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4 October 2026

Google Ads match types explained in plain English

“We only bid on ‘boiler repair’, so why are we paying for searches about boiler engineer courses?” It’s the sort of thing a heating firm asks the first time it opens the search terms report. More often than not, the answer is match types. They’re the setting that tells Google how loosely to read your keywords, and they quietly decide where a fair chunk of your budget goes. They’ve changed a lot since 2021, so older advice often doesn’t hold.

In brief

There are three match types now. Broad, phrase and exact. The old ‘broad match modifier’ went in 2021.
None of them is literal. Even exact match covers plurals, misspellings and searches that mean the same thing.
Broad match reaches furthest, and Google says it should be run with Smart Bidding.
Negative keywords are much more literal, so you’ll have to add plurals and synonyms yourself.

The three match types, as Google defines them now

Your keywords tell Google which searches you’re happy to pay for. The match type tells it how far to stretch them. You set it with a bit of punctuation when you add the keyword.

Broad match has no symbols at all. You just type the words. Google’s own definition is that your ad “may show on searches that are related to your keyword, which can include searches that don’t contain the direct meaning of your keywords.” That’s a wide net.

Phrase match wraps the keyword in quotation marks, so “emergency plumber”. The search has to include the meaning of your keyword, but it can carry extra words around it. Someone typing ’emergency plumber open on Sunday’ could well see your ad.

Then there’s exact match, in square brackets. [emergency plumber]. Google’s wording is searches with “the same meaning or same intent as the keyword”. Meaning, not words. It isn’t a word-for-word filter.

They nest like mixing bowls. Each broader type catches every search the narrower ones would, plus more on top. So broad gets the most traffic, and exact the least, usually with the tightest fit.

Why exact match isn’t exact any more

Google calls them close variants, and every match type is eligible for them by default. There’s no way to opt out.

For exact match, Google lists what it counts as the same thing. Misspellings, singular and plural forms, words built on the same stem (floor and flooring is its example), abbreviations and accents. Words in a different order. Little words like ‘in’, ‘for’ and ‘the’ added or dropped. Words that are implied rather than typed. Synonyms and paraphrases, so its example keyword [bathing suits] can show for ‘swimming suits’. And searches with the same intent, even when the wording’s quite different.

In practice that’s often fine. An online outdoor shop bidding on [mens walking boots] probably wants ‘walking boots for men’ as well. Where it bites is when two services sound alike but aren’t. A physiotherapy clinic that does sports massage might not want every search for any kind of massage. That’s where the search terms report, and negative keywords, come in.

Broad match and Smart Bidding go together

Google pairs broad match with automated bidding, and says so in as many words. “It’s critical to use Smart Bidding with broad match.” Smart Bidding sets a bid for each auction, aiming at whatever you’ve told Google counts as a conversion. Without it, broad match can easily spend on time-wasters as well as good searches.

That’s why broad match only makes sense once your conversion tracking is reliable. If the account counts every visit to the contact page as a result, the bidding will chase contact page visits. Our guide to how Google Ads works for a business walks through tracking, consent and bidding in more depth.

Two settings push an account further towards broad, and neither is something to leave on by accident. A campaign-level broad match setting converts every phrase and exact keyword in the campaign to broad. It’s only offered with conversion-based Smart Bidding, and from September 2026 Google is automatically upgrading campaigns that use it to AI Max. Then there’s AI Max for Search campaigns. Switching it on also switches on what Google calls search term matching, which goes hunting beyond your keyword list using broad match and keywordless technology. That part can be turned off per ad group. Check your campaign settings before you assume you know which searches you’re paying for.

What happened to broad match modifier

Plenty of older guides still talk about putting a plus sign in front of words, like +wedding +venue. That was broad match modifier. From February 2021 Google started folding its behaviour into phrase match, and from July 2021 you couldn’t add new keywords with the plus signs any more.

Old modifier keywords weren’t deleted. They still serve, but as phrase match. Edit one and it turns into a normal phrase match keyword, without its old performance history. Inherited an account full of plus signs? Read them as phrase match, because that’s what Google does.

When two of your keywords match the same search

Most accounts end up with overlap. A training provider might have ‘first aid course’ as broad, phrase and exact, across two ad groups. You still only get one bid in the auction for that search. So which keyword wins?

Google works down a pecking order. Top of the pile is an exact match keyword identical to the search. Phrase and broad keywords, and Performance Max search themes, that are identical to it come next. Failing that, it’s relevance, judged on the meaning of the search, the keywords in each ad group and its landing pages, and a tie after all that goes to whichever has the higher Ad Rank. Running Performance Max alongside Search? An exact match Search keyword identical to the search beats Performance Max. Phrase and broad keywords compete with its search themes on level terms.

That’s a handy bit of control. Put the searches that matter most in as exact match keywords, in the ad group with the right ad and the right page behind them, and Google has far less guessing to do when someone types exactly that. Identical allows for spelling corrections, mind, but not plurals or synonyms.

Negative keywords don’t stretch the same way

Negative keywords stop your ad showing on searches you don’t want. You’d think they’d follow the same loose rules. They don’t. Google says plainly that negative keywords don’t match close variants, so your ad can still show on searches containing close variations of the words you’ve excluded.

So a hotel that adds ‘jobs’ as a negative may still show for ‘job’, ‘careers’ or ‘vacancies’. A heating firm that blocks ‘course’ might still pay for ‘courses’ or ‘training’. Misspellings are handled for you. Plurals and synonyms need adding on their own.

Negatives have their own match types too.

A negative broad keyword blocks any search containing all of its words, in any order.
A negative phrase keyword blocks searches containing those words in that order, with other words allowed around them.
A negative exact keyword only blocks that exact search, in that order, with nothing extra.

Where do you find the words to block? The search terms report. It shows the searches that triggered your ads, as long as enough people used them, and there’s a column telling you which match type caught each one. Skim it every week or two. Anything irrelevant goes on the negative list. Anything good that you’re not targeting yet may deserve its own keyword.

Choosing match types for a smaller account

There’s no single right mix. Budget and tracking decide a lot of it. Not settled on a figure yet? Our piece on working out a Google Ads budget starts from what a customer’s worth to you.

If the budget’s tight and tracking is shaky, start narrower. Phrase and exact on your main services give you a much better idea of what you’re paying for. A dental clinic with £15 a day can’t afford to fund every loosely related search about teeth.

Once enquiries are tracked properly and the account has some conversion history, broad match with Smart Bidding becomes worth testing. Give it an end date and watch the search terms closely while it runs.

Whatever you choose, the page behind the ad matters as much as the keyword. A search for wedding cake tasting should land on a page about cake tastings, not the home page. Our piece on making a website easier to use covers the basics, and a slow page wastes clicks as well, which is where Core Web Vitals come in. When the clicks are arriving but the enquiries aren’t, conversion rate optimisation is usually a better use of money than another keyword.

Want someone to look over your keywords?

Money spent on the wrong searches goes quietly. A few pounds here, a few there, and nobody spots it for months. If you’d rather not spend your Sunday evenings in the search terms report, that’s exactly the kind of work our Google Ads management covers. Not sure what your account’s up to? Get in touch and we’ll tell you what we find in plain English.

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Scott Woodfield

Founder of TWA, Scott harbours over 10 years of digital marketing agency experience. Everything from removing a background of an image to full blown ecommerce solutions from the ground up, Scott's your go to guy for anything marketing & web.

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