Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • MozCon
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. Digital Marketing
    3. Paid Search Marketing
    4. Multiple keyword match types - same ad group, or separate ad groups?

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    Multiple keyword match types - same ad group, or separate ad groups?

    Paid Search Marketing
    4
    6
    5014
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • jez000
      jez000 last edited by

      Hi guys,

      Looking at an account that has historically used broad matching, and i'd now like to take some of the better performing keywords and duplicate as phrase and/or exact match to increase the quality of traffic to the landing pages.

      I know I can add red shoes, "red shoes" and [red shoes] to the same ad group, however I've also read that people are creating separate groups for each match type.

      Other than easy of management (same group), or more granular targeting of ads (separate groups), should I go with either approach, or a blend of the two?

      My key objective in this restructure is to drop the currently high bounce rate on the landing pages by improving the relevance of the incoming traffic.

      Cheers, Jez

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • SkitterD
        SkitterD last edited by

        Hey Guys,

        I think this post is going to help me out a lot!  I've been paying out the nose for my advertising on Google over the year with as you can well imagine a certain sense of frustration.  I got the inkling this was what I needed to do as I can see now my structure has been way to careful on my campaigns.

        Thanks,

        Scott

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • KTaylor
          KTaylor @jez000 last edited by

          That's correct. The more freedom you give the engines to match your keywords to "related" queries, the less relevant your average click will be, which will drive down conversion rate and thus revenue per click. So, in summary, the more broad the keyword the less you should be paying per click (99% of the time).

          This reminds me of a funny blog post I read today that shows how ridiculous some of the matches can be when using broad match -- http://www.ppchero.com/wtq-do-the-creep/

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • jez000
            jez000 last edited by

            Thanks fidelityim & KTaylor, I'll consider both approaches against the time the longer term owners of this Adwords account are willing to put in to managing it 🙂

            So, the exact > phrase > broad approach is the most cost effective, even though we're putting forward our highest bid price first, based on the theory that higher qualified click through traffic is more valuable to the site owner - is that correct?

            I want to confirm, as to a SEM aspirant it seems counter intuitive to pay more for exact matches, though as you mentioned fidelityim, i realise that the CPC does not necessarily equal the tiered bid prices.

            Cheers, Jez

            KTaylor 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • KTaylor
              KTaylor last edited by

              fidelityim makes a good suggestion. You should definitely bid according to performance of your keywords match types. In all but the most rare cases advertisers' performance will match the tiers fidelityim has mentioned exact > phrase > broad (not including the near exact, near phrase, and broad modified match types Google has added).

              There is one point that fidelityim made that I don't agree with... I think it's worthwhile to create separate ad groups and even campaigns for different match types. The main reasons being that it allows you to:

              1. View performance by match type at a glance in the absence of sophisticated tools like Kenshoo or Marin Software. This performance will vary by a huge margin so making it easy to see your winning buckets is very helpful given that everyone's time is limited.

              2. You can budget your match types based on performance. By analyzing your search query reports, broad and phrase matched queries can be great feeders for your exact match campaigns, so you'll probably want to limit your spend on those terms until you are sure about the performance at a query level. This can only be achieved by separating these match types into their own campaigns.

              Cheers,

              KT

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • stevefidelity
                stevefidelity last edited by

                What I'd recommend is a 'tiered bidding' approach. Don't use different ad groups for different match types.

                With tiered bidding you're setting different bid amounts for different match types - specifically, your exact match is the highest bid, followed by phrase and then broad. So it would be something like this:

                [red shoes] - $1

                "red shoes" - $0.75 (3/4 the price of the exact match)

                red shoes - $0.50 (1/2 the price of the exact match)

                This strategy  helps ensure that you're paying a fair value for all different types of search queries that are bringing traffic to your site.

                Assuming that in this example, you're an e-commerce site selling red shoes, we'll argue the term 'red shoes' is the most qualified search query available. As such, you're paying top dollar for that keyword - $1. (I know your actual CPC isn't your bid price, I'm just saying - for illustrative purposes). If a user searches for, say, 'shiny red shoes', your phrase match keyword will be triggered, and you'll pay $0.75. You're paying a little bit less because, let's say, your shoes aren't exactly shiny, but there's still a chance that user will convert. Lastly, if the user types in 'what are red shoes', your classic informational type of search query, your ads won't be triggered by the exact or phrase match version of the keyword, but they will be triggered by the broad match, and you'll pay $0.50. You pay the least amount for this search query because this doesn't represent a very qualified visitor for your red shoe, e-commerce website.

                Hope that helps.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                • 1 / 1
                • First post
                  Last post

                Got a burning SEO question?

                Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                Start my free trial


                Browse Questions

                Explore more categories

                • Moz Tools

                  Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                • SEO Tactics

                  Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                • Community

                  Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                • Digital Marketing

                  Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                • Research & Trends

                  Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                • Support

                  Connect on product support and feature requests.

                • See all categories

                Related Questions

                • DmitriiK

                  Special Characters in Negative Keywords in Ads

                  Howdy, fellow mozzers, I came across this weird suggestion in my Bing account (screenshot link: https://dmitrii-regexseo.tinytake.com/tt/NDY3OTc5NF8xNDgyMzY4OA) It almost that the dollar sign in the negative keyword is acting like a wildcard character, or being disregarded completely. I did some tests, it seems that in Google Ads that is not happening. Does anyone have an idea if this is normal behavior? I have never seen this before.

