As the way people search keeps changing, search may no longer be a late stage in the customer journey.
About 60% of Google Shopping queries show that users are still at an early stage of their search, and the keywords they type tend to be longer and more general. Google also says that 15% of searches every day are new and have never been seen before. This makes it harder for brands to plan comprehensive, well-targeted keyword coverage when brainstorming keywords.
As user habits shift, broad match can be an effective way to capture potential opportunities. But how should you use it so that your marketing resources are well spent? This post explains how broad match has evolved and the optimisation techniques you should not skip. Read on.
Broad match has been overhauled
In the past, brands often had doubts about broad match. While expanding keyword coverage, broad match could bring in terms with little relevance to the brand’s goals, showing ads to people outside the target audience and spreading the budget more thinly.
In response to advertisers’ concerns, Google has made the following improvements to broad match:
- More relevant keyword variants
The system matches queries consistent with exact match and phrase match, keeping the original reach while also finding more additional relevant search terms. - Additional signals
To show ads to the right users, the system takes into account extra signals such as the user’s location, recent search activity and landing page, to ensure the search is relevant to the business. - Matching on the intent of all keywords
The system matches holistically across all the keywords in the ad group to better understand keyword intent.
With these changes, Google aims to help brands use broad match to improve efficiency, save time, extend reach and meet their needs, and so improve conversion performance.
The essential add-on for broad match: Smart Bidding
To get better results from broad match keywords, we recommend switching to Smart Bidding. This gives the system room to learn and optimise, so it can judge each keyword’s performance more comprehensively, making better use of the budget and improving results. On average, advertisers using broad match keywords see about 25% more conversions with Target CPA campaigns, and about 12% more conversion value with Target ROAS campaigns.
These are the improvements to broad match and how to apply Smart Bidding. We hope they help brands optimise ad performance with a clearer direction. If you need help or have questions about planning your advertising strategy, get in touch.
