An In-Depth Look at How to Use and How Not to Use Broad Match Keywords

By Jason Hawkins on May 31, 2016

It seems as though 50% or more of the new accounts we get as a marketing agency all have one common pitfall—they use broad match keywords incorrectly. Broad match keywords allows Google’s algorithm to arbitrarily show your ad for “related keywords.” According to the Google AdWords website, broad match lets a keyword trigger your ad to show whenever someone searches for that phrase, similar phrases, singular or plural forms, misspellings, synonyms, stemmings (for example, floor and flooring), related searches, and other relevant variations.

Although it may work in some instances, in others it will cause you to spend a lot of money and see few results. The worst part is that this can be a tough thing to spot if you’re new to AdWords. Regardless, whether you’re a veteran or a novice, consider some of the following best practices and examples to understand how it all works.

A Quick Example of Broad Match Keywords Gone Wrong

We recently took a look at a customs broker’s account after he told us “I’m managing my AdWords account and I think I’m doing a good job…”. Within 5 minutes the issue was clear: he had the keyword “custom broker” in broad match setup with a high bid. This was causing search terms like the following to serve:

“custom cars”

“custom shoes”

“custom clothes”

The screenshot below shows some of these search terms and the data associated with them in this specific example:

Screen Shot 2016-05-23 at 8.08.00 PM

Of course a custom broken does not need to have his ads showing up for searches like “custom clothes, but not all hope is totally lost with broad match terms—there are ways that you can use them and have them be more effective modifiers for your AdWords business account.

How and When to Use Broad Match Keywords Correctly

A broad match keyword is okay to use if you have modifiers, which are plus signs appended to beginning of words in a search query which you want include as a required word. The below example is a broad match modified version of the keywords our client would have wanted to use:

+custom +broker

We changed the broad match keyword to the above keyword and VUA LA. Now he’s getting calls left and right. The moral of the story is that while broad match keywords are good to use in certain circumstances, there is a very specific way that you need to have them in order to be effective.

There are a few different keyword match types to check out, but we are going to focus on broad match keywords below (and I’ll briefly address modified broad match keywords towards the end of the article).

3 Reasons Why you Should Use Broad Match Keywords (Correctly)

Despite the fact that there is a common misconception suggesting that using broad match keywords will give you significant amounts of unqualified traffic (hence the example above), this is not the case when you use them correctly. There are three positive effects of broad match keywords you should consider:

  1. Increase Your Traffic. Working with keywords, and specifically, broad match keywords can increase traffic associated with your campaigns. The point I want to emphasize is that, if done correctly, adding broad match keywords can be helpful in your AdWords campaigns; especially if you’re spending time and money ramping up bids on exact and phrase match keywords. In many cases it may end up being more cost effective to implement some broad match keywords.
  2. Build Brand Awareness. Broad match keywords can be extremely effective way to build brand awareness (as the case study in the introduction showed, once they are implemented correctly and efficiently). If improving awareness is one of your PPC goals, they certainly allow you to reach a wider audience and get your name out in front of more people.
  3. Discover Key Words. Using broad match keywords allows you to target and identify new keywords for your campaigns. This is partially because have a wider target audience than exact and phrase match key words do.

Keep up with Search Query Reports in AdWords

When you are using broad match keywords, you want to be sure to keep up with the search query reports in AdWords. This will allow you to see what user searches triggered your ads specifically, and from here you can identify new long-tail keywords or different keyword phrase variations to use.

Another aspect of the search query report is that it also points out any typos or misspellings that may occur in your broad match keywords. You should be implementing “misspellings” in every PPC account, as there are many different types of variations that can be identified through search query reports.

To view your Search terms report:

  1. Sign in to your AdWords account.
  2. Click the Campaigns tab.
  3. Click the Keywords tab.
  4. Click the Search terms button.
  5. You’ll see data on which search terms triggered impressions and clicks. To download the data in a report, click the download button. The screenshot below shows how it works:

Screen Shot 2016-05-24 at 8.22.38 PM

Negative Keywords to Aid Broad Match Keywords

Nine times out of ten, using negative keywords is generally a huge positive when working with broad match keywords. For many businesses, the best way to keep things in order and working in your favor is through the consistent application of negative keywords on a regular basis.

