Google has employed a new feature in their Google Ads arsenal: broad match modifiers. Broad match keywords have become an option, and they could distinctly affect your click-through-rates.
Alongside the other match types – broad, phrase, and exact – there’s a place in your ad campaign to use this modifier.
Ultimately, broad match modifiers give you the option to control more closely where your ad money is going. In this article, we’ll go into the details of the new feature and what it could do for you.
What Are Broad Match Modifiers?
When choosing how you want your keywords to relate to the searches that prompt your ads, it can be hard to know how specific you should be. You don’t want your ad to appear in front of people who might click but probably won’t convert, but you want your scope to be wide enough that it reaches your audience’s full potential.
This leaves marketers wondering, “Do I stick to direct phrase matches or should I use an enhanced broad match?”. Let’s briefly unpack what these two things are:
Enhanced Broad Match Modifiers
Enhanced broad match is essentially the idea that your ads will be presented to users who have searches generally related to your keywords. In other words, Google takes some liberties and your ad audience could stretch beyond your target audience.
While you may still get a good deal of clicks, your odds of those clicks turning into conversions may be lower.
So, while there is a slight benefit to using enhanced broad match modifiers, you’re probably not going to get the most out of your money.
Phrase Match Modifiers
Phrase match is sort of the opposite of enhanced broad match. For your ad to appear, the user;s search has to contain your keyword.
Again, this has its perks, but it’s very limiting. While you’re targeting the audience you want your ad to be shown to, you’re not going to reach anyone else.
This can lead to you missing out on a lot of potential customers who fall just outside of your target audience, and you’re just not going to get as great of a result as you’d hope for.
Back to Broad Match Modifiers
Broad Match Modifiers fall somewhere in the middle of enhanced broad match and phrase match. It’ll puts restrictions on the search terms that prompt your ad to be shown, just like phrase match does, but it doesn’t have as much restriction on your audience reach.
To help you understand, let’s say you’re selling dinosaur socks. You decide to bid on the keyword dinosaur socks and you add a modifier to it.
Your ad is now going to show for search terms like buy dinosaur socks and kids dinosaur socks, terms like that. Basically, you’re also targeting similar variations of the keyword that aren’t as far fetched as if you were using a regular broad match.
Back to Broad Match Modifiers
Broad Match Modifiers fall somewhere in the middle of enhanced broad match and phrase match. It’ll puts restrictions on the search terms that prompt your ad to be shown, just like phrase match does, but it doesn’t have as much restriction on your audience reach.
To help you understand, let’s say you’re selling dinosaur socks. You decide to bid on the keyword dinosaur socks and you add a modifier to it.
Your ad is now going to show for search terms like buy dinosaur socks and kids dinosaur socks, terms like that. Basically, you’re also targeting similar variations of the keyword that aren’t as far fetched as if you were using a regular broad match.
How to Use Broad Match Modifiers
Now onto the important part: how do you actually use a broad match modifier? It’s actually incredibly simple considering the huge benefits that it brings.
All you have to do is put the modifier “+” before the keyword when you’re preparing an ad. So if we’re using our earlier example:
That’s all it is. By doing this, you’re telling Google that for your ad to be shown, the user search has to contain those words.Â
The nice thing is, this takes place within enhanced broad match. That means that you get the scope of an audience while refining that audience to your needs.
Looking for Growth Through Google Ads?
Google Ads can be a powerful addition to any marketing campaign. What makes it a successful campaign is when things like this are put to use.
Only experienced marketing teams understand how to utilize tools like the broad match modifier to their full potential, and it shows in the results they get.
KonvertLab is a Google Ads agency that takes advantage of all the tools at our disposal. We know how to get the most out of using these modifiers, how impactful they are on a campaign’s results, and we can use them in your strategy too. Just get in touch and see what we can do for your business!