Match types: what each one actually does
Broad match shows your ad for any search Google considers related — including synonyms, implied concepts, and tangentially related queries. It reaches the widest audience but gives you the least control. In 2024 and 2025, broad match quality improved significantly with smart bidding, but it still requires an aggressive negative list to avoid waste.
Phrase match shows your ad when the search contains the meaning of your keyword, in any order. It balances reach and precision well. Exact match shows your ad only for searches that match the keyword closely — it limits reach but maximizes relevance and conversion intent.
- Exact match: use for your highest-converting, most specific terms — brand, product name, direct commercial intent
- Phrase match: use for terms where the core concept must be present but word order varies
- Broad match: use only with Target CPA or Target ROAS and a well-developed negative list
- Avoid mixing match types for the same keyword in the same ad group — it creates internal competition and confuses attribution
Mapping keywords to search intent
Not all searches with your keyword in them indicate buying intent. "Google Ads tutorial" and "Google Ads agency" both contain the phrase "Google Ads" — but one is a learner and one is a potential customer. Building your keyword list around intent stages rather than just topics is what separates efficient accounts from wasteful ones.
Commercial intent keywords include price, cost, buy, hire, agency, software, tool, and near-me modifiers. Informational intent keywords include how-to, what is, guide, and example. Target commercial intent keywords with conversion-focused campaigns and either exclude informational queries or put them in separate awareness campaigns with lower bids.
Building a negative keyword list before you spend
Most accounts build negatives reactively — adding them after wasted spend shows up in the search terms report. A better approach is to build a starter negative list before the campaign launches based on known waste patterns for your vertical.
Common negative themes for B2B and SaaS: free, jobs, reviews, tutorial, how to, salary, template, definition, vs (when you do not want comparison traffic), and competitor names (unless you are bidding on competitor keywords intentionally).
- Add generic negative keywords at the account level so they apply to all campaigns
- Add vertical-specific negatives at the campaign level
- Review search terms weekly and add new negatives as the campaign accumulates data
- Ask Claude to suggest negatives from your search term report: "Show me search terms from last 30 days that are clearly informational or irrelevant and suggest negatives"
Structuring ad groups around theme tightness
Each ad group should contain keywords so closely related that every keyword can be covered by the same set of ads. Wide ad groups — ten unrelated keywords pointing to the same RSA — produce low Quality Score and poor ad relevance.
A practical rule: if you cannot write one RSA where the main keyword appears naturally in multiple headlines, the keywords do not belong together. Split the ad group.
Ongoing keyword hygiene
Keyword strategy is a continuous process. The most impactful recurring task is weekly search-term review: pull terms with significant spend and zero conversions, add negatives, and promote any high-performing search terms that are not already in your keyword list as exact match.
Monthly, review keyword-level Quality Score and CPA. Pause keywords with QS = 4 and below-average conversion rate — they are raising your costs without contributing results.
