Inside Google Ads podcast: Episode 74 - Broad Match basics

Are Broad Match keywords worth it in Google Ads?

Absolutely, if you know what you're doing. That's what we're diving into right now. 

I'm your host, Jyll Saskin Gales. I spent six years working for big brands at Google, and now I work for you. 

This is Inside Google Ads: Episode 74, Broad Match Basics.

Our first comments rather than questions come from TikTok. A user named Laza says, not liking this transition that Google Ads is doing. Phrase match was my go-to match type. Not anymore. I only use Broad Match now, but I'm spending more time adding negative keywords. 

And then another user, Flavius Francis said, I have avoided Broad Match all my life with Google Ads. But recently on a particular campaign, I mistakenly didn't turn off the Broad Match setting and my keywords got locked on Broad Match. Surprisingly, that campaign had more conversions than my regular Phrase Match campaigns.

I highlighted these two TikTok commenters today because they both raise similar points. They used to use Phrase Match a lot. Now they're using Broad Match. One likes it, one doesn't.

I also used to recommend Phrase Match as my go-to match type, but now I call it my good for nothing match type. I will always recommend either Exact Match or Broad Match. 

How can you decide which keyword match type is right for you?

If you need a match type refresher, I'll add a link in the episode description to my recent YouTube video that explains the key differences between match types.

Here's how I decide which match type to use. My guiding principle is that the end goal is Broad Match. And that's the first time I've ever said that. So I'm going to say it again: the goal is Broad Match. Broad Match is end game.

Why? Because as I have said before, the goal is to work with the automation rather than fighting against it. The goal is to get the power of Google's AI working for you as the wind beneath your wings.

Now, is Broad Match going to work for everyone? No. Not because Broad Match is stupid, though it definitely can feel that way sometimes, but because Broad Match needs data to learn. Broad Match needs flexibility to learn. If you aren't spending enough to gather quality data, if you don't have enough conversions to train the Broad Match, if you add so many negative keywords that Broad Match can't actually go broad, then Broad Match will not work for you. 

Practically, this means that if you're spending less than $50 a day in your campaign, I do recommend you stick with Exact Match. And if you're not averaging at least one conversion a day, meaning you're getting around 30 in 30, 30 conversions in 30 days, then I also recommend you stick with Exact Match. In both of these scenarios, you do not have enough data for Broad Match to learn. So if you try Broad Match keywords, they will stay stupid and you will waste a lot of money.

Are there exceptions to these rules? Of course. I've been on coaching calls before with a small business owner who didn't know what they didn't know, only had Broad Match keywords, $10 to $20 a day, and somehow their Search Terms reports looked highly relevant. It's a Google Ads miracle! Now, things weren't working as well as they'd like, which is why they booked the call with me. But I do think it's important to highlight that Broad Match can work well at all budget levels. It's just most likely to work well with larger budgets. It was designed with large budgets and a lot of data in mind. So if you don't have those things, stick to Exact. And if you do, leverage Broad Match and give it the flexibility and time it needs to learn that will also set you up well to start testing AI Max. 

Now, two more things I want to say here about Broad Match. There are a few extra things I keep an eye on in a search terms report when I'm using Broad Match. 

First is other search terms. About 80% of your search terms will likely be categorized as other when you use Broad Match, whereas I usually see this more around 20% when I use Exact Match. It sucks. I know, lack of search term visibility sucks, but don't just stop there. Think it through. Why? Why are these search terms not visible? 

Let's trust Google, for argument's sake, and say that it's due to privacy because these are very low volume searches. Use your thinking brain and hypothesize about what they might be and why they might be. Just because we can't see something, it doesn't mean we just ignore it.

Hidden doesn't mean bad. I've seen quite a few search terms reports where the hidden other search terms perform better than the visible search terms. And by that, mean higher click-through rate, lower CPCs, higher conversion rate, more conversion volume, of course, similar or better CPAs, similar or better ROAS. Hidden doesn't mean bad, but you do need to keep an eye on it. So if it's performing worse, you can think about why that might be, hypothesize, and then test. Keep an eye on those metrics and play around with your keywords or negatives to see how it impacts your search term visibility.