Below are a few case study examples that show problems that can occur when negative keywords are not implemented:

A nursing degree program: the keyword “nursing school” brought in queries for mothers learning how to nurse/ nursing their children.

A men’s clothing retailer: the broad match keyword “men’s pants” brought in searches for “knife money clips”. Or the broad match keyword “men’s boxers” brought in search queries for “photos of old men in underwear.” (The number of things that can go wrong should be totally clear).

In the case study examples addressed in the PPC Hero article, it is clear how these broad match keywords could have run up an enormous bill without immediate action.

Account Structure & Broad Match Keywords

As the case study in the beginning of this article suggested, there are ways of strutting accounts that help to prevent some of the mishaps with broad match keywords. There are really two different ways that you can structure your account in order to control your broad match keywords more effectively:

  1. Ad group-level match type segmentation. The first option is segmenting out your ad groups by “match type,” which means you will basically be tripping the number of ads you’ll be implementing in an account. This can be slightly overwhelming if you are not prepared, however, as I mentioned in the section above, negative keywords are absolutely going to be your best friend here. Segmenting your ad groups by match type allows you to make use of embedded negatives; this will resolve any issues with your broad match terms messing with your phrase and exact match keywords. For the record, it seems to be the consensus amongst search experts that this is the structure to go with.
  2. Campaign-level match type segmentation. Luckily, you can also use embedded negatives with campaign-level match segmentation. With this structure, you are also able to control your broad match spending with campaign-level budgets. However, similarly to what occurs at the ad-group level match type, you are also doubling and/or tripling the amount of campaigns under your management—so you need to be prepared for greater accuracy but much higher volume of work to deal with.

What is with “Modified” Broad Match Keywords?

Since this article focuses on broad match keywords, I am not going to drag the point out too much, but basically last year Google rolled out modified broad match keywords. You may want to consider making use of these purely because they allow for a greater accuracy and precision than do broad match keywords. You have a much greater control of search queries and they function much better for branded key terms.

A case study that compared broad match keywords to modified broad match keywords showed some important aspects of modified broad match keywords:

  • Result #1: modified broad match keywords significantly reduced the impressions the ads received. With a 4,000 drop in impressions, clicks were not impacted whatsoever. This shows that modified broad keywords reduce the number of times an ad is shown with irrelevant search queries.
  • Result #2: Click through rate increased significantly (an improved CTR is always great, but this is also more cost-effective).
  • Result #3: The cost-per-click was actually not different for the two groups (broad match and modified broad match). However, because ads were being shown to more relevant audiences with modified broad match, this actually did affect the value of the two.
  • Result #4: No difference in effect on the conversion metrics.

So what is the takeaway here? It is probably best to give modified broad match keywords a try since they are a fairly new feature of Google AdWords, and clearly have some positive impact on search query results and online marketing in general.

The Takeaway

In the end, broad match modifiers are a positive thing to implement, but with limitations. There is a specific way that you need to implement them in order for them to be effective. In the case study we started out with, it was simply refining the “+” in the search terms listed. Making use of negative keywords and account structure features can also play an extremely positive impact. Remember, there are may positive reasons to use broad match keywords such as increasing traffic, building brand awareness, and discovering keywords. At the end of the day, after learning all of this information and how positive broad match keywords are, you might also want to consider paying special attention to “modified” broad match keywords, with all of the benefits of specificity and targeted results that come along with them.

Do you have any experience with using broad match keywords on AdWords? Did you have to make any changes or try anything new after this article? Let us know in the comments section below, we would love to hear from you!



About The Author

Jason Hawkins
Jason Hawkins / http://www.themiamiseocompany.com

Jason Hawkins is the CEO & Co-Founder of The Miami SEO Company. He has over ten years of experience in search engine optimization, conversion rate optimization and lead generation. His core responsibilities include identifying ways to increase value of services rendered, training staff on advanced SEO topics, and A/B testing internal processes to consistently improve client return on investment.