Keyword Matching

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Once you determine what keywords you want
to bid on, the next step is to decide what targeting match to use. In other
words, how do you want the search engines to match them up to user queries?
Do you want your ad served up only if the query is an exact match or is it
ok to have other relevant words in the query string? If you decide to use broader
matching, you might also want to apply a filter to keep out queries for certain
words that do not apply to your product or service. For instance if you are
a real estate broker, you might not want your ads showing for queries on “real
estate exam”.

Exact Match

Although they may call it by a different name, Standard Match Type (Yahoo)
or Exact Match (Google) the idea is the same. Your ad will only be served up
only when a user searches for the specific word or phrase you are bidding on.
Exact match is the most targeted option and recommended as the best way to
start your campaign. As you discover what your click through rate (CTR) is
and you begin to feel comfortable with your campaign, you may want to broaden
your match type to include related searches. Yahoo’s standard matching
also includes the singular and plural versions.

Phrase Match

Each search engine handles this type of matching differently. Google will
display your ad when a user searches for your keyword and possibly with other
terms in the query. For example if you are bidding on the phrase “peanut
butter”, Google will return results if a user searches for “chunky
peanut butter”.

Broad Match

Broad match is Google’s default, but don’t let that fool you.
You could quickly spend a good percentage of your budget with broad match turned
on if you don’t define negative keywords to use in conjunction with it.
Broad match includes your keyword phrase along with plurals and other relevant
variations and are sometimes less targeted than the other options.

Advanced Match Type

Yahoo’s advanced match type displays your ad across their partner network
to provide you with targeted leads.