Broad/Phrase Confusion

[Jwalsh]

So, I've been at this for quite some time but I must confess I still have trouble differentiating broad & phrase match types in my head and determining when to use which!

Does anyone have any good ways of determining which match type is best for a kw? Any handy hints for deciphering these two in my already-too-cluttered brain?

Thanks in advance!

[netmeg]

Try going to the AdWords Learning Center and go down to the part about Keyword Matching Options (3d) All will become clear to you.

[google.com...]

[Jwalsh]

Thanks NetMeg! I've checked out all of Google's helpful hints and while I get the overall idea, I still just have a lingering confusion. Here's where I get stumped:

'car' (broad)= buy used car
'used book' (phrase) = used book dealer

Now, what the heck is the difference here?

[netmeg]

'car' (broad)= buy used car
'used book' (phrase) = used book dealer

Now, what the heck is the difference here?

'car' as a broad phrase would come up for everything with car in it, as long as your QS and your budget holds out - buy used car, buy new car, lease new car, wrecked car, etc etc.

where as the 'used book' as a phrase would only come up if those two words IN THAT ORDER are typed -

'buy used book', 'used book dealer' would come up.

'used math book', 'new book dealer' would not.

[smallcompany]

In regards of car as broad - that one could also bring up your ad on searches for: vehicle, vehicles, ford, pontiac, and sometimes even farther than that, depending on your ad text and content of your landing page.

That is the reason why many companies are asking affiliates and sometimes other advertisers to have their names as negatives, simply because your keyword “soft drink” may easily bring your ad up on search query “coca cola”.

That’s what broad match will do… useful for research (with good keyword tracking), nightmare for some other cases.

[tomasvdb]

for single word keywords, broad and phrase matching will give you the same results with just one difference: broad matching will also match your word to plurals, synonyms, etc. Phrase matching doens't do this.

[RhinoFish]

and doing either (broad/phrase matching on single word keywords) means you'll need to have added LOTS of negative keywords and you'll need to watch your ROI closely, it's likely you're aiming too wide (unless the word is unique).