Keyword close variants: Definition

Close variants allow keywords to match to searches that are similar, but not identical to the targeted keyword, and help you connect with people who are looking for your business—despite slight variations in the way they search—reducing the need to build out exhaustive keyword lists to reach these customers.

By default, all keyword match types are eligible to match to close variants. There is no way to opt out.

For exact match keywords, close variants may also include:

Close variant	Description	Available in these languages
Words with closely related syntax	This may include misspellings, singular or plural forms, stemmings (for example, floor and flooring), abbreviations, or accents.	All languages
Reordered words with the same meaning	For example, [shoes mens] and [mens shoes].
Adding or removing function words	Function words are prepositions (like in or to), conjunctions (like for or but), articles (like a or the), and other words that don’t impact the intent of a search. For example, [shoes for men] is a close variant of [men shoes] with the function word “for” removed.
Implied words	For example, if your exact match keyword is [daydream vr headset], your ads may show on searches for “daydream headset” since “vr” is implied.	English, Spanish, German, Japanese, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Hungarian, Turkish, Polish, Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified), Dutch, Arabic, Finnish, Hebrew, Greek, Swedish, Indonesian, Korean, Danish, Thai, Vietnamese
Synonyms and paraphrases	For example, if your exact match keyword is [bathing suits] ads may also show on searches for “swimming suits.”
Same search intent	For example, if your exact match keyword is [images royalty free] ads may also show on searches for “free copyright images.”

Broad match modifier and phrase match close variants may also include:

Close variant	Description	Available in these languages
Words with closely related syntax	This may include misspellings, singular or plural forms, stemmings (for example, floor and flooring), abbreviations, or accents.	All languages
Reordered words with the same meaning	For example, the phrase keyword “red shoes” may show on searches for “running shoes red.”	English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Russian
Adding or removing function words	Function words are prepositions (like “in” or “to”), conjunctions (like “and” or “but”), articles (like “a” or “the”), and other words that don’t impact the intent of a search. For example, the phrase match keyword “hats for winter” could match to searches for “winter hats on sale” with the function word “for” removed).
Implied words	For example, if your phrase match keyword is “daydream vr headset”, your ads may show on searches for “daydream headsets for sale” since “vr” is implied.
Synonyms and paraphrases	For example, if your broad match modifier keyword is +bathing +suits, your ads may also show on searches for “red swimming suits.”
Same search intent	For example, if your phrase match keyword is “images royalty free” ads may also show on searches for “free copyright images of baseball.”

Note: Language is determined by the language of the user’s search terms. For example, if a user searches using words that are specific to German, then the language would be detected as German, even if the user is searching in Spain.