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Glossary · M

Also called keyword match types

Letter
M
Related terms
4
Guides
4
Lessons
3
In one line

Google Ads' three settings for how closely a search must fit a keyword: broad, phrase and exact, each also reaching close variants.

A keyword in Google Ads isn't a search. Its match type decides which searches it can show an ad on.

  • Broad match, the default, written as the plain keyword: searches related to it, including ones that don't contain its words.
  • Phrase match, written in quotes, "discount code": searches that include the keyword's meaning, with words before or after.
  • Exact match, written in square brackets, [yourbrand]: searches with the same meaning or intent.

All three reach close variants. Phrase match absorbed the old broad match modifier in 2021, and word order in phrase match now counts only when it changes the meaning.

This is why a programme's terms should say “bid on or appear on”. A publisher's broad or phrase keyword can show its ad on “yourbrand discount code” without your name ever being typed into its account. The search terms report shows which searches each keyword actually matched, and negative keywords use the same three types with stricter rules.

Sources

Google's own help and policy pages first.

  1. Google Ads Help: About keyword matching options
  2. Google Ads Help: About changes to phrase match and broad match modifier
Related terms
Guides that use it
  1. Who is bidding on your brand? How to find outSix places to see which advertisers show ads on searches for your name, what each can and can't tell you, and how to look without skewing your own ads.
  2. Why “your brand + discount code” searches matterWhy searches for your name with “discount code”, “voucher code” or “promo code” are their own auctions, who advertises on them, and how to count them.
  3. Paid-search rules for affiliates: the clauses to writeThe paid-search clauses a programme's terms need, why “bid on or appear on” matters, how Google's matching shapes the wording, and how to roll it out.
  4. Negative keywords for affiliates: the list to ask forWhich brand negatives to ask affiliates for, how each negative match type works, where they sit in Google Ads, and the gaps they leave that you have to cover.
Lessons that use it
  1. How affiliate marketing worksThe parties, the programme, the money and the click that earns the credit: the affiliate model in one read, for paid-search and affiliate teams alike.
  2. Brand search and your termsWho searches your name, how Google's auction prices those searches, what its policies cover, and what your programme's terms need to say.
  3. Round the edgesOne negative exact keyword can keep an affiliate's ad off the bare brand search you check, while it stays eligible on your code searches.
Related terms
  1. Close variants
  2. Negative keywords
  3. Search terms report
  4. Brand bidding