What you will learn
- Explain the difference between broad, phrase, and exact match
- Choose suitable match types for a new campaign
- Build a starting negative keyword list
Match types control how closely a search must relate to your keyword. Broad match is the widest: your ad can show for searches related to the keyword's meaning, including ones that do not contain its words. Phrase match, written in quotes such as "wedding venue", shows for searches that include the meaning of the phrase. Exact match, written in brackets such as [wedding venue], shows for searches with the same meaning or intent.
Wider match types bring more volume but less control. Broad match works best alongside Smart Bidding and good conversion tracking, because Google uses those signals to judge which searches are valuable. With a small budget and no conversion data yet, many advertisers start with phrase and exact match, watch which searches come in, and widen later. Review the search terms report every week at first.
Negative keywords stop your ads from showing for searches you do not want. A paid tuition academy might add "free", "jobs", "salary", and "PDF" as negatives, because those searchers are rarely customers. Add negatives at campaign level for words that never fit, and at ad group level to stop groups competing with each other. Shared negative keyword lists save time across several campaigns.