Introducing the Broad Match Modifier

Any PPC (Pay Per Click) campaign on Google consists of keywords. These are the words (search terms) which the advertiser wants their ad to appear against on a Google search page. We could previously control the reach of any keyword & attached ad through 3 common keyword match types. These were broad, phrase and exact. I’ll give you a quick overview of these:

• Broad – This is the default option. It will trigger ads for the keywords in any order along with other terms, singular / plural forms synonyms and relevant variations.
• Phrase – These are keywords surrounded by quotation marks. It will trigger ads for your keyword in the chosen order only. Ads will be shown for additional keywords before or after the phrase.
• Exact – These are keywords surrounded by square brackets. It will only trigger ads for the exact keyword only without any additional terms or variations.

A new keyword match type has been rolled out globally by Google after a successful test here in the UK along with Canada. It’s called the broad match modifier. It sits between the broad and phrase match – giving a greater reach than phrase and more control than broad. This is how it works:

• Add a + symbol directly before all terms within your keyword that must appear in the users search query to trigger the ad. A good example would be: +formal +shoes. This keyword will only trigger ads with ‘formal’ and ‘shoes’ inside the users query.

This new match type does give advertisers more control with their targeting. It allows greater reach to relevant user queries without being too restricted with phrase or exact match.

Google Keyword Match Types and Example Usage

Image used courtesy of the Google Inside AdWords Blog