Blog

In our last blog post dedicated to helping you lower your PPC (pay-per-click) advertising costs, we touched on writing effective ad copy and how Google takes into account your ads' click through rates when determining a cost per click.

Another important step when building and optimizing your PPC campaign and one that will have a direct impact on your cost, is the implementation of keyword match settings.

When deciding on keyword match settings, you first want to be sure you know exactly what each type of setting will get you.

For the purposes of this post, we'll concentrate on Exact, Phrase, and Broad match types.

Exact match can be thought of as a rifle, where your ad will only be displayed when the search query is identical to your keyword.  Phrase match would then be a shotgun, where anything surrounding the keyword can appear (as long as the query contains your purchased keyword(s)).  And Broad match is akin to a bomb that will produce anything Google feels is relevant to your keyword.

To give some examples, let's say you own a site which sells tennis shoes and one of your keywords is red tennis shoes.  With Exact match, your ad will only appear when the user types in the phrase red tennis shoes.  With Phrase match, your ad may appear for searches such as bright red tennis shoes or red tennis shoes with green laces (as the phrase red tennis shoes appears in these searches).  A Broad match setting might allow your ad to appear for searches such as Nike shoes that Roger Federer wears for tennis, or simply red shoes.

It's that second example (red shoes) we see for the Broad match setting that can really have an adverse effect on your cost.  In general, broader phrases in Google come with a higher CPC, as they are in high demand and attract more users.

Also in this scenario, the user is simply looking for red shoes.  These might be dress shoes, clown shoes, boating shoes, etc., all of which your site does not sell.  A click on your ad then not only leads to a high CPC (cost per click) but an extremely low chance of conversion.

So unless your budget is unlimited, take the time to place appropriate matches on your keywords without simply relying on a blanket Broad match setting.  Taking this action will not only increase your campaign's conversion rates but will also save precious advertising dollars.