Keyword match types still matter

[Dimaeiya333]

Keyword match types are a powerful tool for managing advertising spend and help advertisers tailor ad campaigns to the most relevant audience.
With the advent of more advanced targeting options, some marketers have begun to question whether exact match keyword types still have any relevance. In fact, Google itself recommends changing keywords to broad match.

In today's article, we'll break down the historical background of match types and why they still play an important role in paid search campaigns today.

A brief background on how we got to where we are today
In the early days, Yahoo! was the dominant search engine. It only had two match types (standard and advanced), while Google had what we have today (exact, phrase, and broad match).

When Bing ( Microsoft Advertising ) completely separated from peru mobile database Yahoo! in the mid- to late 2000s , it had the same setup as Google.

Until recent years, the emphasis was always on exact match being the most accurate match, followed by phrase match, then broad match (for as long as it existed), and broad match (which was kind of on a seesaw). As things progressed, around 2018, exact match loosened up considerably and started to act as a combination for phrase match and broad match. Needless to say, this information was not well received by the masses in the industry.

With Google possibly using the term “ keyword-free AI ” for the first time in February 2023, marketers are questioning the validity of current match types.

Advertisers almost always used exact and phrase match, duplicating keywords in both match types and bidding the highest on exact match first and then phrase match. Some also used broad match, but bid it the lowest (to minimize risk), primarily to gain insights from search query reports and create robust negative keyword lists (which I still do to this day).

A tip that's still relevant today : Never use dynamic keyword insertion (DKI) in broad keyword match ad groups.

Why do match types matter even as we move towards keyword-free search?
Big search is trying to eliminate our control by getting rid of the traditional keyword-based approach to make more money. But we still have a certain amount of control in keyword-driven search.

Additionally, Google Shopping does not apply to all advertisers.
Not all advertisers have YouTube resources (and don't want the system to create their own, not very high-quality videos for them).
Many advertisers want to have control over their spending and the ability to report on where their ads are displayed.
The truth is that many advertisers, for various reasons, only want to show certain keywords in searches and not much else.