Using keyword matching options

• Use matching options with your keywords to help control which searches can trigger your ad.
• When choosing the appropriate match type for a keyword, we typically recommend starting with broad match to maximize your potential to show your ads on relevant searches.
• Use the search terms report to monitor which keyword variations triggered your ads.

Keyword match types help control which searches can trigger your ad. For example, you could use broad match to show your ad to a wide audience or you could use exact match to hone in on specific groups of customers.

In general, the broader the keyword matching option, the more traffic potential that keyword has. Conversely, the narrower the keyword matching option, the more relevant that keyword will be to someone's search. Understanding these differences can steer you in choosing the right keyword matching options and can help you improve your return on investment.

About keyword match types

How To Use Keyword Match Types on the Search Network

Learn about the different keyword match types (broad, phrase, exact, and negative) and how selecting the right ones for your keywords can help you reach your AdWords goals. Find a takeaway article that you can keep as a reference guide here: http://goo.gl/Ck3xYG Subscribe to AdWords Help on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/adwordshelp

Each match type, which is specified by a special symbol, will trigger your ad to show for a customer's search in different ways.

The chart below serves as an introduction to the different match types, ordered from broad to narrow. We'll give more information on each option in the sections below.

Match type	Special symbol	Example keyword	Ads may show on searches that	Example searches
Broad match	none	women's hats	include misspellings, synonyms, related searches, and other relevant variations	buy ladies hats
Broad match modifier	+keyword	+women's +hats	contain the modified term (or close variations, but not synonyms), in any order	hats for women
Phrase match	"keyword"	"women's hats"	are a phrase, and close variations of that phrase	buy women's hats
Exact match	[keyword]	[women's hats]	are an exact term and close variations of that exact term	women's hats
Negative match	-keyword	-women	are searches without the term	baseball hats