Keyword Match Types and Close Variants

In Google Search Ads, the three types of keyword matching are broad, phrase and exact. These are used to tell Google when to show our ads and the default match type will be broad match if you do not specify your keyword match type during the Ad Group Setup. 

In addition there is negative match to prevent Google from showing our ads when the search term includes a keyword that we had specified as negative. 

Broad match is loose matching where the search query from the searcher does not even need to contain the keyword. If the search term is related, it is enough to trigger an ad. This is the loosest type of keyword matching, and you need to have a long list of negative keywords to minimise junk traffic to your landing page.

Phrase match is in between broad and exact match. It is a moderate type of matching where ads may show for search queries that include the meaning of your keyword. Google has departed from the literal meaning of phrase where previously only search queries that matches the keyword in a specific order will trigger your ad. Today, even searches that include synonyms of your keyword can trigger your ad and the words in the search query do not need to be in the same order as your keywords.

Exact match is the tightest form of keyword matching. Today, exact match will trigger ads that have the same meaning as your keyword. It is not a requirement for the search term to match your keyword anymore. 

 

Close Variants

By default, all positive keyword match types are eligible to match to close variants and there is NO way to opt out. This makes advertisers' lives easier because we do not need to deal with singular and plural versions, stemming variations, synonyms etc of our positive keywords!

Close variant	Description	Available in these languages
Words with closely related syntax	This may include misspellings, singular or plural forms, stemmings (for example, run and running), abbreviations, or accents.	All languages
Reordered words with the same meaning	For example, [socks womens] and [womens socks].	All languages
Adding or removing function words	Function words are prepositions (like in or to), conjunctions (like for or but), articles (like a or the), and other words that don’t impact the intent of a search. For example, [socks for women] is a close variant of [women socks] with the function word “for” removed.	All languages
Implied words	For example, if your exact match keyword is [desktop computer games], your ads may show on searches for “desktop games” since “computer” is implied.	English, Spanish, German, Japanese, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Hungarian, Turkish, Polish, Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified), Dutch, Arabic, Finnish, Hebrew, Greek, Swedish, Indonesian, Korean, Danish, Thai, Vietnamese
Synonyms and paraphrases	For example, if your exact match keyword is [shopping centre] ads may also show on searches for “shopping mall.”	English, Spanish, German, Japanese, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Hungarian, Turkish, Polish, Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified), Dutch, Arabic, Finnish, Hebrew, Greek, Swedish, Indonesian, Korean, Danish, Thai, Vietnamese
Same search intent	For example, if your exact match keyword is [audio royalty free] ads may also show on searches for “free copyright audio.”	English, Spanish, German, Japanese, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Hungarian, Turkish, Polish, Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified), Dutch, Arabic, Finnish, Hebrew, Greek, Swedish, Indonesian, Korean, Danish, Thai, Vietnamese

 

 

 

In summary:

    Broad match – maximum reach, minimum relevance.

    Phrase match – moderate reach, moderate relevance.

    Exact match – minimum reach, maximum relevance.

    Negative match – to filter out irrelevant traffic or traffic unlikely to result in a conversion.

 

 

 

Are the new match types better than the old match types?

The keyword match types available now are more simplified. We believe this is based on lots of data and the current approach should be more efficient. We believe these changes are there to help advertisers by letting Google do the heavy lifting.

When adding keywords, we tend to think too narrowly because we don’t have a dictionary of synonyms in our head and that can limit us in terms of reaching out to qualified people who may not search the way we think they search. We need to know the rules, keep an open mind, and know precisely where we are giving Google some leeway. Measure by your conversion stats – If they are not doing a good job, take it back!