There are three ways to match your keywords to the your ads. They’re called keyword match types and essentially work like this:

Broad Keyword Match - This is the default position for all of the search engines. A broad keyword match appears just the way you type it in. If your keyword is Automobile Tires then that’s how it will appear on your keyword list. Your ad would be eligible to appear when either word, automobile or tires, is searched for, or if you select the Content Network option then on any page that is optimized for either keyword. The important thing to remember about broad keyword matches is the words can appear in any order and with any variation. Single or plural forms of the words apply and even synonyms. In other words, your ad might run on pages that are about auto tire or car tire.

Phrase Match - Phrase Match is an option you have to choose and the way you choose it is to encapsulate your key phrase in quotation marks. “Automobile tires” means that your ad will run on pages that display this key phrase exactly the way you have it inside those quotation marks. This is a more targeted way to select appropriate keywords, but it still isn’t limited in scope as much as it could be. Your key phrase can still appear along with other words. For instance, your ad might run on pages where a searcher queries “yellow automobile tires” or “truck automobile tires” and maybe even “automobile tires 2005,” but it won’t run if a query is made for “automobile tire” or “car tires.”

Exact Match - Exact Keyword Match is the most targeted way to match your keywords. If you enclose your keyword in brackets, like this: [automobile tires], then your ad will run on pages where the keyword phrase is that specific phrase exactly as it appears within the brackets and without any other words before or after it. In other words, if a searcher queries “automobile tires 2005″ then your ad will not appear. It will appear only if a searcher queries “automobile tires” and nothing else.

Those are the three keyword match types that are available to you as a pay per click advertiser. Which one you choose could determine whether or not your pay per click campaign is successful or not.

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When you set up a pay per click ad, set up each ad around a specific keyword. You can make the most out of each pay per click campaign by creating several ad groups within each campaign and focusing each ad on one particular keyword phrase and its variations.

For example, let’s say you set up a pay per click campaign called “Pay Per Click.” Under the “Pay Per Click” campaign you have several ad groups, each one narrowing the scope a little on the broad definition of “Pay Per Click.” Some potential ad groups might be:

• Google AdWords
• Microsoft AdCenter
• Yahoo! Search Marketing
• Keyword Research
• Bidding Strategies

Narrowing Keywords Within Ad Groups
Within each ad group you’ll have individual ads. Each ad should focus on a specific keyword phrase and its variations. You don’t want to water this down.

The reason keyword matches are so important is because you want your ad to be optimized according to the specific landing page that you are sending traffic to. If you have a free e-book download, for instance, on how to use Google AdWords then you don’t want to use keywords related to Yahoo! Search Marketing because those keywords won’t be targeted enough.

Therefore, you want to keep each of your ads optimized as tightly as possible. Let’s say you are working within the Keyword Research ad group. You might have several ads in that group, such as:

• Overture
• WordTracker
• Good Keywords

Keywords And The Right Ads
Again, these are just examples of individual ads. You write your ad and optimize that ad around specific keyword phrases and variations of it related to the specific focus of the ad. For instance, let’s use WordTracker. Possible keyword variations might be

• WordTracker
• Keyword Research
• WordTracker Keyword Research
• Research Keywords with WordTracker
• WordTracker Researches Keywords

See what I’m doing? Try to think of as many keyword phrase variations as you can using your important keywords. Don’t water down WordTracker with keyword phrases related to Overture. Stick with the specifically targeted topic of that one ad. You’ll use the Overture ad to optimize for keyword phrases related to that concept.

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