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Match Types for keywords in PPC

Many people wonder about why we should use Exact and Phrase match type, though Broad match type works for all. But I would say that Broad match type keywords are like a lock that can be opened from any key and unwanted visitors can open and enter the room, Phrase match type is like a lock which can be opened by few keys, but not all so still there are chances to get unwanted visitors in the room, Exact match type is like a lock which can be opened by its own key and the people who know what they want and what they will get inside will only have those keys.


So the extract is broad match is used when we don't care about the quality of visitors, when we just want someone to visit the page and read the content. Phrase match is used when we want the traffic coming in includes a particular term in their queries and Exact match type is used when we want someone who exactly is searching for a product related to the landing page because in such cases chances of conversions are very high at a very low cost.

This can be cleared with an example. There is an account of rose shop dealing particularly in yellow roses (just an example) and a keyword
yellow roses (keyword)
is used in Broad match, so possibly it can attract the traffic for the keywords like
roses in yellow wass ( query)
roses with yellow ribbon
yellow and white roses

Ads will show if the two words of the keyword are used anywhere, in any sequence in the query. People searching such keywords may click on your ad in anticipation but it will not result in good conversions and as a result cost per conversion will be very high. Now suppose the same keyword is used in Phrase match type so following keywords can display the ad:
gift yellow roses
yellow roses pictures
wallpaper with yellow roses

Ads will only show if the full keyword is used as a phrase in the query without any change in sequence or variation but other keywords can prefix or suffix the phrase. In this case searchers are more targeted and only those who are searching for yellow roses will see the ad and chances of clicking on the ad and then purchasing the roses are little higher then broad match type.

In Exact match type the ads will show only when a person is exactly searching
yellow roses

So here the chances of person clicking on the ad and purchasing something is much higher than broad and phrase match type.

There is one more match type of keywords which is Negative match type. This is used when we don't want to display the ads when certain words are included in the search query. Such words could be the products, service or special offers that is not promised on the website. So if in the above examples of broad and phrase match if you add wallpaper, wass and pictures in negative match, people searching for such things will not see the ads for yellow roses and this can prevent unwanted visitors on the landing page.

Second thing is search engines look for relevancy of keyword with ad creative and landing page so if the keyword yellow roses is used in ad creative nicely and is present in the landing page quite a few times then the keyword display ads in a higher rank.

But in broad and phrase match type the variation of the keywords cannot be used in the ad creative and the landing page because of which quality score goes down for such keyword and as a result if any query matches the keyword exactly also it shows at a lower rank. So while using broad or phrase match type one should think about all the possible variations and then the unwanted words that are not related to the services can be added to negative match type.

All the Search Engine Marketing interfaces provide an option for match types but the names could be different.

In Google adwords the match types available are Broad, Phrase, Exact and Negative.
In Yahoo the match types are Advanced (works as broad match), Standard (works as exact match) and Excluded words (negative match).
MSN and other search engines more or less follow the match types of Google and Yahoo.

So if there is any confusion about match types please leave a comment below and I will answer the queries.

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