Many people have had poor experiences when using Adwords to promote their business, for a variety of reasons. Most often, the problem stems from poor trigger keyword selection.
There are several different matching methods used in specifying keywords, and selecting the proper method is crucial to maximizing your ROI (return on investment). Here is a brief explanation of each matching method, to help you understand the options available to you:
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- Broad match – this is the method that will provide the greatest number of impressions, as it will trigger on the term itself, as well as any recognized synonyms, variations and related searches. This is used by entering the keyword without any punctuation.
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Example: puppy might trigger for puppy, dog, canine and house pet, in plural and singular variations.
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- Broad match modifier – this method will exclude synonyms and related searches, while including close variations. It’s used by prefacing the term with the +sign.
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Example: +puppy might trigger puppy and puppies
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- Phrase match – with this method, you can limit the trigger to an exact match of a phrase and close variations of that phrase, by enclosing the phrase in quotation marks.
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Example: “rottweiler puppy” may trigger rottweiler puppy or rottweiler puppies, but would exclude only rottweiler or puppy alone.
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- Exact match – this method will typically render the fewest matches, but the most targeted, as only minor close variations will be allowed. It is used by placing the term in brackets.
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Example: [adopt rottweiler puppy] would trigger adopt rottweiler puppy or adopt rottweiler puppies but would exclude terms like rottweiler puppy for adoption.
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- Negative match – this allows you to specifically exclude any term, by prefacing it with the -sign.
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Example Keyword: adopt puppy and you add -albino -breeder should trigger the broad match for the keyword, excluding any reference to albinos or breeders.
As you can see, choosing the right trigger methods and keywords will have a great bearing on how often your ads will be triggered. Of course, your bid and daily cap will influence the effectiveness of your campaign greatly, too, but that’s a topic for another post.
The important thing to remember about setting the appropriate match methods is that they are your control over your budget. Some beginners make the mistake of approaching their first campaign with the idea that more impressions is better than fewer.
However, with any PPC plan, the more targeted the ad, the better ROI you should be able to see. Each click-through nibbles away at your budget, and poor planning in the matching stage of your setup can consume your budget at an alarming rate, with very little return. I can’t tell you how many people have told me that PPC didn’t work, so they abandoned the use of it. A little discussion nearly always revealed that they were running broad match on all their keywords.
As with any advertising campaign, you need to take your time and think it through, in order to get the best results. Google offers a lot of information and assistance on their site, so take full advantage of it. When managed properly, Adwords can be a very effective way to deliver highly targeted traffic to your site.
