Should I use broad match keywords in Google Ads?

A keyword’s match type decides how closely a search has to match it for your ad to be considered in the auction. Google Ads has three, and a keyword written plainly, without quotes or brackets, is broad match, the default.

A broader match type takes in everything a narrower one would: Google says a broad keyword matches every search its phrase and exact versions would, plus related searches. To decide what’s related, broad match also weighs the searcher’s recent searches, the content of your landing pages and assets, and the other keywords in the ad group.

Google says it’s critical to use Smart Bidding with broad match, since every search is different and Smart Bidding sets a bid for each one from what it knows at the auction. With manual bidding, every search the keyword matches gets the one bid you set.

Broad match’s case is reach: searches you’d never have thought to add. Its cost is that some related searches are for something you don’t sell, and only your own account’s numbers say which, and how much they take.

Broad match modifier, a keyword written with plus signs such as +moving +services, 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.

1. 01Go to Campaigns › Audiences, keywords, and content › Search keywords and set the date range to the last 30 days.
2. 02Select Segment, then Search terms match type. Each keyword’s row splits by the narrowest match type that would have reached its searches.
3. 03For each broad keyword that spends, compare the Cost / conv. of its Broad match row with its Exact match and Phrase match rows, close variants included. The broad row is what the keyword buys beyond its own words.
4. 04Where the broad row 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), filter to the keyword, and read the 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.
• 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.

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.

A Search campaign has a setting, Broad match keywords, that makes the whole campaign broad. 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. It’s only available with a Smart Bidding strategy that bids for conversions or conversion value. A keyword in such a campaign is prioritized as if it were both broad and exact, so a search identical to it is put first, as an exact keyword’s would be.

From September 2026, Google says, campaigns with the setting on are being upgraded to AI Max automatically, with its search term matching on, which reaches searches through broad match and beyond your keywords.

1. 01Go to Campaigns › Campaigns, open the Settings tab and select the campaign.
2. 02Open Broad match keywords. On: Use broad match keywords for your entire campaign means every keyword in it is broad.
3. 03To turn it off, choose Off: Use keyword match types and Save. The keywords it converted stay broad: the phrase and exact keywords they replaced show as removed when you set the keyword status filter to All, and you change match types back under Edit, Change match types.

Every day Goldbeater reads the last 30 days of every enabled keyword’s searches, with how Google matched each one, and every Search campaign’s settings. 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.
• A campaign setting that makes every keyword broad match: a Search campaign with its broad match keywords setting on. Medium, and it drafts turning the setting off. A broad keyword raised in such a campaign drafts nothing, since the setting would make its phrase copy broad again; its advice is to turn the setting off 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 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.

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.