Match types are a very powerful tool if you know how to use them. Here’s a recap as to what they mean:
- Broad - The broadest term for your niche (example: motorcycle); does not filter.
- Phrase – Shows terms that use your phrase but filters out related phrases that don’t include the phrase. Shows up in parentheses. (example: “yellow motorcyle” will show yellow motorcycle and big yellow motorcycle but not motorcycle of yellow.)
- Exact – Delinated by brackets [ ]; filters out anything that doesn’t match your phrase exactly. (example: [yellow motorcycle] will show for the search term “yellow motorcycle” but not for “big yellow motorcycle” or “little yellow motorcycle”.)
Let’s say you run a local motorcycle shop and you sell motorcycles of various brands. You can start an ad group titled “HD Electra Glide” where your ads are grouped along that brand’s specificity. The keywords you target in that group might look like this:
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[FLHTC Electra Glide Class]
[FLHTCU Ultra Classic Electra Glide]
[FLHT Electra Glide Standard]
“Electra Glide”
- parts
This ad grouping shows that you are targeting specific brands within the Electra Glide family, but you are also interested in showing up for phrase match searches related to the Electra Glide brand. So any search for Electra Glide will bring up your pay per click ad. You want to target the exact phrase for each brand you target as well because you want to make sure they aren’t left out. But you don’t sell parts so you add the negative keyword parts so that any time a search for Electra Glide parts is made your ad is not shown. You can do the same thing with other brands. Try the Softail model for instance:
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[FLSTN Softail Deluxe]
[FXCWC Softail Rocker C]
[FXSTC Softail Custom Anniversary Model]
[FXSTC Softail Custom]
[FXSTB Softail Night Train]
[FXCW Softail Rocker]
[FLSTC Softail Heritage Classic]
“Harley Davidson Softail”
- parts
No need to target the broad match for Harley Davidson because any search for Harley Davidson will bring up your ad. You want a more targeted effort. Also, if you broad phrase match “softail” then you’re ad will show up for all sorts of other searches that people may make not related to motorcycles. That’s when you’ll want to include the Harley Davidson brand because if someone is searching for the Softail then they will more than likely use HD in the search. Again, you don’t sell parts so add the negative keyword phrase in there as well.
These are just two examples of how match types can be used to engage in targeted pay per click advertising. There are plenty more.
