New Match Type for Google’s Canada and UK AdWords Interfaces

Alexandra Hagler - May 19, 2010

New Match Type for Google’s Canada and UK AdWords Interfaces

Google just unveiled a new broad match modifier for Adwords advertisers in the United Kingdom and Canada. Right now the new keyword match type is in Beta. This new modified broad match type opens up a sea of opportunity for advertisers ads appearing to searchers. The modified broad words have more control than a broad match keyword. The keywords are modified by simply adding a plus sign in front of the keyword that you would like to remain static.

This feature can be either dangerous to an advertiser or beneficial. Carefully choosing what keywords to place the plus sign on is extremely important. Each word that has the plus sign in front of it must appear in a users search query. If keywords do not have the plus sign in front of it, many variations of the keyword can appear.

By turning a broad keyword to the modified broad match, you will notice a slight decline in impressions and clicks. If you add the modifier to campaigns with mostly phrase and exact match types, you will theoretically notice an increase in clicks and impressions.

One rule of thumb is to not add the modifier to small words such as and, an, of, the, etc. By doing this you are significantly refining your search and will limit the amount of times your ads are appearing.

Negative keywords can not use the broad modifier match type. If you try to enter the + sign in front of a negative word, AdWords will ignore it.

The match type, no matter what kind, will not influence the quality score. Quality scores are based on the keyword, relevance of the search query to your keyword, landing page relevance, etc.

If you are an AdWords advertiser in Canada or the UK, be sure to take note of this new opportunity.  It may be only a matter of time before they will be rolling this out to the U.S. as well.

For more information check out Google Adwords Official Blog http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/05/new-keyword-targeting-feature-for.html