With all of the changes going on with Google, Yahoo, and Bing, I thought I would take a moment to go back to what hasn’t changed and cover some of the basics of Pay-Per-Click advertising.

Pay-per-Click advertising has 3 basic components. Landing page, keywords and ad copy.  While each of these is critical, the focus of this article is to explain the basics of keywords and phrases you bid on. 

There are 4 types of keyword matches you can bid on to help get the most targeted audience to see and respond to your ads. They include Broad, Phrase, Exact, and Negative keyword matches. Keyword bidding should only be done after a market demand analysis has been completed and your site or landing page is optimized for the most relevant keywords that pertain to your business.

To help me explain the different key phrase matches of Pay-per-Click, I would like to use the story of Robin Hood as a metaphor. This story takes place when Robin Hood and his merry men are about to rescue Maid Marian from the Sherriff of Nottingham’s castle. Robin Hood is going to have to get by the Sherriff in order to get to Maid Marian.

Broad Match: Firing a Boulder at a Castle with a Catapult Hoping to Hit the Sherriff

Although Robin Hood’s goal is not to make the Sherriff of Nottingham his customer, the statement does tell us about targeting a customer with a broad match. When a broad match is used for a key phrase, your ad could be triggered anytime the keyword is used in a search no matter the context. When you bid on a broad match keyword you do tend to bring in more clicks but it has proven not to be as effective at bringing in as many of your targeted customers as you would like.

This match does not take into consideration if you have a niche business or market. For example, if you own a retail furniture store that sells home furnishings, you may be inclined to use a broad match of “furniture” in your campaign. The problem is that people who are looking for a furniture repair shop or an antique furniture store may also find your ad and click but they won’t buy since they are looking for different services than what you provide.

Phrase Match: Using a Bow and Arrow to Get the Sherriff

A phrase match produces less traffic than a broad match but more targeted clicks from your desired audience. When a phrase match is used, your ad will be triggered only when you use the targeted keyphrase. Let’s take the furniture store owner again. If you wanted to target people looking for a retail furniture store in Orlando, you may want to target key phrases such as “Orlando furniture store” as a phrase match. This not only targets people looking for a furniture store but people looking for a furniture store in a specific location.

Exact Match: Time for Robin Hood to Draw his Sword for Close Arm Combat

The exact match is the most precise match available in PPC advertising. Only precise hits will get the job done. When you use exact matches, your ad will only be triggered if a user types a key phrase in the exact order that your key phrase is in.  So, with our furniture store example, if a person typed in “furniture store in East Orlando” and you also targeted this keyphrase, your ad would appear. Exact matches produce much less traffic but are the most targeted way to generate customers.

Negative Match: Camouflage

The Negative match is a list of key phrases that won’t show even if a person types it in. Negative key phrases go a long way in optimizing campaigns and finding the most targeted audience possible. For our furniture store owner, he/she may want to use negative keyphrase such as: antique or repair shop. If people are looking for services in their search that the owner does not provide, money would not be wasted in the bid attempt to gain the click.

With a combination of these matches, a targeted campaign can be implemented to gain more customers.

So how did the story end? Robin Hood was able to get past the Sherriff and rescue Maid Marian. Stay tuned for my next article to find out what he says to Marian that convinces her to fall in love with him, and ad copy too.