Google Keyword Matching
This page details the type of keyword matching we can use to run your Google advertising campaign
Broad Matching
Broad matching is the default matching option for Google advertising keywords. If your keyword appears anywhere in a user's search phrase then your advert may be displayed.
Here are some examples for a fictitious advertising campaign for a company marketing horse shoes
Table 1 shows the results potential visitors achieve using various keyword phrases through the Google search engine when we have set up the broad search keyword 'shoes'.
| Searches | Result |
|---|---|
| shoes pretty | Found |
| camera flash shoes | Found |
| horse riding shoes | Found |
| horse shoes | Found |
| shoes for horses | Found |
| metal horse shoes | Found |
If your business was selling horse shoes then the above would be pretty useless as the first three of the searches would be irrelevant so you could try a broad match on multiple words. In the example below we have set up the broad search keywords 'horse shoes'.
| Searches | Result |
|---|---|
| shoes pretty | Not Found |
| camera flash shoes | Not Found |
| horse riding shoes | Found |
| horse shoes | Found |
| shoes for horses | Found |
| metal horse shoes | Found |
As you can see the second search here would not be useful as horse riding shoes are NOT what we are trying to sell, so we could consider the next matching option:
Exact Matching
This option is pretty much what it says, the keyword will only match if the user types in the keyword or keywords exactly, so using the keywords 'horse shoes' again, but this time using an exact match we get the following results:
| Searches | Result |
|---|---|
| shoes pretty | Not Found |
| camera flash shoes | Not Found |
| horse riding shoes | Not Found |
| horse shoes | Found |
| shoes for horses | Not Found |
| metal horse shoes | Not Found |
Again we have a bit of a problem as 'shoes for horses' are what we are trying to sell and we probably want to sell 'metal horse shoes' as well.
Phrase Matching
Phrase matching is a bit like broad matching but we can use words joined together. So for our example below we have used the broad matching key phrase 'horse shoes', potential visitors will need to type this phrase somewhere in their search to trigger our advert.
| Searches | Result |
|---|---|
| shoes pretty | Not Found |
| camera flash shoes | Not Found |
| horse riding shoes | Not Found |
| horse shoes | Found |
| shoes for horses | Not Found |
| metal horse shoes | Not Found |
We're still missing out on 'shoes for horses'!
Negative Matching
Let's try a broad match on 'horse shoes' with a negative match on 'riding'. This means that our visitor must type both the words 'horse' and 'shoes' into the search box but NOT the word 'riding'
| Searches | Result |
|---|---|
| shoes pretty | Not Found |
| camera flash shoes | Not Found |
| horse riding shoes | Not Found |
| horse shoes | Found |
| shoes for horses | Found |
| metal horse shoes | Found |
These are pretty simple examples but they give an idea of what is involved in Keyword Matching.