Broad and phrase match in the context of a single word search

[pmurillo]

I understand the difference between broad match and phrase match (“”) when bidding on phrases.

I know that the search:

tennis and other sports played with rackets

would trigger my ad if I’m bidding for tennis rackets (broad match) but it will not if I’m only bidding for “tennis rackets” (phrase match)

However, phrase match and broad match meanings get diffuse for me in the context of a single keyword search.

How do tennis and “tennis” differ?

I’m bidding on both from the same ad group, and they have different number of impressions, clicks and CTR.

Why is it?

Thanks

[poster_boy]

Broad match would capture synonyms of the keyword. Phrase match would capture queries with words additional to the keyword.

[pmurillo]

Thanks a lot for your answer. Unfortunately, your explanation doesn't seem to align well with my Adwords stats.

If the broad match triggers the ad even when synonyms of my target keyword are employed, how is it that I obtain many more impressions and clicks from the one-keyword phrase match than from the one-keyword broad match?

These are my stats from yesterday:

"tennis"¦0.03¦1334¦38268¦3.4%¦0.03¦5.7
tennis ¦0.03¦ 378¦14134¦2.6%¦0.03¦4.9

As you see, phrase match receives much more traffic and clicks than broad match. I was expecting just the opposite. Is there any suitable explanation that I’m overlooking?

[poster_boy]

I, too, have much more traffic on the phrase match of my highest volume keywords. But, I believe the answer of which should receive more traffic depends on what Google considers as synonyms for your specific line of words (and the list of negative keywords that you're using).