match) along with broad-matched keywords in an ad group.
  • Broad-matched keywords should be at least two-word phrases (gourmet coffee or organic coffee beans).
  • Narrower matching options tend to give you fewer clicks and lower your costs. It's still important to use descriptive words for these matching options.
  • Negative keywords work well in most cases when you know a term doesn't apply to your business.
Also, keep in mind your campaign settings. If your campaign is set up to target a very specific geographic segment, broad-matched keywords might work well. On the other hand, if you're targeting one or more countries or territories, more precise keyword matching options could be used.

Example

Take a look at the following ad. Which keywords and keyword matching options might work best? (Assume that the campaign is targeted to one country and one language.) Let's compare different keywords for broad, phrase, and negative matching options.

Find New and Used Books
Special Shakespeare Collection.
Huge Selection. Order Online Today.
www.Bookstore-Example.com


Potential Broad-Matched Keywords

Used books
Used rare books
Used Shakespeare plays

  • Used books is probably too general for this ad. The ad could appear for queries such as used biology books or used shelves for books. As a result, the ad would probably accrue many impressions but few clicks, which would return a low CTR. A better idea might be to try this keyword as a phrase- or exact-matched term.

  • Used rare books and used Shakespeare plays are better broad-matched keywords. They're multi-word variations that provide more detail about the nature of the ad. The result would be more relevant clicks and a higher CTR.
Potential Phrase-Match Keywords

"used books"
"Shakespeare books"

  • "Used books" as a phrase-matched term works better than a broad-matched term because you'll reach only people looking for different variations of used books. It ensures that the ad appears only if users search on the terms used books in that order. The ad could appear if users search on Shakespeare used book or used books of play.

  • "Shakespeare books" is also an effective phrase-matched keyword, as it represents types of books available.
Potential Negative-Matched Keywords

Shakespeare plays
-performance
-auditions

The broad-matched keyword Shakespeare plays doesn't differentiate between users searching for books of Shakespeare plays, performances of Shakespeare plays, or auditions for Shakespeare plays. Adding the negative keywords -performance and -auditions would eliminate many unwanted impressions, and possibly improve your CTR.

Final Keyword List

By taking the top picks from above, the final keyword list in an ad group would look like this:

Used rare books
Used Shakespeare plays
"Shakespeare books"
"used books"
Shakespeare plays
-performance
-auditions

Ad Group Implementation

As demonstrated, you can include different matching options for keywords in the same ad group.

To edit or add a keyword with matching options in your ad group:

  1. Sign in to your account at adwords.google.com.
  2. Select the campaign, and then the ad group you want to edit.
  3. Click the Keywords tab on the Ad Group Details page.
  4. Click Quick add or Edit keywords.
  5. Enter your keyword with the proper punctuation (e.g. quotes, brackets).
  6. Click Save.
You can also edit or add multiple matching options across campaigns in your account using different tools. To learn more, visit the Time-savers lesson.