Broad Match is the AdWords default option and the most loosely controlled keyword matching option. If an advertiser has the keyword phrase Toy Blocks the ads could appear if someone performed a search on wooden toy blocks, plastic blocks, cardboard blocks, Lego Blocks, video games, any many other search queries related to the words but not the meaning of toy and blocks. Terms can be added before, after or words dropped and replaced by keywords the systems deems relevant.

Google’s idea behind broad match is to allow advertisers to create a small keyword list and allow the AdWords system to determine what other related search queries the ads should be eligible show on. Unfortunately allowing the AdWords system this control does not always end in good results. Here is an example of keywords suggested by the AdWords keyword tool for the keyword Toy Blocks

In giving the AdWords System control over what search queries are relevant to your keywords many advertisers are often left wondering why their account performs poorly. As you can see in the above screen shot some of the keywords are not very relevant to the product. If the keyword tool is suggesting these keywords there is a good chance that an advertisers ads will be shown if a user types these keywords.

One of the most helpful tools in determining if your ads are appearing in searches that are not specific to your product is the Search Query Performance Report. This report will provide valuable info on search queries that resulted in your ads being shown.

The below screen shot is from an account that a new client recently brought to my attention. He sells can crushers and was struggling with making his budget last the day and his sales were poor. The first thing I did after seeing all of his broad match keywords was run a Search Query Performance Report. I was not surprised to see the results. Below you see that the ads appeared and were clicked on for many queries that are not going to result in business and only consume his budget.

Can Crusher – Search Query Performance Report Results

As illustrated above. It is important to make good use of keyword matching options. If advertisers find that they want to use broad match keywords is is extremely important to consider adding -negative keywords to restrict ads from appearing when certain words are used in a query. For example I would add negative keywords for -homemade, -pneumatic, -hydraulic. Often better results would be “phrase” or [exact match] keywords to further control search queries.

Article by:  +Kim Clinkunbroomer Clinks Web Service  a  Google AdWords Partner Company Subscribe: RSS Feeds  |  Follow me on Twitter