What exactly is broad match?

[Shiznaught]

My impression was that Broad match is a feature which automatically places your ad on keywords that contain your main keyword or are related to it. For example if I have an ad group for the keyword "widgets," keywords "widgets and other products," "old widgets," etc. would be automatically added. This is not the case. So does that mean I have to click on Find alternatives and manually select all those related keywords?

[eWhisper]

Here's Google's defination of broad matching:
[adwords.google.com...]

It's imporntant to note, that just because you're using broad matching, doesn't mean you're actually broadmatching words:
[webmasterworld.com...] msg 19

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Thanks for the links, eWhisper.

Shiznaught, also please see msg #8 in this thread for other details about broad (and phrase) match:

[webmasterworld.com...]

If I had to sum this topic up in one and a half sentences, it would be as follows - quoted from the post mentioned above:

...the essential intent (and function) of broad and phrase matching is to show your ads for as many variations as possible, so long as those variations deliver relevant ads to Google users.

However, broad and phrase match are not meant to be a guarantee that one will appear for any and all variations of a keyword, regardless of whether or not they'd deliver relevant ads to Google users.

Hope this'll help.

AWA