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Match Types

In my Adwords Guide, I’ve previously suggested that whenever you bid on a keyword on phrase match, you should also bid on the same keyword on exact match. I’ve also said that when you bid on a keyword on broad match, you should also bid on phrase match and exact match.

My argument was that Google rewards more relevant keywords by giving them a better Quality Score, so if somebody searches for blue widgets, you’ll get a better Quality Score if you have [blue widgets] on exact match than you would if you just had “widgets” on phrase match.

However, Google recently clarified their position on how the match type of the keyword impacts its Quality Score.

To quote them directly,

“Google maintains two types of Quality Scores: one that is used to compute your minimum cost-per-click (CPC) bids, and another that is used to determine your ad position. Neither is directly impacted by match type.

Quality Score for minimum CPC bids: If you were to add the same keyword three times to your ad group, each with a different match type, they would all have the same Quality Score. This means that identical keywords in your account will have the same minimum CPC bids, regardless of their match types. Note that it may take several hours for the system to update and synchronize the minimum CPC bids.

Quality Score for ad position: The Quality Score used to determine ad position depends on the relevance of your keyword to the search query. This Quality Score is often higher if the search query matches the keyword exactly. However, this does not depend on whether your keyword’s match type is broad, phrase, or exact. For example, the broad-match keyword tennis shoes would have the same Quality Score in relationship to the search query tennis shoes as it would if it were an exact match.”

So the minimum bid is totally unaffected by the keyword match type, and the Ranking Quality Score doesn’t take it into account either.

So there’s no point in using multiple match types, then? Well, it’s not as important as it used to be, but there is still a clear reason to do so. The keyword will almost certainly give a different conversion rate for different match types as well as having a different clickthrough rate. As a result, a click is worth a different amount to you, and so you should be bidding a different amount.

Here’s the process that I use now when I’m creating a new campaign. I’m selling widgets, so I bid on the term “widgets” on Exact and Phrase match. After a day or two, I look at the search term report, and see what the biggest terms that I was hitting on phrase match were. I add these into my keyword list on exact match, and adjust the bids based on the cost per conversion in order to maximise the conversions that I get for my money. I repeat the process until there’s virtually nothing coming through on phrase match.

Here’s an example:

Search Term	Impressions	Clicks	CTR	Conversions	Conv. Rate	CPC	Cost	CPA
“widgets”	175000	5000	2.9%	115	2.3%	£0.50	£2,500	£21.74
[widgets]	25000	500	2.0%	10	2.0%	£0.50	£250	£25.00
Total	200000	5500	2.8%	125	2.3%	£0.50	£2,750	£22.00

I look at the search term report, and pick out the keywords that have got significant volumes of traffic.

Search Term	Impressions	Clicks	CTR	Conversions	Conv. Rate	CPC	Cost	CPA
[widgets]	25000	500	2.0%	10	2.0%	£0.50	£250	£25.00
[blue widgets]	20000	1000	5.0%	50	5.0%	£0.50	£500	£10.00
[red widgets]	20000	800	4.0%	40	5.0%	£0.50	£400	£10.00
[canadian widgets]	15000	300	2.0%	0	0.0%	£0.50	£150
[free widgets]	20000	400	2.0%	0	0.0%	£0.50	£200
“widgets”	100000	2500	2.5%	25	1.0%	£0.50	£1,250	£50.00
Total	200000	5500	2.8%	125	2.3%	£0.50	£2,750	£22.00

I adjust the bids in order to equalise the cost per conversions, whilst ensuring that the daily spend is unchanged (in practise, this is a lot harder than it appears here!). I also add some new negative keywords, if I see anything that doesn’t represent what I’m selling.

Search Term	Impressions	Clicks	CTR	Conversions	Conv. Rate	CPC	Cost	CPA
[widgets]	25000	333.3	1.3%	6.6664	2.0%	£0.33	£111	£16.67
[blue widgets]	20000	1667	8.3%	83.33	5.0%	£0.83	£1,389	£16.67
[red widgets]	20000	1333	6.7%	66.664	5.0%	£0.83	£1,111	£16.67
“widgets”	100000	833.3	0.8%	8.333	1.0%	£0.17	£139	£16.67
Total	165000	4167	2.5%	164.9934	4.0%	£0.66	£2,750	£16.67

I keep repeating the process. Over time, the traffic in the phrase match will fall, as more and more of it is moved into exact match, so the process needs repeating less often.

Search Term	Impressions	Clicks	CTR	Conversions	Conv. Rate	CPC	Cost	CPA
[widgets]	25000	333.3	1.3%	6.6664	2.0%	£0.33	£111	£16.67
[blue widgets]	20000	1667	8.3%	83.33	5.0%	£0.83	£1,389	£16.67
[red widgets]	20000	1333	6.7%	66.664	5.0%	£0.83	£1,111	£16.67
[new widgets]	20000	150	0.8%	4	2.7%	£0.17	£25	£6.25
[designer widgets]	10000	150	1.5%	3	2.0%	£0.17	£25	£8.33
[used widgets]	10000	100	1.0%	0	0.0%	£0.17	£17
“widgets”	60000	433	0.8%	1	0.2%	£0.17	£72	£72.16
Total	165000	4166	2.5%	164.6604	4.0%	£0.66	£2,750	£16.70

If you’ve read my guide, this is the complete opposite to the “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” approach that I’ve advocated. In the main part, I combine both methods, throwing in every word that I can think of on exact and phrase match (and sometimes broad match), and add new exact match keywords in when I can see what I’ve missed.

Page last updated by Steve Baker on May 11, 2008 at 7:07 pm.

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