Second is another 80-20 rule. When I'm reviewing a search terms report, I always sort descending by impressions. And then I want to ensure that out of the top 50 or so search terms, at least 80% seem relevant. That's good enough for me that with some negative keywords, we can keep things on track. But if more than 20% of your search terms seem irrelevant, that's when it might be time to adjust your keywords, fix the source, rather than playing whack-a-mole with negatives after the fact.

This doesn't apply to a brand new Broad Match campaign, by the way. I would say to do this once the campaign has had a few weeks to learn, maybe once it's in month two, 80-20 your search term relevancy. Especially because, remember, you're probably only seeing about 20% of your search terms anyway. So you want most of what you can see to be relevant. Otherwise, you've got no hope for relevancy in what you can't see.

Our second question today comes from telco100 on TikTok and they say, isn't it dangerous to use Dynamic Keyword Insertion with Broad Match as it can easily lead to weird or non-relevant headlines? 

I wouldn't call it dangerous. We're not saving lives here. I'll just say that Dynamic Keyword Insertion won't be as effective with Broad Match as it would be with Exact Match. But that doesn't mean you're going to get non-relevant headlines because after all you're theming your ad groups, right?

Let's back up a step and briefly explain Dynamic Keyword Insertion. Allow me to quote... myself. This is from an article I recently wrote for Search Engine Land all about keyword insertion. 

"This is the closest thing we have to a hack in Google Ads. Keyword insertion is a feature that dynamically inserts the keyword that triggered your ad into your ad copy. This means your ad headline, description, and or display path can include the exact keyword that matches to the user's search, making your ad more relevant and attention grabbing."

Now, one thing I didn't say in the article, but I did mention in the video I created for Search Engine Land, is this really important thing about keyword insertion. It does not insert the user's search into your ad. You can imagine how that could lead to a lot of problems. It'll only insert your keyword. And if for some reason your keyword is too long or can't be inserted, then there's the default text or your other headlines or descriptions to choose from.

Practically, this means that using Dynamic Keyword Insertion with your Broad Match keywords will likely not be as effective as using Dynamic Keyword Insertion with your Exact Match keywords, since you'll be advertising on a lot of queries that don't resemble your keywords and therefore won't resemble your headlines. However, this is the case whether or not you use keyword insertion. So I don't think this means don't use it with Broad Match, but rather don't expect to see the big click-through rate gains the way you might if you were leveraging Exact Match keywords only.

If you want to see how I set up Responsive Search Ads using Dynamic Keyword Insertion or ask me your questions about keyword match types or AI Max, then you should join my course Inside Google Ads. You'll get instant access to more than a 100 in-platform tutorials with me. Plus you get to join an exclusive one hour video call with me every month to get your burning Google Ads questions answered. Learn more at learn.jyll.ca.That's jyll.ca or follow the link in the episode description. 

Our final question today comes from Natarajan Selvam on YouTube, and they say, as Performance Max has search themes, is this able to serve like a Search campaign, or is a separate Search campaign needed?

Awesome. Let's clarify this. Performance Max campaigns can serve ads on Search, Shopping, Display, Maps, Discovery, Gmail, YouTube, Search Partners… I'm probably missing a few, but you get the idea. They can serve everywhere. And yes, Search is a potential placement.

In a Search campaign, you can only serve ads on Search, Search Partners, and the Display Network. I recommend choosing Search only.

So if you want to show ads on Google search, you can do that with a Performance Max campaign or a Search campaign. Or an App campaign, but we'll put that to the side for now.

How does the targeting differ? 

In a PMax campaign, you have the option to add search themes, which are a signal for the campaign, but they are not true targeting. Your ads could show on all of the queries that match your search themes or none of the queries that match your search themes. Performance Max is powered by keywordless technology, also known as Dynamic Search technology, which uses your assets, landing page and other signals to determine which user queries will be graced with your ads.

