When it comes to selecting match types for the keywords in your pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns, a common question is when and whether to use ‘broad match’, ‘phrase match’ and ‘exact match’ for your keywords.

You will generally get more traffic and lower-costing clicks for broad match keywords, and the least volume of traffic and higher-costing clicks for exact match terms (with phrase match in between).

But it’s not always as straightforward as a traffic-click-cost trade-off. So, while it may be tempting to immediately choose exact match, as an alternative you might consider using what is called ‘exact query mining’ to progressively move from broad to exact match, maximizing traffic and clicks along the way.

Firstly, let’s clarify the differences between broad match, phrase match and exact match.

Broad match is where the keyword(s) you’re targeting appear anywhere within the text of a search query, including where the keywords are separated by other words. For example, ‘cotton socks’ may generate search results based on a search query such as ‘cotton shirts and silk socks’.

Phrase match is where the keywords(s) appear in the specific order you determine but may still be part of a search query that includes other words. In the example above, a search query may be ‘red cotton socks.’

Exact match is where ONLY the keywords(s) you specify in the order you specify are used in the search query i.e. ‘cotton socks’.

A good rule of thumb in choosing when and where to use broad match, phrase match or exact match is as follows:

Use broad match for brand names, then switch to phrase match or exact match (in that order) based on performance.

Use ‘exact query mining’. Exact query mining involves using broad matched keywords as temporary placeholders until you find replacements in the form of more targeted exact-match phrases.

Basically, you build your list of keywords, identifying the words within the list that you want your ad to appear for and those you don’t. You then select broad match, but add the undesirable keywords as ‘Negative match’. This means that your ad will not appear for search queries that include those keywords.

Once you believe that you are getting the maximum amount of traffic from a given keyword, you convert it to exact match. You continue doing this for each new keyword until you’re happy with your list of (exact match) terms.

You can also apply the same approach to phrase (rather than broad) match terms, although you may miss out on some traffic and clicks in doing so.

Source: Ben Brutsch, “Omniture Whitepaper: 11 Tips for Master Search Marketers,” Omniture

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 7th, 2010 at 8:31 pm and is filed under Kikabink Lab, Search Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.