WebProNews

As you may or may not know, Google AdWords gives you four options when it comes to keywords. If you apply the appropriate ones to your keywords, your potential for increased ROI is higher. The options you have are:

- Broad Match
- Phrase Match
- Exact Match
- Negative Keyword

Today, Google is talking about utilizing Broad Match to reach more customers. First, a brief description of Broad Match from Google:

With broad match, the Google AdWords system automatically runs your ads on relevant variations of your keywords, even if these terms aren't in your keyword lists. Keyword variations can include synonyms, singular/plural forms, relevant variants of your keywords, and phrases containing your keywords.

For example, if you're currently running ads on the broad-matched keyword web hosting, your ads may show for the search queries web hosting company or webhost. The keyword variations that are allowed to trigger your ads will change over time, as the AdWords system continually monitors your keyword quality and performance factors. Your ads will only continue showing on the highest-performing and most relevant keyword variations.

The biggest reason to use the broad match option is that not all appropriate keywords are anticipated. Broad match allows you to capitalize on ones that are relevant, but not necessarily expected.

"Did you know that 20% of the queries Google receives each day are ones we haven’t seen in at least 90 days, if at all? With that kind of unpredictable search behavior, it's extremely difficult to create a keyword list that covers all relevant queries using only exact match," says Amanda Kelly at Inside AdWords.

When using Broad Match however, it is a good idea to also use Negative Keyword, which means that your ad will not appear when searches for that keyword are made. This eliminates potentially useless clicks if you don't actually offer what they are trying to get. Basically, when using Broad Match, Negative Keywords are the exceptions.

WebProNews is at PubCon Las Vegas, and Mike McDonald conducted an interview with Ken Jurina of Epiar on Negative Keyword campaigns:

When using Broad Match, Kelly also recommends using search query reports and the Conversion Optimizer. You can learn more about Broad Match in the FAQ or more about the different options here.