Keywords & Targeting
Broad Match
Broad match is the default keyword match type that shows ads for searches related to the keyword's meaning, including synonyms, related topics, and queries that do not contain the keyword's words at all.
In practice
Broad match gives Google the widest latitude to decide what your keyword means. Combined with Smart Bidding, which Google recommends, it uses the bidding signals to decide which related queries are worth entering. In accounts with lots of conversion data and strong negative lists, that combination can find profitable queries nobody would have thought to bid on.
In accounts with thin data or weak negatives, broad match is how budgets disappear into loosely related searches. We treat it as an advanced tool: never on a new account, never without daily search term review, never without a mature negative keyword library, and always in its own campaign so its search terms and performance can be judged separately from exact and phrase.
Brand lists can be attached to broad match campaigns to keep them off brand queries, which is worth doing on any account where brand traffic has its own campaign.
Why it matters
It is the highest-reach, highest-risk match type; it pays off only with the data and discipline to control it.
RELATED TERMS
Exact Match
Exact match is a Google Ads keyword match type, written in brackets, that shows ads for searches with the same meaning or intent as the keyword, including close variants.
Phrase Match
Phrase match is a keyword match type, written in quotes, that shows ads for searches that include the meaning of the keyword, with additional words allowed before or after.
Smart Bidding
Smart Bidding is Google's set of automated, conversion-based bid strategies (Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize Conversions, Maximize Conversion Value) that set auction-time bids using machine learning signals.
Written by Ilya Bulychev, Founder, Live PPC Ads. Part of the PPC Glossary.
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