                  Paid Search Marketing | | DmitriiK
                  0
                • lina_digital

                  Are there free tools that would tell me the cpc for my keywords?

                  If not what tools do you recommend to use to get an accurate cpc $ for estimating budget?

                  Paid Search Marketing | | lina_digital
                  0
                • singhmahendra

                  How to Find Competitor PPC Keywords ?

                  Can anyone suggest best way to find all PPC keywords of a competitor. Any tool recommendation ?

                  Paid Search Marketing | | singhmahendra
                  0
                • DoMiSoL

                  Best practice to separate paid from organic conversions in Google Analytics

                  I have a PPC campaign for a client with standalone landing pages with a form, not reachable from the website (although in the same domain). I've added the AdWords conversion code to the "thank you" page and I also added a Goal in
                  Google Analytics whose counter is increased every time the thank you page is reached. This way I can track conversions with both AdWords and Analytics. Is that correct? Should I import back in AdWords the goals from Analytics, as suggested in the AdWords account? I have another landing page with a form in the website, where I send users coming from
                  organic search, so I set up a second goal in Analytics for the thank you page of this form. Is this the reason why  I am supposed to import in AdWords the analytics' goals, so that I could see both kind of conversions in both accounts? But the most important question is:  If I send both PPC/organic visitors to the same landing page is there still a way to separate PPC from Organic conversions? Thank you very much for your advice. DoMiSoL Rossini

                  Paid Search Marketing | | DoMiSoL
                  0
                • seowoody

                  Arabic Keyword Research

                  Hi All, Can anyone recommend good SEOs who specialise in Arabic? I've had my client's website translated into Arabic but the translation company do not specialise in local keyword research. They've translated literally I think (obviously not being an Arabic speaker, I can't confirm this). I need someone to review the translated site (only 4 pages so far), with a marketing head on, and ensure it includes the relevant local keywords used in UAE countries. Will also require deeper keyword research for a Google.ae PPC campaign and Ad copy written in Arabic. If I fail to find someone here in the moz community I'll head over to oDesk, where I'll find everyone and their mother-in-law proclaiming to be the worlds best Arabic SEO 😕
                  I like recommendations! Thanks, Woody 🙂

                  Paid Search Marketing | | seowoody
                  0
                • Reis_Inc.

                  Can I dynamically add city name to my PPC ad text and URL based on the user's search?

                  I have looked into DKI (Dynamic Keyword Insertion), but have not found a solution and thought that some excellent Mozzer might be able to help.  Here is the idea: We have landing pages for hundreds of cities.  The local content on each of these cities changes page to page, however the keywords that we are going after are the same.  So, I am trying to create a dynamic ad group that looks something like this: Headline: {City Name} {Keyword} Description: We cover {City Name} {Keyword}, get more info now! URL: http://www.website.com/{City Name} Please let me know if you can assist with this, B

                  Paid Search Marketing | | Reis_Inc.
                  0
                • ocelot

                  Increasing Google Ad spend - is it worth it

                  Hi We are currently spending approx £500 pcm on google ad words however if I increased this spend to £4000 pcm what kind of results would this achieve? For example would it just be more visits per day as the budget is larger? Also what is the best way to track the success of an adwords campaign - the ultimate goal of the campaign would be to generate a lead whether this be a phone call, email or using our book an appointment form. Our service covers a geographical area (Scotland) and for organic search we are doing well 1st pages listings for searches such as pvc doors edinburgh etc so I am unsure whether it's worth increasing my PPC spend or put more resource into SEO,  or even Facebook ads?

                  Paid Search Marketing | | ocelot
                  0
                • tolik1

                  Keyword tool for Yahoo ads?

                  Hi guys, Anyone knows a good keywords tool for Yahoo Ads and Bing Advertising? - We are interested to see the search volumes for these 2 search engines (all tough they are together now, people still have searching preferences and usualy only use one of them. - We need to see global search volumes as well as geo-specific data (country level) Thanks in advance

                  Paid Search Marketing | | tolik1
                  0

                Get started with Moz Pro!

                Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                Start my free trial
                Products
                • Moz Pro
                • Moz Local
                • Moz API
                • Moz Data
                • STAT
                • Product Updates
                Moz Solutions
                • SMB Solutions
                • Agency Solutions
                • Enterprise Solutions
                Free SEO Tools
                • Domain Authority Checker
                • Link Explorer
                • Keyword Explorer
                • Competitive Research
                • Brand Authority Checker
                • Local Citation Checker
                • MozBar Extension
                • MozCast
                Resources
                • Blog
                • SEO Learning Center
                • Help Hub
                • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                • How-to Guides
                • Moz Academy
                • API Docs
                About Moz
                • About
                • Team
                • Careers
                • Contact
                Why Moz
                • Case Studies
                • Testimonials
                Get Involved
                • Become an Affiliate
                • MozCon
                • Webinars
                • Practical Marketer Series
                • MozPod
                Connect with us

                Contact the Help team

                Join our newsletter
                Moz logo
                © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                • Accessibility
                • Terms of Use
                • Privacy

                Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.