“Broad and negative, or exact?”  I asked an interactive marketing colleague one day.

“Exact.” He replied, “You get better conversion rates from good ad text. And you often pay less for long tail keywords on exact match.”

“What about broad match though?” I inquired further, “If you’re careful and keep adding negatives, you can find all sorts of new keywords. And then you can switch the good ones you find to exact match.”

“No, I’m still OK with exact match.” He answered.

“Well, I do warn new marketers about broad match -“ I said. “be careful to add negatives and monitor traffic within the first 24 hours or even first few hours.  Or switch the default match type, because when you add new keywords on Google, the default match type is broad match. That’s why you need to use negatives with broad match otherwise you could lose money on irrelevant keywords.

Although it can be tricky, I do recommend broad match. It’s an easy way to find new keywords, and often saves time even with adding negatives. But if finding new keywords isn’t a priority – say you’ve checked out the free search engine suggestion tools, or you’re busy mining your product pages and natural and onsite search terms for new keywords – then stick with exact match.” 

How do you combine keyword matching techniques to optimize the results of your pay-per-click ad campaigns?  Share your insights in the comment area below.

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About The Author

Daryl Michalik is a product manager responsible for Lyris HQ Search Marketing and client services. He has over 6 years of experience in online marketing and Web analytics, plus a background in strategic marketing, financial analysis and product marketing.

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