Sometimes, when people do PPC marketing, they get confused about keywords. Broad, phrase, exact match – which one should you use? And the answer is – all of them.

The main reason to use all of the keywords variations, is that you’ll see, which keywords get more targeted clicks, higher CTR, and finally you’ll pay less per click in Adwords (this isn’t true in other search engines, like Overture at the moment).

Let’s say you bid on a keyword - microwave cart. Now if in your adgroup you have:

The broad match might get more clicks than the others, which are considered more targeted. If people search for microwave cart (exact match), they type in only 2 words. The results might not seem very targeted to them, as long as they do not exactly know what they’re particularly searching for.

However, if they search for chrome microwave cart, your ad will appear for a broad match keyword: microwave cart. So people might click on your ad, as long as they’re searching for a more specific keyphrase already. This means that the CTR can be higher for a broad match keyword, than for exact match. And that’s why it’s important to use all the variations. Because as you probably know, Google shows ads more frequently for those keywords, which receive a higher CTR.

So if you bid on:

And broad match keyword receives more clicks, then most of your clicks & impressions will show for a broad match keywords despite that you also have phrase and exact matches of the same keyword. Otherwise, you’d never know that. But when you put all the variations of keywords into an adgroup, you see what works for your situation.

Another reason, is to get more targeted clicks. If you bid on:

And let’s say a person is searching for “white microwave cart”, your exact match: [white microwave cart] with brackets will probably receive the most clicks as long as it’s very targeted. This also means that this keyword will finally get lower CPC, because it gives people exactly what they’re searching for.

So your broad and phrase match, might not be necessary, unlike in the first example. But you never know until you put all the variations and see what works. There are tools, which help you transform keywords into all the 3 types. One of such can be found here, in Adwords Wrapper page in Mikes Marketing Tools website.