Broad Match keywords can be a common pitfall with Google Ads campaigns, often leading to unnecessary wasted ad spend. This article will guide you through:

• Understanding Broad Match keywords
• Identifying if they’re causing wasted ad spend
• Getting the most from Broad Match within your campaigns

Understanding Keyword Match Types

Google Ads offers three main keyword match types: Exact Match, Phrase Match, and Broad Match. 

Each match type has distinct characteristics:

• Exact Match: This is the most precise form of targeting, which includes the exact keyword or very close variants. Exact Match keywords will appear with brackets, for example [Google Ads management], this will target the exact term as it appears and searches closely related to this specific term.
• Phrase Match: This match type has slightly wider targeting. Phrase Match will appear with quotes, e.g. “Google Ads management” and can include searches that contain the keyword, like “best Google Ads management services.”
• Broad Match: The broadest of the three, this match type targets a wide range of search terms related to your keyword, even if they aren’t directly relevant. Broad Match will appear without quotes or brackets, e.g. Google Ads management. This could attract searches like “how to manage ads on Google” or “ads management companies.”

The Pitfalls of Broad Match Keywords

While Broad Match keywords can cast a wide net and attract a diverse audience, they often lead to:

• Increased Costs: As Broad Match keywords expand your campaign’s targeting, this can lead to a significant increase in costs.
• Irrelevant Traffic: Broad Match keywords can target search terms that aren’t completely relevant to your products or services, and which have a low probability of resulting in a sale for your business. 

Why Broad Match Keywords Are Commonly Used

Despite their downsides, Broad Match keywords are frequently recommended by Google for a few reasons:

• Wider Reach: They can help advertisers reach a broader audience, potentially uncovering new customer segments.
• Google’s Recommendations: Google staff and the interface itself often suggest the use of Broad Match keywords to increase a campaign’s exposure and, by extension, ad spend (which is great for Google). Recommendations to “change all keywords to Broad Match” can potentially help to drive more conversions but come with a significant caveat: you may pay a very high price for those additional conversions.

Assessing Broad Match Performance

To determine if Broad Match keywords are potentially wasting your ad spend, follow these steps:

1. Check Your Keywords: In the Google Ads interface, navigate to “Keywords” and apply a filter to identify Broad Match keywords.
2. Analyse Performance: Look at metrics such as conversion rate, click-through rate (CTR), and cost per conversion. High costs with low conversions indicate poor performance.
3. Search Term Report: Use the search term report to see what queries are triggering your Broad Match keywords. Filter the report by match type to focus on Broad Match terms.
4. Add Negative Keywords: Identify irrelevant search terms and add them as negative keywords to prevent future ad spend on those terms.

Best Practices for Using Broad Match Keywords

If you decide to use Broad Match keywords, follow these criteria:

• Conversion Tracking: Ensure you have reliable conversion tracking set up. Without it, assessing the effectiveness of Broad Match keywords is challenging.
• Smart Bidding Strategies: Use conversion-based smart bidding strategies like “Maximize Conversions” or “Target CPA” to leverage Google’s algorithms in optimising ad spend.
• Proven Performance with Exact/Phrase Match: Ensure that your exact and phrase match keywords are already performing well. Broad Match keywords are best used to expand on already successful campaigns.
• Daily Monitoring: Regularly review your search query reports and add negative keywords to filter out irrelevant traffic.
• Budget Considerations: Only use Broad Match keywords if your goal is to increase daily spend after saturating search volume with exact match keywords.

Conclusion

Broad Match keywords can be a double-edged sword. They offer the potential for broader reach but come with the risk of higher costs and irrelevant traffic. By understanding their role, carefully monitoring their performance, Broad Match can be used to drive higher sales at a profitable rate.

Need Help With Your Google Ads Account?

If you feel your campaigns are not working as effectively as they could, and would like an expert to review your account, then feel free to get in contact with us and we’ll have one of our specialists get in contact with you.