PPC Keyword Match Types
Tags: broad match, exact match, match types, Pay Per Click (PPC), phrase match
The choice of your keyword match type can have a huge impact on the performance of your campaigns. Having all your keywords in broad match type can bring you the most traffic, but resulting in high cost per conversion; whereas having every keyword in exact match type can definitely filter out most of the unwanted traffic, but you will also be missing out on some of the long-tailed search queries that broad match or phrase match can bring in.
The table below briefly summarizes the different match types available in the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, and MSN). The info is gathered from the help section of each search engine.
| Yahoo! | MSN | ||
| Broad Match triggers the ad when individual words in your keyword appear, in any order, in a user’s search query. Your ads could also show for singular/plural forms, synonyms, and other relevant variations. | Available More Info Here | Not Available | Available |
| Phrase Match triggers the ad if the word or words in your keyword appear in a user’s search query with the words in the exact order, even if other words are present in the search query. | Available More Info Here | Not Available | Available |
| Exact Matchtriggers the ad only when the exact word or words in your keyword, in exactly the same order, and without any other terms, appear in a user’s search query. | Available More Info Here | Not Available | Available |
| Negative MatchAdding a negative keyword to your ad group, campaign, or account means that your ads won’t show for search queries containing that term. | Available More Info Here | Available as Excluded Words More Info Here | Available |
| Standard Match TypeOnly available in Yahoo. This works the same way as Exact Match in Google and MSN. | Not Available | Available More Info Here | Not Available |
| Advanced Match TypeOnly available in Yahoo. Triggers the display of your ads if the search query is a: “exact match”, “singular/plural variations”, “common misspellings”, “in a phrase”, “separated by word(s)”, “in a different order”, “sub-phrase query”, “general/broad query”, “specific query term”, “specific query term” of your keyword. | Not Available | Available More Info Here | Not Available |
| Automatic Matching Automatic matching is an optional feature in Google that helps advertisers reach targeted traffic missed by their keywords. It works by analyzing the ads, keywords, and landing pages in your ad group. It then shows your ads on search queries relevant to this information. | Available More Info Here | Not Available | Not Available |
| Embedded Match Embedded match allows advertisers to prevent their ads from appearing in relation to certain phrase or exact matches. This is popular when an advertiser sells merchandise related to a movie or book, but not the actual movie or book. | Available More Info Here | Not Available | Not Available |
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