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Google Adwords

Setting the right keyword phrases in Google Adwords

How smartly are you managing your Google Adwords campaigns? In this post, we’ll discuss how important it is to set up your keyword phrases properly. If this basic setting isn’t applied correctly it can cost you dearly!

Broad match, phrase match or exact match?

Not using the right broad match, phrase match or exact match keywords can be critical.

Google AdWords allows you to add keywords to a campaign as a broad match, phrase match, or exact match.

A broad match keyword means that your ads will show if the keywords are used in the search, regardless of the order. Your ad will show in a search so long as the keywords you entered show up in the search in one form or another.

If your ad group contained the keyword football boots, your ad would be eligible to appear when a user’s search query contained ‘football’ and ‘boots’, in any order, and possibly along with other terms. Your ads could also show for singular/plural forms, synonyms, and other relevant variations. For example, your ad might show on ‘football boot’ or ‘football shoes’.

As you can see, because this is so vague this approach could be wasting you a lot of money due to people clicking on your advert for the wrong reasons.

A phrase match keyword means the keyword phrase needs to show up in the search as a complete phrase in the order you enter it. In order to enter a keyword as a phrase match in AdWords, you enter it with quotation marks around the term when you add it as a keyword.

If you enter your keyword in quotation marks, as in “football boots” your ad would be eligible to appear when a user searches on the phrase ‘football boots’, in this order, and possibly with other terms before or after the phrase. For example, your ad could appear for the query white ‘football boots’ but not for ‘boots for football’, ‘football boot’ or ‘football shoes’.

A phrase match is more targeted than broad match, but more flexible than exact match.

An exact match keyword works just like it sounds. The term being searched needs to exactly match the keyword that you entered in AdWords. This may seem too specific, but as you can imagine, you are more likely to attract people who are directly looking for your service. To add an exact match keyword in AdWords, you enter it with brackets around it.

Our recommendation

A good approach is to start with exact matches and then expand to phrase and broad as needed. For start up’s, this will mean you can keep your initial costs down and only appeal to people directly looking for your service. You may not get the initial reach you intended, but at least you won’t be wasting lots of money on broad match keywords. If you aren’t getting enough impressions and conversions with exact matches, then you can add the terms as a phrase match and eventually as a broad match. You can always test the water and adjust your campaign as you go. Be cautious and don’t let it get out of control!

On the other hand, if you are already spending lots of money for little return due to broad match keywords, make sure you change to phrase match keywords – do it now as you will be throwing money away every day!

We hope our post has been useful to you! If you have any questions about how save money or spend smartly with Google Adwords, please feel free to get in touch!

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