Get the Highest CTR and Ad Positions, with Lowest Click Prices, by Getting Only the Traffic You Really Want

Many AdWords Advertisers realise that there's three very different match types for their keywords:

1. broad
2. "phrase"
3. [exact]

They command different bid prices and get different types of visitors.

Here, I'm going to go over the basic three (for completeness) and describe the other "missing 5" match types that can be used to control your impressions, (hence clicks, CTR and bid prices) in a way not possible on any other pay-per-click Search Engine than Google.

They are:

• broad expanded
• negative broad
• negative broad expanded
• negative "phrase"
• negative [exact]

Negative keywords are used to suppress undesirable ad impressions which has the direct effect of raising your CTR and ad position, and lowering your CPC.

The eight keyword match types in detail:

1. Broad: tennis shoes

   This will match any combination of the following: tennis red shoes, red tennis shoes, free red tennis shoes, shoes red tennis, blue tennis shoes etc. 

    

2. Phrase: "tennis shoes"

   This will match these: "red tennis shoes", "free tennis shoes", "tennis shoes wholesale", but not "tennis red shoes", "free tennis blue shoes" etc.

    

3. Exact: [tennis shoes]

   This will match only [tennis shoes] with no other keyphrases attached

   HERE'S WHERE IT GETS INTERESTING
    

4. Broad Expanded: tennis shoes

   Google will serve your ad against what it considers related keyword search terms, for instance trainers, tennis balls, sportswear (try it and see)

   Read more about Expanded Match in Google's Help Centre

   It doesn't require much imagination to realise how dangerous this can be, as well as potentially useful.

   You can generate a lot of useful related keywords this way, but you need to monitor things closely to suppress impressions for completely irrelevant keywords (like in the example).

   To do this, run a regular Search Query report, and check your server logs. Note that Search Query only returns keywords that caused clicks, not just impressions.

   Fortunately, Google gives us a secret weapon - actually FOUR…

    

5. Negative Broad: -balls, -ball, -trainers, -trainer

   Suppresses any keyword containing ball, balls, trainers and trainer, e.g tennis balls, dunlop tennis ball, tennis trainers, etc.

    

6. Negative Broad Expanded: -balls, -ball, -trainers, -trainer

   Suppresses any related keywords like golf balls, dance trainer, sports trainer etc.

   BEWARE! Most adwords advertisers using negative keywords use them like this: -blue tennis shoe, -green tennis shoes etc.

   However, negative -blue tennis shoe suppresses -blue, -tennis, and -shoe all at the same time!

   So you'll actually find your broad expanded negatives will suppress your main keywords.

   You can use the keyword analysis tool to see what's happening with your keywords - this is the little magnifying glass to the right of your keyword list. It will tell you if one of your negatives is turning off one of your desired keywords (not which one though, you still have to figure that out…)
    

7. Negative Phrase: -"blue tennis shoes", -"green tennis shoes", -"blue tennis", -"green tennis"

   In my opinion, these are the safest to start with, since they don't interfere with your selected keywords, but will suppress specific ones you don't want. The more specific, the better.
    

8. Negative Exact: -[blue tennis shoes], -[green tennis shoes]

   These give very precise control to your negatives and can be used to complement the Negative Phrase match type.

   For example, if you're a travel agent, you want to use "river nile cruise" but would want to suppress vague impressions with -[nile]
    

If in doubt about all these match types, follwo this strategy:

• start with phrase and exact only
• gradually introduce broad
• run regular Search Query reports
• monitor your server logs
• check zero-impression keywords in case they are being unintentionally suppressed by a Negative.

David Rothwell is a Google AdWords Qualified Individual with 3 years experience, with 59 client accounts spending almost $42,000.00 per month.

He provides account audits, training, coaching and consultancy on all aspects of AdWords website marketing.

The views expressed in this article are the personal opinion of the Author.

(C) 2008 David Rothwell | www.AdWordsAnswers.com | david@adwordsanswers.com

Back to AdWords Training home