Firstly i want to say i do not want those PPC experts to throw the book at me and preach the importance of negative keywords. Sure for some campaigns they can be crucial however if the correct research is conducted across the market you are looking to launch your campaigns in then surely we can go without keywords.

Google Adwords data centre offer the following example surrounding negative keywords:

II. Example

The negative keyword –free trial would prevent your ads from showing on any search queries containing the terms free and trial. It would not prevent your ads from showing on variations of these terms, however. It also would not prevent your ads from showing on search queries that only contain one of the terms.

For instance, the search queries one-day trial and free test could trigger your ads, while free one-day trial could not.

No doubt this explains the importance of negative keywords to the beginning however i tend to stay away from negative keywords and research my campaigns in depth in order to cover all potential keyword avenue’s without the use of negative keywords. Let me explain using an example I previously used in my post on the difference between Broad,phrase and exact match keywords.

I recently worked with clients who offer an ecommerce website for water features. I typically research the niche market the campaign is aimed towards and understand the constrains of the clients budget, the average cost per click on the top performing keywords amongst other techniques.

The introduction of the broad, exact and phrase match keywords has enabled us marketers to almost disregard negative keywords. In my humble opinion a successful paid search marketing campaign will discover all the possibilities of search aligned to a specific market. Granted there is the ability for people to misspell certain words however when you are working within a constraint budget its essential that you are targeting those specific keywords and those keywords only. Under these conditions i tend to adopt both phrase and exact match types ad opposed to broad match with negative keywords. This gives a more specific search criteria.

Researching your target market in detail and making sure you target all possible keywords which are typically searched is for me the most cost effective method available. Again i am not disputing negative keywords are important under some campaigns however typically i tend to adopt the use to tailored keywords on both phrase and exact match. This also helps you indentify what keywords are converting and gives a clearer picture on how your account is performing on a keyword to keyword basis.

Thanks for reading guys. Would love to hear your opinions.

Ryan

Match types although extremely simple are an important component of pay per click marketing. The difference between match types can be the difference between spending on terms which just aren’t going to convert into sustainable traffic or having the money proportioned to more sustainable keywords.

To start this tutorial we are going to use the Google keyword tool. Which can be found by clicking here.

The Google keyword tool is commonly used within the initial start up period of a Pay per click campaign. Sure you can produce these keywords within your own means however the Google keyword tool helps establish the highly search terms and those broad terms which may cost you financially for the conversion.

For the means of this exercise i am going to search under the term ‘water features’. The results within the screenshot below indicate the search volume of the keywords when on broad match. This can be changed to phrase or exact match by clicking on the ‘Match type’ option in the far right of the screen as indicated below.

So what does this tell you about the different keyword match types? It actually tells us quite a vast amount of information and helps explain what these three terms consist of.

Phrase match keyword example;

Exact match keyword example;

As you can see from the examples these fluctuate with the match type. So your asking the question. ‘What does this determine?’

In a nut shell is the only way to describe these as they are particularly simple. They are as followed:

Broad Match: The keywords using the term broad match can be shown in any order with any other words.

For example. The term ‘water feature’ could be shown with any variation. i.e.: water pump feature, water house feature, feature water house, feature hose water.

Phrase Match: The keywords are used in the order shown with other words for variation.

For example: The term ‘water feature’ could be shown with another word accompanying this term. i.e.: gold water feature, water feature blue, bespoke water feature, elegant water feature.

Exact Match: Exact match keywords are exactly how they sound, an exact match of the keyword searched for.

For example: The term ‘water feature’ would only be shown when that term is typed in.

The exercise of using broad, phrase and exact is an important component of successful paid search marketing. Using the broad match for a term with 4 million searches would open your account up to high expenditure without relevant return. Using the broad match term can typically equate to less conversions but more impressions and clicks. For a client with a endless flow of finances for their online marketing campaign, this may be the answer however if you are looking to target specific terms then broad and phrase match are the way forward. These will decrease your volume of clicks and impressions however the traffic will be more relevant to the service you offer.

Use match type’s wisely. They can be the difference between a successful marketing campaign and an unsuccessful one.

Thanks for reading.