What Are Match Types in Search Advertising? The Options and How to Use Them

To put search advertising in front of the right target,
one of the settings you always have to configure is the match type.

This article explains the types of match, what each one does, and how to use them effectively.

※ The articles below go into more detail on how search advertising works and how to set a budget. Do read them alongside this one.
Related article:
What is search advertising? A plain explanation of how it works, how to set a budget and how to manage it

1. What is a match type?

In search advertising you register keywords to decide which search terms your ads appear against. Whether you run ads widely, or narrow them to a pinpoint, the setting that adjusts how far the ad reaches is the match type.

If the match type is not set well,
you can show ads to people you never intended and generate a lot of wasted clicks,
or, the other way round, show ads only to a pinpoint audience, which costs you opportunities.
That is why it matters to use match types so that you reliably capture the search terms you want to target. Here we explain keyword match types.

2. The types of match

Keyword match types are exact match、phrase match、broad match– three in all.
That said,A change in July 2021 retired modified broad match.
Let us take them one at a time.

2.1 Exact match

This match type shows your ad when the search term means exactly the same as the keyword you registered, or is a close variant of it.
Register [Tokyo cherry blossom viewing] as exact match and the ad also appears for [cherry blossom viewing Tokyo] and other reversed word orders.

Because it shows ads against keywords that match in full,
you can approach the people you have in mind with pinpoint accuracy.

Keyword set	[Tokyo cherry blossom viewing]
Examples of search terms that match	Tokyo cherry blossom viewing cherry blossom viewing Tokyo Tokyo Metropolis cherry blossom viewing
Examples of search terms that do not match	Tokyo cherry blossom viewing spots cherry blossom viewing Kanagawa

And because The chance of winning a conversion is higher than with the other match types, so it keeps costs down when budget is limited.
That said, the range of keywords it responds to is narrow, so the chance of lost opportunity rises as well.

2.2 Phrase match

The ad appears when the search term contains something that means the same as the keyword you registered.

Keyword set	“Tokyo cherry blossom viewing”
Examples of search terms that match	Tokyo cherry blossom viewing spots cherry blossom viewing Tokyo
Examples of search terms that do not match	cherry blossom viewing Kanagawa cherry blossom viewing areas recommended

Even where the words differ, the ad may appear if they can be read as meaning the same, as with “spots” and “areas”. Compared with exact match, this widens the range of search terms that match. Conversely, for a keyword such as “Kyoto University”, “Kyoto University” and “a university in Kyoto” differ in meaning, and where the meaning differs the ad is not eligible to appear.

And as noted above, there used to be a modified broad match function,
but that function has now been folded into phrase match, which was updated so that there is no difference between phrase match and modified broad match. With this update, search terms that only modified broad match used to pick up can now be picked up by phrase match.
Take the phrase match keyword “removal firm Osaka to Tokyo” as an example.
“cheap removal firm Osaka to Tokyo” still matches as before, and now “Osaka company removal firm to Tokyo”, which previously matched only under modified broad match, matches too.

Note, though, that where the word order is reversed and the meaning differs from the registered keyword, as with a search about removal firms “from Tokyo to Osaka”, the ad is not eligible to appear.

2.3 Broad match

Broad match is the most expansive of the match types.

Keyword set	Tokyo cherry blossom viewing
Examples of search terms that match	Tokyo cherry blossom viewing spots cherry blossom viewing Tokyo cherry blossom viewing Tokyo
Examples of search terms that do not match	If Google’s algorithm judges there is no relevance , the ad does not appear.

This match type shows the ad when the system judges that what the user searched for is related to the keyword you set.
That includes searches which do not contain the words of the registered keyword at all.
The user’s recent searches may also be taken into account.

It gives the ad more chances to appear than any other match type,
letting you make your case to the fullest extent to people searching on keywords you never anticipated.
But the range of keywords it responds to is very wide, so ads appear on keywords you did not intend, clicks come in from people unrelated to the audience you want, and you run the risk of wasted cost.
You have to check the search terms your ads appeared against frequently and consider negative keywords each time, so in some cases the maintenance work grows more than you would want.

