Google Ads - Should broad match still be used?

[dotgal]

I've noticed that in ad groups, Google has the auction win for broad matched search keywords vs. the phrase and exact match for a search keyword. I've also noticed that looking at the search term for a given search keyword, it's not matching what I want. Now with broad match modifiers no longer supported Google can serve up what they want for a broad match search keyword.

For example, let's take gates as the keyword. For broad match search keyword "gates" - this keyword is winning the auction to show up for search terms that vary wildly with some of them not even including "contractor" in the search term. For example, "x brand gates", "y brand gate" and "brand name". I have the phrase match "gates" and exact match [gates] in the same ad group, which isn't getting little to no visibility. Because the broad match keyword is taking the lion's share of the impressions should I be turning broad match off so that the phrase and exact match keywords have a chance? Then the user can see the ads that are specifically targeted to the phrase/exact match keywords - matching the ads more relevant and garnering better performance.

 

[ElizabethRule]

You should test pausing Broad match keywords for a while to see if impressions and traffic pick up for the exact and phrase match. Hopefully they will but you'll never know until you test it. Google will typically favor broad match over any other keyword type, so if you have broad match in an ad group you can bet it's going to win in the auction and your search terms will be expanded considerably to long tail or contextual matched keywords. Especially with such a general term like "gate" I would not want to run broad match as it leaves Google too much room for interpretation.

Overtime though I fear Google will get rid of phrase and exact match, leaving advertisers with only broad match as an option. In light of this, try testing longer-tail broad match terms like "brand gates for sale" or "gate installer" instead of just "gate". You want to be as specific as possible for the type of search intent you want to target.