Category: Google Ads
When you add a keyword to Google Ads, you’re not just telling Google which word to look out for. You’re also choosing how strictly Google should stick to it. That choice is called the match type, and it’s one of the biggest reasons two businesses with the same keywords and the same budget can get completely different results.
Get it right and your adverts show to people looking for exactly what you do. Get it wrong and you can end up paying for clicks from people looking for something else entirely. If you’ve ever looked at what people actually searched before clicking your advert and wondered how on earth you ended up there, match types are usually the answer.
The three match types in plain English
Google Ads has three match types: broad, phrase and exact. They’ve changed quite a bit over the years, so if you learned how they worked a while ago, it’s worth a refresher.
Broad match is the loosest. Your advert can show for searches that Google thinks are related to your keyword, even if they don’t contain any of the same words. If your keyword is “kitchen fitter”, broad match might show your advert to someone searching for “kitchen fitter Salisbury”, which is great, but also to someone searching for “kitchen worktops cheap” or “how to fit a kitchen yourself”, which probably isn’t.
Phrase match is in the middle. Your advert shows for searches that include the meaning of your keyword. To set it up you put the keyword in quotation marks, like “kitchen fitter”. It would show for “kitchen fitter in Wilton” or “recommended kitchen fitter near me”, but it shouldn’t show for searches that have nothing to do with fitting kitchens.
Exact match is the tightest. Your advert shows for searches with the same meaning as your keyword. You set it up with square brackets, like [kitchen fitter]. Even exact match isn’t quite as exact as it sounds, though. Google allows for spelling mistakes, plurals and searches it considers to mean the same thing, so [kitchen fitter] could also show for “kitchen fitters” or “kitchen installer”.
Why Google keeps pushing broad match
If you’ve set up a campaign recently, you’ll have noticed that Google’s default and its recommendations lean heavily towards broad match. Google’s argument is that its automated bidding is now clever enough to use broad match sensibly, looking at lots of signals about each search to decide whether your advert is a good fit.
There’s some truth in that. For businesses with plenty of conversions being tracked and a decent budget, broad match combined with automated bidding can find searches you’d never have thought of.
But it’s worth remembering who’s giving the advice. As we said in our post on getting the most out of your PPC, Google earns money every time someone clicks your advert, and broad match means more clicks. That doesn’t make the advice wrong, but it does mean it isn’t neutral.
For a small local business with a modest budget and only a handful of enquiries a month, broad match can be expensive. The automated bidding doesn’t have much to learn from, and in the meantime you’re paying for searches that were never going to turn into work.
What we’d suggest for a small Salisbury business
For most small local businesses, phrase and exact match are the safer place to start. They keep your adverts focused on the searches you actually want, which matters a lot when every click is coming out of a limited budget.
A sensible approach is to start with your most important searches in exact or phrase match, the ones that show someone is ready to buy, such as “emergency electrician Salisbury” or “boiler repair Amesbury”. Watch what comes through for a few weeks. Once you can see which searches are turning into calls and enquiries, you’ll have a much better idea whether it’s worth widening things out.
If you do decide to try broad match, try it carefully. Put it in its own campaign or ad group with its own budget, so it can’t eat into the searches you know already work. Make sure your conversion tracking is set up properly first, so Google’s bidding knows what a good result looks like. And check the search terms regularly, especially in the first few weeks.
The search terms report is your best friend
Whichever match types you use, the most useful habit you can get into is checking the search terms report. It shows you the actual words people typed before your advert appeared and before they clicked.
The first time you look at it can be an eye-opener. You might find your plumbing advert showing to people looking for plumbing jobs, plumbing courses or plumbing supplies. You might find people searching for a town you don’t cover, or for a service you don’t offer. Every one of those clicks has cost you money.
The good news is that you can stop them happening again by adding negative keywords, words or phrases you don’t want your adverts to show for. Adding “jobs”, “course” and “supplies” as negatives to that plumbing campaign would stop a lot of wasted spend straight away. It’s a simple job, and an easy one to forget about.
The search terms report also tells you what your customers really call things. If people search for “garden rooms” far more than “garden offices”, that’s worth knowing for your adverts and for your website.
Match types won’t fix everything
Match types matter, but they’re only one part of a well-run account. Where your adverts show, when they show, what they say and where they send people all make a big difference too. A tightly matched keyword sending people to a confusing homepage will still waste money.
But if you’re running your own Google Ads and you’ve never looked at your match types or your search terms, it’s one of the best uses of half an hour you’ll find this month.
If you’d rather someone else took a look, the friendly, experienced team at Spire Digital manage pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns for businesses in Salisbury and the surrounding area. Give us a call on 01722 320 500 and we’ll happily go through your account with you.