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Google AdWords basics

Recently updated on August 27th, 2019

Keywords made easy

Keywords have a critical role in any organisation’s Google AdWords campaign. Keywords are the conduit between what potential leads are searching for and your advertisements. For any organisation, it is critical to understand the different types of keywords and when to use each.

Broad Keywords

Broad keywords have the least specific relation to search terms, as the name implies. A broad keyword loosely associates with any search term that contains similar words. It is also worth noting that spelling errors and synonyms can also appear using broad keywords.

For example, let’s use Arlo as our subject and assume we use a broad keyword to get AdWord clicks regarding our event management software.

As we can see, there are two search terms that aren’t relevant to Arlo, but may in fact display our advertisement. The first two search terms are the only search terms worth paying for.

Exact Keywords

After spending a lot of money on the incorrect search terms above, we need to tighten up our AdWord Keywords. Exact matches are a great way to ensure you only pay for the precise search term you want. Thus keeping costs down!

Exact keywords are denoted by ‘[ keyword  ]’ and as the name suggests, will only match search terms exactly. No spelling mistakes, no variations, no extra words. So our “event management software” keyword, would be entered into AdWords as [event management software]. As promised, Google will only display our advertisement to the users who search “event management software”.

Phrase matches

The exact keyword might be too exact. Our advertisement will not show for people who search for “free event management software” or “event management software plugin”.

A phrase match will show search terms that match a phrase, plus some variation. It is denoted by speech marks. For example the phrase keyword, “event management software”, will show the ad for the search term – “free event management software” or “event management software plugin”. Unfortunately, the advertisement will not be shown for “management software for live event with presenters”, because the phrase is not searched.

Broad Match Modifier Keywords

Again the phrase match might still be too limiting. “Management software for live event with presenters” may in fact be a quality lead at Arlo, but they would not have seen our advertisement.

Broad match keywords allow search terms to appear that contain the term (in any order) plus any close variations. They are denoted with ‘+’ symbols in front of the terms.

The main difference between the broad match modifier keywords and the broad match keywords is that synonyms are not put forward as matches. Unlike the phrase matches, the words can appear in any order. As previously, I will use an example to better explain:

At Arlo we have found Broad Match Modifier Keywords extremely helpful. They allow us to show our ads to a large variety of users without paying for irrelevant searches.

In the next Google AdWords blog, we will be looking at Negative Keywords and how to effectively use them in the least amount of time!

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