Keyword matching options determines bidding strategy?

Use all options in every AdGroup?

[clickwit]

Hello, newbie to AdWords, and happy to have found this forum. AdWords has me buffaloed on...well, lots of things. I just started a campaign, and I have questions about keyword matching. I saw a post recently (different forum) that advocated using the following 6 iterations for every keyword phrase of interest in a given AdGroup. I'd like to hear opinions about this. (Right now I'm only using broad matching.)

contemporary coffee table
contemporary coffee tables
"contemporary coffee table"
"contemporary coffee tables"
[contemporary coffee table]
[contemporary coffee tables]

Question 1: My understanding is that the first line (broad matching) technically makes the other five lines redundant but might not always result in impressions when competing against phrase- or exact-match for the same words (all other things being equal). Is that why this is a good strategy, or is it because you can bid differently on each line? Is the above a good strategy at all? Would you use it early in a campaign?

Question 2: If the above is a good rule of thumb, then what is the bidding strategy for these six lines? Are you willing to pay the most for the first line because it could bring the most impressions because of all the variations you can't possibly cover, or maybe because it's the most competitive? Or are you willing to pay the least because it's the least targeted?

If it's good to have different bids for the six lines, then I'm confused. The user query ' contemporary coffee table ' could match 4 of the 6 lines, so which line does Google count as a "match," and which of the 4 bids would you thereby wind up paying? Are you bidding against yourself somehow?

Question 3: Does Google pay attention to word order in phrase- and exact-matching? Do I have to cover every word order permutation in my keyword list (which would make the above 6-liner even longer)?

I may be tripping over my own feet here, so straighten me out, please!

[naplesdave]

Here's my strategy with AdWords and it works for me:

I do similar to what you are showing right from the start but use as many or more negative keywords.

Before I get too far, I set up a campaign in Google Analytics to watch which keywords and keyword combinations are giving me the best conversion rates.

If you are selling coffee tables, then you probably don't want someone searching for coffee table books - although using Google Analytics, you may be surprised to find these visitors are your highest converters.

So, use the keywords, add a dash of traffic, and watch your conversion rate and pare accordingly (cut out the bad and non-converting keywords).

Yes, exact match is just what it says - if someone types the phrase exactly as you did, there's a match. One word out of place, and the next advertiser makes the sale.

Let me know if I can help you further.

[clickwit]

Thanks for the thoughts. I'd love to get G Analytics but have been on the wait list since November with no invitation yet. Hopefully soon!