Phrase match is dead

Phrase match is not dead…

Apparently there are some people that still use phrase match in their PPC marketing. Kind of like some people just don’t want to move along with the times, and use debit cards 😉

Just a couple days ago during #PPCChat a few of the members gave their support for still using Phrase Match Keywords.

@michellemsem @Matt_Umbro still depends on client for me. Sometimes BMM words reversed are not what I want & I need that P match. #ppcchat

• Kirk Williams (@PPCKirk) April 1, 2014

This was followed up with a post by Kirk Williams on his site about Phrase Match not being dead. In all fairness he made some great use cases for why you should still use phrase match. That being said, I do think differently these days.

Why phrase match is dead in my book

Let’s be honest with each other and admit, that most AdWords and BingAds users barely know what a match type is, let alone the true difference between them. There are a million other things that I believe most PPC marketers would do better spending their time than adding in one more ad group or campaigns to monitor. They barely are able to monitor what they have now.

That is the biggest reason why I don’t rarely use phrase match anymore. I think we can all agree that PPC marketing is truly getting more complex as time goes on, and most PPC managers don’t have all the time to do what they should be doing already. That is why I created my Core & Expansion Campaign Methodology, and why it is essential to using only Exact Match & Broad Match Modified Keywords.

@KECreate @michellemsem @Matt_Umbro I’m exclusively Exact & BMM these days - http://t.co/Kns9oWlgi4 #ppcchat #selfpromo

• Bryant Garvin April 1, 2014

I am constantly looking for ways to simplify PPC Marketing… not only for the Paid Search tactician but also for the clients, and marketers, who are trying to help drive strategy and make more macro level decisions. That is why it is crucial to understand Core & Expansion Campaign Methodology to truly understand why phrase match is rarely used anymore.

Core & Expansion Campaign Methodology Briefly Explained

So you understand the basics behind this methodology, I will give you a quick run down. One point to remember is this was created to help simplify reporting, analytics, and most importantly growth of revenue & accounts.

What is the one thing crucial to managing PPC and focusing revenue generating opportunities only available at the campaign level? Budget! Now I don’t know about you but I would like control over whether the money I budgeted was being spent on proven revenue generating keywords(exact match) VS phrase match & broad match type keywords which may or may not be great revenue producers. Not to mention when you truly get to the core of why we use phrase and broad match keywords, it really should be to find more exact match keywords, not to run forever.

Campaign Breakdown

Core Campaigns

• Exact Match Keywords Only
• No Plurals, Misspellings, or Variances
• Tight Ad Groups of no More than 5-6 keywords per Ad group
• Receive Majority of Budgets (i.e 80%)
• No Need for Negative Keywords because all are Exact Match
• No need for Search Query Reports

Expansion Campaigns

• Modified Broad Match Only
• Exact Match Keywords from Core Campaigns as Negatives
• Receive ~ 20% of budgets
• Search Query Reports SQR run frequently
• New Exact Match Keywords found & added to Core Campaigns & as negatives here
• Because Each Keyword Contains a “+” modifier (i.e +keyword) easy to distinguish from exact match in analytics

Modified Broad Match is awesome

Seriously, phrase match keywords were ok, but were never the most awesome keywords for expansion. After a little while if you are managing your accounts properly they will drive very little new keyword discovery.

Modified Broad Match on the other hand, doesn’t have the limitations of phrase match (i.e same exact order). Yet it has all of the benefits of traditional Broad Match, without the downsides (i.e “car” being matched to “truck”). Modified Broad Match fulfills the purpose of it’s design, which is to help uncover new keywords, to add as exact match keywords. Really that is the only reason we have other match types besides exact! Period! If you believe otherwise, well let’s be nice and say, you should have your head examined.

So as a search marketer looking to simplify my clients’ lives, and help them get the most bang for their buck, I only use Exact Match and Modified Broad Match these days. Like everything in search marketing there are exceptions, but I find those to be fewer and fewer as time rolls on.

Do you believe Phrase Match is dead? Why or why not?

