Selecting Exact Google AdWords Keyword: Do it the Right Way

Selecting the right keyword match in your Google AdWords Campaign can help improve the overall ROI of your campaign. In this article you will see how using Exact Keyword Match can vastly improve your campaign metrics.

But first what are the AdWords Keyword Types ?

There are 4 types of Keyword Matches that you can do. To whom your ad will be shown will largely depend on the type of keyword match that you chose.

1. Broad Match
2. Phrase Match
3. Broad Match Modifiers
4. Exact Match

The kind of match type that you select will determine in what query context your ad will be shown. Broad Match shows your ad to the widest possible audience while Exact match is at the other end of the spectrum that shows your ad to the least number of search queries.

Then why use Exact Match Keywords?

An exact match keyword by definition shows your ad only to search queries that match exactly with your keyword or a close variant of the exact match.

For example if you specify  [hotel rooms with bed & breakfast in NY], your ad will get triggered off only if the user types in the exact above search query or a very close variant of the same.  The big benefit of using exact match keywords are:-

1. You practically eliminate all wastage in your campaign. The chances of your ad being clicked on (which costs you money!) is near zero.
2. Your clicks to conversion ratios will be the best as you are exactly showing what the user is searching for.
3. Your audience is much sharper.
4. You spend far lesser money on your campaign and get a better ROI from it

However, what should be borne in mind is that with an exact match keyword types you are likely receive the least number of impressions and clicks than in any other keyword match type.

This happens because you have restricted the search query to a single set of keywords.

The big downside is of course you are likely to get far lower number of leads as compared to when you use Phrase or a Broad Match Modifier as your keyword match type.

What instances should you be using Exact Match Keywords?

What type of keyword match you should be using will largely depend on your campaign objectives. If your objective is to generate relevant traffic to your website, you should opt for a Broad Match or a Broad Match Modifier.

However, if you objective is to generate sales or highly pre-qualified leads, you should stick to using Exact Match Keywords.

Impact of changing match types from Broad to Phrase to Exact Match Type

Take a look at the example alongside, where we have looked at the keyword digital marketing agency and digital marketing agencies .

Let’s take a look at how the numbers stack up when we choose these two keywords and run a campaign using Broad, Match or Exact Matches

Using the Google AdWord Keyword planner tool we looked at the 2 words to see the impact on impressions, clicks and budget using a CPC bid price at Rs. 100/-. The 1^st picture shows that with a CPC bid at Rs. 100, I should be getting about 124 clicks out of 3687 impressions and spending about Rs. 9130.

By default as I mentioned, Google always, always shows keywords in broad match! It’s their own sweet way of ensuring that the un-trained google advertisers end up spending money without getting results!

Now let’s see what happens when I change the match type from Broad to Phrase Match

Whoops! The minute I change the match type keyword, while keeping the CPC bid the same, the number of expected clicks drop to about 48 clicks with an impression value of 1784 and a total spend of about Rs. 4000/-

Now, that’s a drastic drop!

Let’s see what happens when I further tighten the search query to only my ad for the exact keyword match type of the two words.

Holy cow!

The number of estimated clicks drop down to 9.36 clicks, impressions fall to 424 and total spend to only Rs. 736/-!!

Here’s how all 3 stack up together.

As one can see, there is indeed a drastic drop in the estimated number of clicks when you move from a broad match keyword type to an exact match keyword. And the drop is significant.

How do you change keyword match types?

It is a good practice to check the implications and impact on the number of clicks that you will get when you shift to a new keyword match type on your google keyword planner tool.

To change the match type

1. Select the keyword by checking the box
2. Go to Match Type tab. Choose ALL and then choose the match type

Your keyword will be changed automatically to the match type you have chosen. Note that the keywords appear differently in each match type

Broad Match

Phrase Match

The keywords appear within inverted commas. When you add keywords in your actual campaign and you want to specify them as Phrase match keywords remember to put the keywords within inverted commas as shown in the picture.

Exact Match

Note that the keywords now appear within brackets. This denotes that the keyword is an exact match. Remember to specify your keywords in your actual campaign in this manner if you are choosing exact match

Changing keyword matches in actual campaign

To change keywords that you are already running in your Google AdWords Campaign to a new match type, go to your main campaign dashboard and select the tab KEYWORD

Choose the keyword that you want to change the match type for by checking on the box beside the keyword.

Select Change Match Types. This will open a new page

Check the current match type of the word (broad, exact or phrase) and then select the match type you want to change it to.

Make the changes to save it. Keep in mind that you will be essentially creating a new keyword and all the data pertaining to the old keyword match type will not be available for the new keyword. The old keyword match type however will be shown as paused and you can see the old data points by looking under paused keywords

Note: You can’t change a broad match modifier into an exact or phrase or broad match type.

Under what circumstances should you opt for Exact Match Type keywords?

On the face of it, Exact Match Keyword Types target highly pre-qualified search traffic. Someone who is searching for your exact service or product category is a highly relevant prospect.

For years advertisers enjoyed this until recently when Google changed the way they treated Exact Match Keyword Types. They introduced the concept of semantics that allowed ads to be shown around the exact keyword match. It also eliminated and/or added function words which could be there in the exact keyword match that one chose.

For example if the exact keyword match was [hotels in New York], your ads were supposed to show up only if the query matched this exactly. However with the recent changes, your ads could also be shown with the following queries [hotels new York], [new York hotels]. The function work [in] is no longer relevant for google.

Google estimates that this change will help exact match advertisers increase their search volume by at least 3%.In fact Wordstream has analyzed the impact of change in Exact Matches in an in-depth article

Notwithstanding the changes, Exact Match Keywords are a great way to restrict your spend to highly relevant search queries. It works extremely well for the following businesses and objectives

1. Travel & Hospitality sector– When you want to target specific flight or hotel bookings in particular cities [flight tickets to New York] or [hotels near central park new York]. These are highly focused search queries ( read potential sale) and it would be best served by using exact matches
2. Ecommerce sites– When you want to target people searching for specific products to buy. You don’t want to waste your money behind Fashion Garments (broad match) or “Fashion Garments for teenagers” (phrase match) but want to target [low waist jeans for teenagers]. The search volume is likely to be small, but the search is very sharp and the likelihood of the user clicking through to your product page which features low waist jeans for teenagers and buying it would be high.
3. Product/Brand oriented searches – where you want to target people who are searching for a specific product or a specific brand, exact match keywords are the best choice to use. No wastage.
4. Services business – where you want to sell a service. This is a tricky one. Simply selecting say [digital marketing agencies in Delhi] on the face of it may be a good exact match relevant query, but the fact is that it is actually generic. The user could be searching for a job and hence hunting for digital marketing agencies in Delhi!

For services business, it is best to explore more long tail or deeper keywords such as [Google AdWords expert] rather than the more generic digital marketing agency keyword if you want to run exact matches. Else for services business, what works best are Phrase matches.

Conclusion

While planning and setting up your Google Adwords Campaign remember to be careful in your selection of your keyword match type. Making mistakes with the Google Adwords is fairly commonplace among new users. Avoid these mistakes by reading up on them. There are several tips and suggestions that you could look into to get the best out of your AdWords campaign. Selecting the right keyword match type and knowing when and where to use Exact Match Keywords is one of them