Introduction
Keyword Match Type is an advertiser’s strategy. It can help the advertiser to choose whether they want to go for aggressive advertising or a focused one. There are several types of keyword match strategies that can go with your advertising objectives. Adopting the correct keyword match strategy is useful for scoring a successful PPC or ad campaign.
Background
You write a keyword or key phrase in the search bar, and a few very relevant pages appear on the search page. It is not magic at all! The advertising strategy goes into such streamlines results. By choosing the correct keyword match type, the advertisers achieve various objectives. First, they achieve the coverage they need. It means they can target the wider or restricted reach according to their target audience size and type.
Interestingly, there are a few very important keyword match types that advertisers can pick. They have their pros and cons that advertisers must know. Let’s take a look at those and then find how keyword match types help.
- Broad match type
Broad match type is used when you want to address a wider audience. For example, take the keyword ‘jewellery.’ Now, this is a broad match type that can help any advertiser target all jewellery searchers. But, if you choose the keyword ‘handmade jewellery’ or ‘gemstone jewellery,’ you restrict the audience size. People with specific jewellery demands like handmade or gemstones included in the design can be reached with keywords with some adjectives added to it. In this example, ‘jewellery’ is a broad match modifier type.
As an advertiser, you may find it an easy alternative to reach the widest audience. So, it can be one advantage of this match type. But, if you look closely, the competition for such a keyword will be reasonably high. Also, the chances of getting a lot of irrelevant clicks on the websites cannot be ignored too. It adds to the advertisement cost, and the returns achieved are miserably low. Thus, reduced ROI can be another pain point of selecting the broad keyword match type.
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Modified Broad Match Type
As the name suggests, the keyword or key phrase used will be slightly modified from the broad match type. Like adding a ‘+’ sign, a simple tweak can tell your intentions to Google more clearly. The ‘+’ sign tells Google that you want a particular search query to have that word compulsorily. A typical example of a Modified broad match type is +herbal cream. Now, the match will be herbal cream, herbal tea, herbal makeup too. In the second case, use the keyword in your campaign as herbal +cream. Now, this can also cover matches like cold cream, hand cream, face cream, etc. Accordingly, the advertisers can find what position of + sign will prove profitable to their ad campaign.
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Exact match type
The exact Match type is where the search results will contain your advertised page only when the match changes precisely. For example, if customers type ‘UHD TV with 4K resolution’, then only your result will be shown to them. It works in the advertisers’ favour only when the audience is well-read about any product. It rarely happens that the customers use the same phrase for search. So, the advertisers convey the message that they are eyeing for a very restricted audience when they choose the exact match type approach in their PPC campaign. However, to ensure better deliverability, Google now includes implied, similarly intended, or paraphrased keywords also in consideration while showing results. It is done to improve the chances of getting clicks.
If, on the one hand, you get the audience looking for the features that your product has, on the other, it reduces the number of impressions.
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Phrase match type
The ad or result page appears only when the search phrase matches entirely with the key phrase bought. The order of words has to be exact in phrase match type to get the results. However, there can be other words or phrases before or after the exact phrase. A typical example of phrase match type will be ‘handmade jewellery online.’ In phrase match, your ad might appear when people type ‘best handmade jewellery online’ or ‘handmade jewellery online for women.’ It will not appear if someone searches for ‘handmade gold jewellery’ or ‘handmade ‘gemstone jewellery.’ So, to make the best use of this match type, it is advisable to be a bit elaborate in your key phrase choice. Otherwise, many potential clients who you could serve will be lost.
Effect of match types on Search Ad results
Match types allow you to control the most profitable keywords or phrases you want to bid upon. Common impacts caused by the match types on search Ad results are:
- Performance: You can find which key phrases or words have fared well in the campaign. So, you can have data-backed information for ensuing campaigns to choose the keywords or phrases more wisely. Thus, you can expect better ROI too.
- Competitor performance: Not only your performance but the competitors’ keyword performance also helps in improving the search ad results. The knowledge about the way competitors bid for the phrases and the results that followed allows you to have a tried and tested strategy for ensuring better performance.
- Better quality bid: Advertisers choose to bid aggressively or less aggressively depending upon the ROI decided. Many times, the focus is on manipulating the bid and on changing the level of aggressiveness. All these decisions help decide what keyword match type to choose.
- Keyword design: Advertisers find out which keyword has worked for them in all strategies. They call that keyword their ‘money keyword’ and include it in all types of matches. Thus, the account structuring strategy also flows from the keyword match type performance.
Conclusion
How to optimize the keywords to get a profitable ad campaign? If this is the issue you want to address, you can take match types available. These match types can allow advertisers to pick the ad strategy. The best use of selecting a keyword match type is in improving ROI as the advertiser can reduce irrelevant clicks.