Keywords are words or phrases that are used to match ads with the terms people are searching for. The keyword match types dictate how closely the keyword needs to match with the user’s search query in order for the ad to be considered for the auction. So you could use broad match to serve your ad on a wider variety of user searches or you could use exact match to hone in on specific user searches.
Keyword Match Types
- The user’s recent search activities
- The content of the landing page
- Other keywords in an ad group to better understand keyword intent
Broad match works well with Smart Bidding. The Smart Bidding system sets a bid for each individual auction of each query and bids up or down depending on how well the query is likely to perform. Learn more about how to Grow your Smart Bidding campaigns with broad match
Tip
Adding very similar keywords, such as 'red car' and 'car red' isn’t recommended, as only one keyword would match both searches. However, doing so won’t affect your costs or performance in any way.
For example, the broad match keywords 'red car' and 'car red' will be recognised as duplicates and the one with the higher Ad Rank will be used. Even though all your similar keywords may be eligible to serve on the same search, you'll only have one bid in the ad auction. Learn more about similar keywords in a Google Ads account.
Negative keyword match types behave differently from positive match types. Learn more about negative keyword match types.
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Tip
Negative keyword
You can use negative keywords to exclude your ads from showing on searches with that term. So if you’re a hat company that doesn’t sell baseball hats, you could add a negative keyword for baseball hats. Learn more about negative keywords.