Keywords and Match Types

Match types, honestly

Match types are looser than their names suggest. Treat them as intent filters, not exact controls.

• Exact [keyword] - tightest, but still matches close variants, synonyms, and same-intent rephrasings. Highest control, lowest volume. Start here for your money terms.
• Phrase "keyword" - matches queries with the meaning of your phrase. The workhorse for B2B: enough control, enough reach.
• Broad keyword - matches anything Google deems related. Only safe with Smart Bidding and a solid conversion signal feeding it. Without that, broad torches budget.

The progression

1. Start Phrase + Exact on high-intent terms. Manual or Maximize Conversions with low volume.
2. Mine search terms weekly. Add winners as keywords, add junk as negatives.
3. Introduce Broad only after the account has a real conversion signal (30+ conversions/month) and Smart Bidding is on. Broad + Smart Bidding + tight negatives + good conversion data can outperform - in that exact order. Broad without the rest is how budgets die.

Keyword research for B2B

• Start from how buyers describe the problem, not how you describe the product. They search "stop leads going cold", you call it "lead lifecycle automation."
• Pull seed terms from: your own search terms report, sales call language, competitor ad copy, and the Keyword Planner for volume sanity.
• B2B volumes are small. A keyword with 50 searches/month and clear intent beats one with 5,000 searches and mixed intent.
• Tag each keyword by intent tier (brand, high, competitor, problem-aware) so reporting maps to the intent ladder.

Negative keywords are half the job

B2B Search without aggressive negatives bleeds money. Build from day one:

• Universal junk: "free", "cheap", "jobs", "salary", "course", "tutorial", "login" (unless brand), "reddit", "crack", "torrent".
• Audience mismatch: "intern", "student", "examples", "templates" (if you sell software, not templates).
• Category mismatch: terms that share words but not intent. If you sell "sales engagement", negative out "employee engagement". Maintain a shared negative list across non-brand campaigns. Review search terms weekly and keep adding.

Don't compete with yourself

Avoid the same keyword in multiple ad groups or campaigns at the same match type. Use negatives to route each query to exactly one place, or you split data and bid against your own account.

---

By Ivan Falco - Frontal