The broad match keyword is possibly the most misunderstood keyword of all. Whereas some see it as a poor short-cut to paid search campaigns, I view it as an essential tool to gain insights.
Here’s three great uses of broad match keywords:
1) Improve the speed of campaign set-up
Instead of mining a billion and one keywords for each campaign, which will cost time and money, start off with broad matches of strategically important keywords (which can still be on the longer tail end).
2) Learn what people actually search for
Since broad match is a catch-all for related keywords you’ll be able to discover new searches that wouldn’t have been picked up by mining keyword databases. Use the Google search query report or similar tool to mine the actual converting search queries and add them as exact matches for increased optimisation control.
3) Improve your quality score
What? Doesn’t broad match typically lead to poor quality score campaigns, I hear you scream. Well, no, not by default.
Having broad matches in your campaign that receives poor CTR for keyword variations (i.e. where the user search query is not exactly same as the broad match keyword) will not negatively impact your quality score. Google clearly states that the CTR of these keywords are not part of the quality score algorithm (and consequently won’t impact position or cpc).
Although there at times can be many benefits of running a long-tail keyword campaign focused on exact matches, far from all agencies or in-house teams have the real capabilities to analyse and manage the massive data requirements. A common issue is the lack of a proper methodology and required technology. This leads to a poorly optimised tail that brings down quality score, and in addition there may be tens of thousands of non-converting keywords that are awaiting to accrue enough data to prove statistically significant, which consequently kills campaign profitability before it even got the chance to take off.
Uploading 100,000 keywords and proudly state that you’re running a long-tail campaign isn’t going to make anyone happy unless you know what you’re doing
For a smaller or manually optimisation focused campaign team it can thus many times be more manageable to focus on a smaller campaign structure that also contains several broad matches, and frequently add negative keywords, without missing out on new search trends as they happen.
As with any craft, you typically need more than one tool. Thus it’s key to use all match types at hand – and in particular negative match – for an effective campaign.
Related posts:
- PPC Keyword Hijacking and Branding: BA Christmas Strike Case Study
- Apple iPad PPC keyword hijacked by Mother Nature herself – aka Tampax
- Google’s Supersized Search Box and Benefits of Long Tail PPC
- Branding through Paid-Search: Impression Share Optimisation
- Top Tools and Techniques for Capturing Hot Search Keywords
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