The Importance of Broad Match Modified Keywords

We all want traffic, don’t we?

But not just any traffic. For your ad campaigns to truly reap rewards, you need to be sure that the visitors who come to your site aren’t just passing through. You need to make sure they have a genuine interest in what you have to offer.

The best way of manipulating the flow of traffic through your advertising campaign is by utilizing different keyword match types.

In Google Ads, there are three basic types:

1. Exact Match
2. Phrase Match
3. Broad Match

But what if none of these are quite what you need?

For PPC advertising campaigns that need something a little more specific, you could be wishing for something that allows a deeper level of customization.

Google Ads allows users to define a modified broad match in their campaign, but they can’t report it separately. Both broad match and modified broad match keywords are grouped together.

However, thanks to an innovation by PPCexpo, it is now possible to use modified broad matches at the reporting level. By the end of this article, you may just consider it as the best type.

Marketers can control their keyword match types to filter out irrelevant search terms. This allows them to attract a more focused, qualified audience, which is more likely to lead to conversions and repeat visits.

Let’s say you have a limited advertising budget. You may focus on using exact match and phrase match keywords to save on wasted spend. When you don’t have much money to spend, it makes sense that you don’t want to waste it paying for irrelevant clicks.

On the other hand, if you have a larger budget, you are at liberty to experiment with broad matches. This will inevitably generate more traffic to your site, especially when more traffic is the objective, although it does compromise on the relevancy.

But what if you find yourself in the middle?

Through some custom programming, PPCexpo has come up with a solution. Their calculations have allowed them to identify which keywords are most effective. In doing this, they bring a unique option to the table that advertisers can use to measure the performance of their ad account.

The broad match type gives you the widest reach, but compromises on relevancy. With the modified broad match type, marketers can exercise a little more control over broad matches. When it’s done right, this can do wonders for your campaign.

The availability of modified broad match at the reporting level improves analytics, thus improves insights. Google Ads does not provide modified broad match as an attribute of match type at the reporting level.

The ability to analyze modified broad match as the 4th attribute of match type can improve the ROI of your campaign.

We’ll take the example of New York Hotels. If you use the broad match ‘New York Hotels’ in your ad, it will also get triggered by related terms like ‘New York Rentals’. If you’re a hotel owner, then traffic from people who want to rent is no use to you.

By adding a “+” modifier in front of the keyword, you make it essential for hotels to be part of the user search query

• Broad Match Keyword: New York hotels
  • The ad will be triggered by related terms, such as hostels and rentals.
• Modified Broad Match Keyword: New York +hotels
  • The ad will only be triggered by search queries that include that include the term ‘Hotels’, or a close variations.

Ideally, our ads will generate high impression volumes and be relevant to the vast majority of our viewers. When you choose between broad match and exact or phrase match, you typically sacrifice one for the other.

With modified broad match keywords, you get the best of both worlds, which serves up several big benefits:

By adding the modifier to broad matches, you can attract more relevant traffic to your ads. Ultimately, this improves the quality of traffic, which leads to a higher click-through rate and conversion rate over time. You get the luxury of broad matches, and the relevancy of the more refined match types.

Compiling keyword lists takes a lot of time. Nobody wants to waste that time with keywords that aren’t going to give you much in return.

Whenever you opt for broad match types, it’s essential that you also create a comprehensive list of negative keywords. If you don’t, your ads can soon be overwhelmed by irrelevant traffic, and you’ll incur considerable wasted spend with synonyms, variations and related terms that are of no use to you.

Luckily, the modified broad match keywords provide an element of tighter control. The matching is broad per se, but the modifiers help you filter out a flood of unqualified traffic. This way, you don’t need to spend so much time developing a negative keywords list.

As you collate and analyze data on your ads, you’ll soon see which keywords are working, and which are not. With modifiers in place, you can hone your focus to make sure your advertising budget goes to good use.

Keyword match types can be compared to a target, where exact match keywords can be viewed as the bullseye, as they are the precise terms your ideal customers are using to search. Moving through the different match types makes your target smaller. The smaller target will result in a smaller audience, but your ads will be significantly more relevant.

It’s always a good idea to experiment with a mix of different match types, but broad matches always run the risk of wasted time and money. Modified broad matches are the perfect antidote.

You can unshackle the chains of exact matches and phrase matches, yet still keep some control, certainly more so than with broad match keywords. The modified broad match opens up a lot of opportunities for marketers, as being able to modify specific terms offers your campaign a greater degree of flexibility.

By deciding which keywords must be present in the search query, you determine just how your ads are triggered. To get more specific, you limit the triggers to more related terms, therefore increasing ad relevance without hampering the flow of traffic.

Ultimately, the more modified broad match keywords you use in your campaign, the more efficient it will be.