Comments

• Susan Waldes (April 5, 2014): Agree! Except for negatives, in fact, the majority of my negative strategy uses phrase match.
• Bryant Garvin (April 8, 2014): phrase match for negatives is definitely not included in my phrase match is dead argument ;-) And I heavily use Exact match negatives and phrase match between my core and expansion campaigns. Thanks for chiming in Susan!
• alanmitchell (April 7, 2014): I think the main benefit of phrase match is to allow you to receive traffic which isn’t matched to ‘plurals, mis-spellings, and other close variants’. Plurals, mis-spellings, and close variants can significantly change the meaning and commercial intention of a search. Word order is also important. The search ‘california hotel’ will no doubt perform very differently to the search ‘hotel california’, but if you clumped them both together as Modified Broad Match, you would not be able to distinguish between the two.
• Bryant Garvin (April 9, 2014): Alan a couple good points, but unless you specifically turn off ‘plurals, misspellings, & other close variants’ you will end up with them using phrase match as well. So if that is the main reason you want to use phrase match I would make sure you double check the box is not checked ;-) Word order can also be important… in your example above that could easily be solved with a negative phrase match keyword for “hotel california”, or an exact match depending upon your goals instead of having to use phrase match as an option for positive match types.
• alanmitchell (April 9, 2014): Negative keywords can be used as a workaround as you suggest, although I still think there are valid uses for phrase match. Since phrase match gives you more control than MBM over the search queries that get matched to the keyword, and allows you to set bids accordingly, I can’t really see any harm in using phrase match alongside other match types. I tend to use all 3 match types, with MBM used as more of a generator of new exact and phrase match keywords: http​://www​.calculatemarketing.com/blog/techniques/google-adwords-broad-match-generator/
• Bryant Garvin (April 10, 2014): Alan your last sentence I love. That is Exactly what my Core & Expansion Campaign Methodology is all about, using the Expansion Campaigns to simply expand the exact or “Core” keyword campaigns. I feel like I didn’t do a good job explaining that, and will make sure to do a little better job on my post I’m currently writing to help explain in more details my methodology and how it works.
• Toni Voutilainen (April 10, 2014): That’s a very interesting article, Bryant. While the idea makes sense in many ways, especially from the point of view of simplifying management, I find it hard to agree on 100%. It sounds like you wouldn’t be scraping long-tail keywords as effectively as with phrase match keywords since broad match keywords would have to have the right number of words in the search term. Meaning that to match against the search query first class flights to new york may 2014 you would have to MBM keyword of +{something-closely-related-to-first} +{something-closely-related-to-class} +flights (+to) +new +york +{something-closely-related-to-april} +{something-closely-related-to-2014} whereas with phrase match you’d simply match with something like “flights to new york april” without having to have the right number of keywords. (Not a perfect example but serves the purpose here) The same long-tail query with 2014 replaced by e.g. price would also be matched with the phrase match keyword, but again, as I understand, not with the MBM keyword. One thing to consider is the ‘low search volume’ status that even many long-tail MBM keywords get - which potentially could be covered with a slightly shorter-tail phrase match keyword, but not with shorter-tail MBM keywords. So it just sounds like you’d be dropping phrase match keywords out mostly to simplify your workload, which in itself might make sense for certain accounts, but it also sounds like any competitor with a strong algorithmic tool (e.g. one that utilizes portfolio theory) could outperform your campaigns with a wider set of keywords that match the actual search queries (mostly long-tail) better. Or it could be that I have misunderstood your point. Please elaborate. :)
• Andrew Garibay (April 10, 2014): My understanding of MBM is that as long as the query contains your qualified keywords, your creative may show up (assuming a healthy ad rank relative to your competitors). So if I had +new +york +flights in my account, I am available for the query first class flights to new york may 2014. The additional modified qualifiers in the keyword wouldn’t be necessary. Theoretically you should already be capturing that long-tail query. The advantages of getting more specific with your keywords would be to tailor the ad copy and landing page copy. You can still scale with more qualifying keywords in MBM through thorough negative management.
• Bryant Garvin (April 10, 2014): Andrew Thanks for jumping in and trying to explain modified broad match. You were absolutely correct in your explanation. If you notice as well that I use exact match heavily in my “Core Campaigns” and Modified Broad Match in my Expansion Campaigns. I am actually going to be putting together another post today to explain it a little more in depth on you you could use them and why Phrase Match Keywords essentially become useless as time goes on using my methodology.
• Bryant Garvin (April 10, 2014): Toni, I appreciate you sharing your concerns. I do think that someone has not explained Modified Broad Match keywords correctly to you. Modified Broad Match keyword contain all of the same characteristics of traditional Broad Match Keywords with the exception that they “specify that certain broad match keyword terms, or their close variants, must appear to trigger your ad.” As an example from a live account I am including an image below. The Modified Broad Match Keyword “+Gym +Flooring” can match to multiple keywords including “gold’s gym high impact flooring” So you can see MBM/BMM does match to long tail keywords perfectly fine. Modified Broad Match does NOT limit the length of search terms to the number you have in your original Modified Broad Match Keyword.
• Toni Voutilainen (April 11, 2014): Hey Bryant, that someone would be Google. :) Or more precisely my incorrect interpretation of “Each word preceded by a + has to appear in your potential customer’s search exactly or as a close variant.” (http://www.google.com/ads/innovations/bmm.html) But anyway, the idea of using MBM and exact makes a lot more sense than splitting campaigns and ad groups by all match types.
• Darren Davis (April 10, 2014): Bryant, I am curious if you have segmented by search term match type and analyzed the difference in cpc. I have noticed significant differences (up to 30%) in cpc per match type and thus have optimized accordingly.
• Steve Cameron (August 18, 2014): We may need to arrange a family plot - looks like Google want to kill exact match too…
• Mark (October 9, 2014): With Google forcing close variant matching upon us for phrase and exact match, is it time to just use BMM? Any thoughts on this…? Mark