What consumers want and how they’re searching for it is constantly changing. This makes it more difficult for you to anticipate every possible search that’s relevant to your business. For example, searches for "support local businesses" have grown globally by over 20,000% year over year.1 It’s more important than ever to understand the intent that drives a search.
Using broad match and Smart Bidding together can help you reach more relevant queries that meet your performance objectives. For example, a broad match keyword like women’s hats could match to relevant queries you may not have thought of, like winter headwear for women or women’s accessories. By pairing this keyword with Smart Bidding, you can use auction-time signals to set the right bid for each of these queries. This means that you no longer need to anticipate and manage every potential search.
We want to make it easier for you to benefit from this strategy in your own accounts. If you’re using Smart Bidding2, we’ll identify existing keywords that are likely to improve performance if you switch them to broad match. We’ll automatically surface these opportunities to you on the Recommendations page in your account. On average, advertisers that switch their phrase match and broad match modified keywords to broad match can see more conversions3 and a higher conversion value4.
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Advertising agency iProspect, a dentsu company, used broad match with Smart Bidding to generate long-term growth while keeping performance steady. “We had our doubts using broad match, since we’ve tested it in the past and found we had less control over search queries that impacted performance. With Smart Bidding’s predictive signals as the safety net, we saw an increase in unique search terms generated by broad match, leading to a 20% increase in conversions,” said Kasper Spanjer, PPC strategist. |
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Japan Experience, a travel company, drove incremental conversions by adopting broad match and Smart Bidding. “We’ve been really surprised by the results this bidding strategy with broad keyword coverage brought in such a short period of time. We’ll certainly scale in other markets,” said Thierry Maincent, CEO. They grew revenue by 112% year over year, with one third of that revenue generated by broad match keywords. |
It’s more important than ever for you to show up for your customers. By adopting broad match with Smart Bidding, it will be easier to reach more relevant queries and identify new growth opportunities.
Posted by Brandon Ervin, Product Manager, Google Ads
1. Google Data, Global English, Jul 1, 2020 - Aug 29, 2020 vs Jul 1, 2019 - Aug 29, 2019
2. This recommendation currently applies to Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize conversions, and Maximize conversion value bidding strategies
3. Advertisers that switch their phrase and BMM keywords to broad match in Target CPA campaigns can see 25% more conversions (Google Internal Data, July 2020)
4. Advertisers that switch their phrase and BMM keywords to broad match in Target ROAS campaigns can see 12% more conversion value (Google Internal Data, July 2020)