Broad match is the default match type, assigned automatically to every keyword. Use it and you no longer need to specify other match types for similar keywords

■The symbols for the three match types
When you set a match type, you have to enclose the keyword in symbols according to the rules for that type.
Which symbols you use depends on which type you are setting.
The names and symbols are as follows.

• Broad match: there is no special notation; simply enter the keyword and it is broad match (for example: keyword）。
• Phrase match: indicated by enclosing the search term in double quotation marks (for example: “keyword”）。
• Exact match: indicated by enclosing the search term in square brackets (for example: [keyword]）。

3. Match types and ad relevance

Let us look concretely at when an ad does and does not appear if the keyword “my home purchase” is set under each match type.

○: ad appears △: ad may appear (close variant of the keyword) ×: ad does not appear

	exact match [my home purchase]	phrase match “my home purchase”	broad match my home purchase
my home purchase	○	○	○
purchase my home	△	△	○
my home purchase land	×	○	○
house purchase	△	△	○

■If the user searches “my home purchase”
Registered as exact match [women’s umbrella], the word order is identical too, so the ad appears.

■If the user searches “purchase my home”
The word order differs from the registered term, so exact match and phrase match are unlikely to show, but if you have registered broad match you can still deliver the ad to this user.

■If the user searches “my home purchase land”
“Red” is not registered, so exact match does not show. “My home purchase” is contained with the same words in the same order, so phrase match and broad match do show.

■If the user searches “house purchase”
Broad match is the one that copes with synonyms such as “my home = detached house” and with words left out. Exact match and phrase match may also show.

4. Priority when several keywords match

When several of the keywords you have set match what the user searched for,
which keyword is used to show the ad? Let us go into a little more detail.
The order of priority is roughly as follows.

Priority 1
An exact match keyword identical to the search term is used.

Example) for the search term “men’s shoes cheap”
Keyword ①: “men’s shoes cheap” (phrase match)
Keyword ②: [men’s shoes cheap] (exact match)
Here ②, which matches the search term in full, takes priority.

Priority 2
Second in priority is a keyword that is a misspelling of an exact match.
This is the case where the results show the message “Showing results for:”.

Priority 3
A phrase match keyword identical to the search term takes priority.
Where no exact match keyword is identical to the search term,
a phrase match or broad match keyword identical to the search term takes priority.

Example) for the search term “men’s shoes cheap”
Keyword ①: “men’s shoes cheap” (phrase match)
Keyword ②: men’s shoes (broad match)
Here ①, which matches the search term precisely, takes priority.

Priority 4
Next in priority is a phrase match or broad match keyword identical to the spell-corrected search term.

Priority 5
Where no match type holds a keyword identical to the search term,
and several keywords could match,
the keyword with the highest relevance, alongside ad rank, takes priority.

5. How to use match types

We have gone through match types in detail, but many people still find it hard to decide which one to choose in practice.
Let us look at which match type is the effective, optimal choice.

■When exact match is the best choice
・You want to keep the budget as low as possible
・You are adding a search term that converted as a keyword
・You want to use pinpoint keywords such as your company name or the name of your own service
・There are many search terms with low relevance
・The keyword is a single word

■When phrase match is the best choice
・You have a rough idea of the keywords but want to know what other searches get clicks
・Broad match is spending too much of the budget
・Broad match looks wasteful and exact match too narrow

■When broad match is the best choice
・You want to build awareness more widely among people related to the keyword
・You want more traffic from needs you have not anticipated
・You do not yet know what search terms bring traffic and want to find out

6. In closing

Setting keyword match types is a crucial factor that decides at the outset whether search advertising will deliver.
Set them well and the advertiser’s message reaches people at the moment you want it to.
And it is not a case of setting them once and being done: change keyword match types, add new keywords to widen reach, and keep adjusting so that delivery goes to people with higher intent.
Choosing the match type that suits the reach you intend is a little difficult,
but revisit this article, understand match types fully, and build and run your account on that basis.

Related article:
What is search advertising? A plain explanation of how it works, how to set a budget and how to manage it