Should I use broad match keywords in Google Ads?

Broad match modifier, which many accounts call BMM or modified broad match, is a keyword written with plus signs such as +moving +services. It isn’t a match type any more. Google began folding its behavior into phrase match in February 2021, and since July 2021 a broad match modifier keyword behaves exactly as a phrase match keyword, and new ones can’t be added.

Old ones still serve, as phrase match, and editing one’s text turns it into phrase notation when you save. Google says converting them brings no performance benefit. To tidy them up, go to Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords, select them, then Edit, Change match types and Change broad match modifier keywords. Each becomes a new keyword, and its statistics stay with the removed one. The keyword guide covers plus signs elsewhere in a keyword, and quotation marks or brackets typed into its text.

1. 01Go to Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords and set the date range to the last 30 days.
2. 02Segment the table by Search terms match type. Google says this groups the search terms that triggered your ad into broad match, phrase match and exact match.
3. 03For each broad keyword that spends, compare the Cost / conv. of its broad match group with its exact match and phrase match groups. The broad match group is what the keyword buys beyond its own words. Google’s page names those three groups and says nothing of close variants, which the search terms report marks search by search.
4. 04Where the broad match group does far worse, go to Campaigns › Insights and reports › Search terms. Add the Keyword column, which doesn’t show by default (the columns icon, then Attributes), and read that keyword’s rows whose Match type says Broad match.

The report’s match type is how the search matched, not the keyword’s own: a broad keyword’s search can read Exact match or Phrase match. Judge each search by what it brought rather than by its words. A related search can be exactly what the customer wanted, and a few clicks with no conversion prove little either way; spend with nothing where the keyword’s own matches convert proves more.

• Narrow it to phrase match. A phrase keyword keeps the searches that include its meaning, close variants included, and stops the ones broad match found beyond them. Changing a keyword’s match type in Google Ads removes the keyword and creates a new one, so its statistics stay with the removed one. Adding the phrase keyword and pausing the broad one does the same, and keeps the broad one to turn back on.
• Keep it broad and add negatives. Where most of its broad matches pay, add the ones that don’t as negative keywords. Negatives don’t match close variants, so add the singular and plural forms and the synonyms you want kept out; Google covers casing and misspellings. The negative keywords guide has how each negative match type matches.
• Check how it’s bid. With manual bidding, a broad keyword bids the same for every related search it matches. Google pairs broad match with Smart Bidding, which bids each search on its own.

A search the broad keyword found that keeps converting can have a keyword of its own, and the find keywords guide shows which to add and where.

Close variants let a keyword match searches that are similar but not identical: misspellings, singular and plural forms, stems such as floor and flooring, abbreviations and accents; reordered words and dropped words like for; implied words; synonyms and paraphrases; and searches with the same intent. Google’s example: [bathing suits] can show on swimming suits. Every match type matches close variants, and Google says there’s no way to opt out.

The search terms report marks them in the Match type column as Exact match (close variant) and Phrase match (close variant). Compare a keyword’s close variant rows with the rows that match it as written, as for broad match above. A close variant that doesn’t pay is kept out with a negative keyword of its own, since negatives don’t match close variants; an exact-match negative blocks that search and nothing else. The phrase match guide lists the six kinds of close variant with Google’s example of each, and reads one keyword’s searches label by label.

A Search campaign could make every keyword broad with one setting, Broad match keywords. Google says turning it on converts every phrase and exact keyword in the campaign to broad match and makes every keyword added after it broad too, and it’s only available with a Smart Bidding strategy that bids for conversions or conversion value.

From September 2026 Google is upgrading the campaigns with the setting to AI Max, and said it expected the upgrades to be done by the end of that month. An upgraded campaign has AI Max’s search term matching on, which Google says goes beyond your keywords with broad match and with matches from your assets and landing pages. It’s an ad group setting: you can turn it off in each ad group’s settings. Campaigns using Dynamic Search Ads follow from February 2027, which the Dynamic Search Ads guide covers.

One thing changes on its own. Under the setting, a keyword was prioritized as if it were both broad and exact, so a search identical to it went to it first. After the upgrade a broad keyword isn’t treated as exact; Google suggests adding exact match copies of the keywords where you want that kept.

1. 01To see what search term matching buys, go to Campaigns › Insights and reports › Search terms and add the Source column, which says whether a search matched through broad match expansion or with no keyword at all.
2. 02Filter Match type to AI Max for the searches it found, and compare their cost per conversion with the campaign’s searches that matched your keywords. Google notes the filter leaves out the report’s Other search terms row.
3. 03For the totals, open Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords: two rows at the foot, Total: AI Max expanded matches and Total: AI Max landing page matches, add up what it found from your keywords and from your pages and assets.

Google asks you to wait at least two weeks after turning AI Max on before making changes such as adding negative keywords, while it learns.

Every day Goldbeater reads the last 30 days of every enabled keyword’s searches, with how Google matched each one. It judges a keyword against its own matches, never its campaign’s, so a keyword is weighed against itself:

• Broad match buying searches that convert far worse: a broad keyword whose broad-only matches bought under half the conversions their spend would have at the rate of its own phrase and exact matches, on at least $20 and what its campaign pays for a conversion, and unlikely to be chance after allowing for every broad keyword tested in the account; where your conversion values are real, their return under half too. The figure is the broad-only spend that converted nothing. It drafts the keyword in phrase match with the broad one paused, and offers it rather than recommending it where those matches recorded actions your goals don’t count.
• Close variants converting far worse than the keyword: the same test on an exact or phrase keyword’s close variants, against the searches that match it as written. It lists the variants, costliest first.

Each search behind them that has cost $20 or more and converted nothing is listed on its own, as a wasted search term with an exact-match negative as its fix, so you can keep a keyword broad and block only what doesn’t pay. The searches Google’s AI Max found through its search term matching are read the same way, one by one.

The table is the broad-only searches from the sample above, and the cards set them beside the keyword’s own matches. The same test on a phrase keyword’s close variants:

The audit checklist has every keyword line with where to find it in Google Ads.

Is broad match good or bad in Google Ads?

Neither on its own. Google recommends it with Smart Bidding, for the searches it finds that you wouldn’t have listed. Whether it pays in your account is in its broad-only matches’ numbers, set beside the same keyword’s phrase and exact matches.

What is the difference between broad match and phrase match?

A phrase match keyword shows on searches that include its meaning. A broad match keyword shows on those too, and on related searches that don’t contain its direct meaning, weighing the searcher’s recent searches, your landing pages and the ad group’s other keywords.

Does broad match modifier still work?

No. Since July 2021 broad match modifier keywords behave exactly as phrase match, and new ones can’t be added. The old ones still serve as phrase match.

What happened to the broad match keywords setting?

From September 2026 Google is upgrading the campaigns that use it to AI Max, with search term matching on, which you can turn off in each ad group’s settings. A broad keyword there is no longer prioritized as if it were exact too; Google suggests exact match copies of the keywords where you want that kept.

Can I turn off close variants?

No. Google says every match type matches close variants and there’s no way to opt out. Keep out the ones that don’t pay with negative keywords, one for each variant, since negatives don’t match close variants.

Should I use broad match with manual CPC?

Google says it’s critical to use Smart Bidding with broad match. With manual bidding, the bid you set applies to every search the keyword matches, the related ones included.