Match Types

Match types control how loosely a shopper's search term has to match your keyword before it triggers the ad.

You set each keyword to broad, phrase, or exact. Broad matches related searches including synonyms and reordered words, phrase matches searches that contain your keyword in order, and exact matches only that term and close variants such as plurals.

Keyword "running shoes." Broad can trigger "shoes for jogging." Phrase can trigger "best running shoes for men." Exact triggers "running shoes" and "running shoe," and nothing else.

Exact is not literal. Even exact match covers plurals, misspellings, and close variants, so it is tighter than broad but still not a perfect filter; you keep adding negatives to block the variants you do not want.

Loosen to discover, tighten to profit.