Broad, Phrase, or Exact Match Keywords. What Is Best for Your Business?
If you have used AdWords you know how important it is to know the difference between Broad, Broad Modified, Phrase and Exact Match keywords. For those who are new to AdWords, these terms may seem a little foreign.
So what is the difference between these keywords and when will you use one over the other?
Broad Match- Just as the name implies broad keywords are least specific kind of keyword. When you put keywords into Google the default is broad and there is a reason why. With broad keywords you are allowing Google to have a lot of control over that keyword. The wide reach of broad keywords will increase the number of clicks on your ads, however the problem is they may be clicks that are irrelevant to your business. For example is you use broad match on the keyword “women’s hats”, your ads might show when users searches for “men’s hats”, “women’s scarves” or “girls shoes”.
Broad Match Modified- Broad Match Modified gives you a little more control over what search terms Google shows your ads to, while at the same time allowing you keep the same broad reach.
Broad Match Modified keywords work by appending a “+” to the specific word in your keyword phrase. When you put the “+” in front of a word you are telling Google you only want your ad to show when that word appears in the search query. The query can be in any order, but that one word must be in there. Using the example from before, if you use a Broad Match Modifier on the keyword “+women’s hats” Google can show your ad when a user searches for “women’s fedoras”, “hats for women”, or “women’s clothing”,but will not show for “men’s hats”
Phrase Match – Phrase Match is a good balance between control and reach. Your ad will only appear when a user searches for exact keyword phrase, in its exact order, but maybe with some additional word a the beginning and the end of the query.
So if you use the keyword “women’s hats”, in Phrase Match, your ads are eligible to show for users searching for “red women’s hats”, “women’s hats for sale” but not for “womens pink hats” or “hats for women”.
Exact Match – Exact Match will give you the most control over who sees yours ads, but also will give you the lowest reach. Just as it sounds Google will show your ad to for the exact phrase that you type in for example if you have the exact phrase [women’s hats] your ad will only show for “women’s hats” or common misspellings like “ women’s htas”.
As you can see, what match type you use for your keywords can make a very big difference in the success of your campaign. When building your campaign always think about which match types will help you accomplish your goals the best. There is not one match type that works for all situations. Each one has match type has pros and cons.
Now go out there and get your hands dirty with some keywords.
If you are looking for a way to make your ads more local with automation then geo ad customizers are the perfect tool.
Geo ad customizers work by pulling data from a spreadsheet and dynamically putting the user’s city into an ad based on their IP address. This may sound like it is super tricky or that you need to know how to code to set it up, but it is actually very simple.
This first thing you will need to do is make a copy of the spreadsheet below. This gives you the city and state of all the US cities.
After you have your own list it is time to upload it to Google Ads. First, go to “tools” then click “Business data”.
After you click on the “ad customizer data” you will need to name your list. This should be something that will be easier for you to remember. I decided to name my list “geo”, this name will show up later when you are actually building the ads.
Now that you have named your list simply choose the file of US cities.
Here comes the fun part… actually building the ads. Head over to any of the ads groups that wish to implement geo ad customizers and type “{“ after you do this you will notice a drop with the option for “Ad customizer”, after you click on that the name of your list should appear and you can start building your ad.
You can add the geo ad customizers on headlines and description, get creative with it and start testing different things.
The thought of starting Pay Per Click advertising can be very intimidating. You might have lots of questions like how to create an account, what keywords to bid on, what areas to target, and how do you track conversions. This blog will walk you through how to set up your account for success from scratch.
Account Set up Basics
In order to get the ball rolling, the first thing you will need to do is create a Google Account. Then from there go over to adwords.google.com and sign in. Once you have signed in you will arrive at the Adwords welcome screen. The welcome screen gives you 4 steps to get started. First, choose your budget, create your ads, select keywords and then enter your billing information.
Before clicking the “create my first campaign” there are some things you will want to do first to make the process more smooth. I would recommend starting with the keyword selection then the account structure.
Keyword research is the foundation for any successful pay-per-click campaign. Keywords are words or phrases your customers would use when searching for your product or service. There are a couple of sources you can turn to for keyword research.
Company Website– A website is typically one of the best places to find keywords that describe your business. This can help generate ideas for terms and phrases people might type into Google when searching your business.
Keyword Research Tool– Once you have generated a few ideas from your website, keyword planner is a great tool to turn to for expanding your keyword list. Not only does keyword planner suggest keywords base off of your website, or search terms, but it will also tell you how high the search traffic is for the specific keyword. On top of all that It will also tell you an estimate of how much bidding on that keyword might cost.
Think like your customer- Ask yourself, “what would my customer type in Google to find me?”. Don’t just rely on your own mind. Ask people! Ask your friends, your family your neighbor what they would type into Google to find your business. You will be surprised at some of the responses you get, that you never would have thought of on your own.
Basic Campaign Structure
When it come to organizing your campaign there are 3 main levels to considers and help you stay organized. First is campaign, next is ad group, and last is the ad itself. For example if I was my business was selling shoes my account my look something like this.
Campaign: Mens Shoes
Ad Group: Mens Boots
Ad Group: Mens flip flops
Ad Group: Mens Running shoes.
You can have as many ad groups in a campaign as you feel necessary. After you have created all of your ad groups you can then continue to build your actual ads for a shoe store it might look something like this.
Ad Group: Mens Boots
Ad: Tan Boots
Ad: Winter Boots
Ad: Casuals Boots.
Since you have already taken a look at your website and done all the keyword research you should be able to have a pretty good idea of how to structure your campaign.
These elements are the basic set-up for a Google Ads account and the first step to Advertising on Google.