In a Search campaign, you have a lot more options for your targeting: Exact keywords, Phrase keywords, Broad keywords, or Dynamic ad groups. And now the option to layer AI Max keywordless technology on top of any of those options.

I'll include a link in the episode description to my video about AI Max, a video so helpful that, true story, the Google Ads AI actually recommended my YouTube video to a user over its own documentation about AI Max. 

But essentially, think of AI Max like Search-only PMax. It will turn your targeting, your keywords or dynamic targets, into signals rather than targeting. Suggestions for its keywordless targeting, which it can take or ignore.

So back to answer the original question, do you need separate Search and PMax campaigns? No, you can just have Search, just PMax, both together. Episode 41 of this podcast from November 7th, 2024 is called, Should You Run Search and Performance Max Together? So definitely check that out for more on this topic.

If there's one thing I want you to take away about Broad Match from this episode, it's this: Broad Match isn't bad, it just needs data to learn. And frankly, you can sub in any AI-driven feature into that sentence and I'll likely agree with it because as I've said, Performance Max for lead gen isn't bad. It just needs the right data in order to learn. Smart Bidding isn't bad. It just needs the right data to learn.

AI-powered features are end game. It's where Google Ads is going. But in order to make it work, you need sufficient data, which usually means you need sufficient budget.

If you do not have that, then sure, hold on to those features that give you more control like Exact Match keywords. But just know Exact Match today is basically like what Broad Match was five years ago. And if you're using Exact Match keywords and getting great results today, great. I love that for you. If we meet, I'm going to help you do that. But five years from now, will that strategy still work? I don't know.

The sooner you get automation and AI working for your business, the better positioned you'll be for the future. So there's the trade-off for you to consider and pick the strategy that's right for you.

Today's Insider Challenge is this. Let's say you're using Broad Match keywords, you review your search terms report, and 90% of your spend has gone towards hidden other search terms. What do you do? Do you change anything? 

The beauty of the Insider Challenge is there's no right or wrong answer, just an opportunity to stretch your brain on real life Google Ads problem solving.

Before we get to my answer for last episode's challenge, this is the first episode I'm recording after attending SMX Advanced in Boston. And I loved getting to meet so many of you, my wonderful listeners and viewers, at the conference. I had a variety of different folks tell me that you love to do the Insider Challenge as a team. So if you work at an agency or you're part of an in-house team and you haven't considered that yet, try posing the Insider Challenge to your colleagues. Hash it out together and then tune in next week to see how I would have responded.

Last Episode's challenge, Episode 73, was this. Let's say you're running a Google shopping campaign and it's not working well. It is not meeting your goals. What are three things you'd want to look into for potential optimization? 

I always like to start with the campaign level metrics and work my way down. If it's not meeting my goals, that either means it's not hitting my Target ROAS, my real ROAS is too low, or it's not generating enough revenue, my real conversion value is too low.

If it's an efficiency issue, ROAS is too low, then I would start with the two metrics that factor into ROAS: conversion value divided by cost. That means conversion rate, Average Order Value, and CPC. This will help me diagnose if ROAS is low because conversion value is low, which means I need to look into improving my conversion rate and/or improving my Average Order Value, or if ROAS is low because costs are too high, which means I need to look into lowering my CPCs.

If it's a reach issue, not enough conversion value, I would look back through my reach metrics, my impressions, clicks, conversions, and compare them over time to see where that drop started. Am I serving fewer impressions and that's working its way down the line to less revenue? Or am I getting the same number of impressions and clicks, but fewer conversions, which means my conversion rate dropped and that's why I'm seeing lower conversion value? 

Based on the root cause I find, it will likely lead me to reviewing my search terms to potentially add negatives, adjusting the SKUs in the campaign after reviewing product-level reporting, and going into Google Merchant Center to try editing product titles and descriptions. Those are my usual starting points for Shopping campaign optimization. 

What about you? What are three things you would look into for potential Shopping campaign optimization?

I'm Jyll Saskin Gales and I'll see you next time Inside Google Ads.