Broad Match Modifiers – Adword’s New Match Type
Google recently announced they are rolling out changes to their keyword match program. For those that might not recall the types of keyword matches, please see our earlier blog, “Keyword Relevancy and the Broad Match Type”. Those advertising in Google AdWords (most of us) now have a new tool to use to optimize paid search campaigns – broad match modifiers. Broad Match Modifiers provide an advertiser with more control over when ads can be seen and this type of control is definitely a good thing.
Broad Match Modifiers (BMMs) were released in July 2010 after a successful beta test in the UK and Canada. Broad Match Modifiers are targeting features that provide more specificity than typical broad matches, but are less restrictive than phrase matches. By placing a “+” in front of a word in a broad match keyword or phrase, only a query that includes that keyword (or a close variant) will trigger your ad.
Broad Match Modifiers provide an interesting opportunity for advertisers who traditionally use phrase matching to expand their volume without sacrificing traffic quality as significantly as traditional broad match. Those primarily utilizing broad match in their current campaigns must understand that BMMs will reduce volume if implemented in broad-matched campaigns. However, they provide an opportunity to increase the relevancy of your advertising without reducing your traffic volume as significantly as phrase matching.
While the additional level of targeting afforded by Broad Match Modifiers is an exciting prospect, it is important to note that this change doesn’t solve an old complaint about broad matching – Google decides what they consider as synonyms and close variants to your target keywords. Therefore, it is still important to monitor search queries and maintain a list of negative keywords to prevent your ad from appearing unnecessarily. A possible solution might be a “modified phrase match”, where each word that makes up the phrase (no synonyms or variants) would have to appear, but allow them to appear in any order. This would afford advertisers with additional/total control while offering an option to increase lead volume.
We recommend testing Broad Match Modifiers in your program, especially in campaigns where the scope needs to be expanded or reduced. Have you started using Broad Match Modifiers in your program? We’d love to hear about any early results!
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