By contributor Lynn Truong
Several Keyword Matching Options are available:
1. Broad Match - This is the default option. If your keywords include general words or phrases like office supplies, your ads may appear when users search for office and supplies, in any order, and possibly along with other terms. For example, your ad may appear for buy office supplies and office chairs but not office buildings. Your ads may also appear on relevant variations of your keyword phrases and plurals, as well as some related keywords and phrases. Broad matches are often less targeted than exact or phrase matches and may result in a lower CTR because more impressions are served.
2. Phrase Match - If you enter your keyword in quotation marks ("office supplies") your ad will appear when a user searches the phrase office supplies, in this order, and possibly with other terms in the search query. In this case, the search can also contain other terms as long as it includes the exact phrase you've specified. For example, your ad may appear for the queries buy office supplies and office supplies store but not supplies for office.
3. Exact Match - If you surround your keywords in brackets - [office supplies] - your ads will appear when users search for the specific phrase office supplies, in this order, and without any other terms in the search query. For example, your ad won't show for the query office supplies stores. Although you won't receive as many impressions, you'll likely get a higher CTR, because of its precise targeting.
4. Negative Keyword - These keywords trigger your ads NOT to display, even if other keywords in the search query match. To specify a negative keyword, place a negative sign (-) before the keyword. For example, you can add the negative keyword -used, so your ad won't appear when a user searches for used office supplies.
