Beginner’s Guide to Amazon PPC Match Types: Broad, Phrase, Exact

If you don’t want to lose on your ad budget and achieve high sales on your Amazon PPC Campaigns, it’s important to know which keywords to bid on as they form the basis of your entire strategy. While for some it might seem easy, the whole process goes much deeper than selecting a handful of descriptive terms that first come to mind and thinking that’ll do the job.

In this article, learn about the three PPC match types and explore the use cases of each, giving you an idea of a scenario when you might want to choose one over the others.

What are Amazon Keyword Match Types?

Keywords are terms or phrases that connect ads to what people are searching for. The match types determine how closely a keyword must align with a user’s search query for the ad to enter the auction.

Currently, there are 3 manual targeting match types for Amazon:

Some shoppers have a vague idea of what they’re looking for, making them search broad keywords to describe their needs. Others, on the other hand, may possess this knowledge and be precise in their search queries, as well as willing to make an actual purchase. Therefore, it’s important to be mindful and strategic when picking your keyword match types.

Now let’s take a closer look at each and learn about them with examples.

Broad Match Type

Broad match is the default type and is known for reaching the widest audience. It makes your ad show up when any words from your keyphrase appear in a user’s search, no matter the order, whether synonyms are used or if any other related words are included. Customers can also use plural forms, abbreviations or acronyms, or even a different spelling.

On the bright side, your ad gets to receive a lot of impressions. However, there’s a high chance that your product doesn’t meet the customer’s search intent, making it irrelevant for them.

Let’s say you’re selling hiking boots on Amazon and you use the broad match keyword “hiking boots.” With this setting, your product could appear in search results for terms like “outdoor footwear” (because hiking boots fall under this category), “hiking gear” (because “boots” are technically considered gear) or even “mountain climbing shoes” (because “mountain climbing” and “hiking” are closely related activities).

Phrase Match Type

With phrase match, you get a mix of broad match’s flexibility and a higher level of control. Your ad will show up in search results when the user’s query includes your exact key phrase, but the presence of other words before or after is also possible.

So, if your phrase is “wireless headphones”, your ad will appear when a customer searches for terms like “wireless headphones for pc”, “buy wireless headphones for running”, etc. As long as the exact phrase is here, your ad will be considered relevant.

But there’s also a second case scenario: if a customer searches for a product and doesn’t include your exact phrase, but implies the same meaning – a phrase match will occur anyway. So if we take the example above and your phrase match keyword is yet again “wireless headphones”, your ad might also show up for searches like “Bluetooth earbuds for gym” or “noise-canceling earphones”, as these queries imply the meaning of your keyword.

Exact Match Type

An exact match means that your ad will only appear if a customer’s search query exactly matches your specified keyword or phrase. If the words are rearranged or if any additional words are included, your ad won’t be displayed.

Exact Match will also trigger in case of close variations of the exact term. For example, if you have “laptop cooling pad” as your exact phrase, “notebook cooling pad” will also count as an exact match and make your ad display. Plural words, conjunctions, and minor misspellings won’t affect the match too, allowing your ad to appear anyways.

Exact Match Type usually proves to be the most effective and drives the highest conversion rates, because when people search for something specific, that means they’re already well-informed about the product and are willing to make a purchase. This also means that such keywords are highly competitive, as every seller wants their ads to appear before their competitors’. Therefore, bids for Exact Match Keywords are likely to be higher than usual.

Negative Keyword Match Types

Amazon negative keywords are terms or phrases that stop your ad from showing up in search results for queries that include those specific words or phrases. So, if there’s a similar product category that fails to produce effective clicks or conversions, negative keywords can help drive irrelevant traffic away.

Negative keywords come in two types:

Negative phrase - Ads won't appear in search queries that include the entire phrase or its close variants. Each negative keyword is limited to a maximum of 4 words and 80 characters.
Negative exact - Ads are excluded from search queries that match the exact phrase or its close variations. Each negative keyword can have up to 10 words and a total of 80 characters.

When to use Broad Match

Using Broad Match Keywords can really boost how often people find your product in searches, which is pretty much its primal function.

Although Broad Match Keyword strategy attracts a larger audience, you are unlikely to make a significant increase in sales out of it. And yet, this match type is a great tool when it comes to testing new ideas and discovering new keyword opportunities.

So, if you’re new to Amazon, we would definitely recommend starting your PPC campaign using Broad Match, making it easier for you to see which keywords perform well and deserve further investigation, and which ones aren’t worth your time and investment.

When to use Phrase Match

Phrase Match is a good choice for those who want to control their PPC campaigns with some level of flexibility. It lets you anticipate what users might type in when searching for your product, removing unrelated keywords and focusing on the ones that matter most for whatever you’re selling.

What also makes this match type good is that it still lets you capture essential details that customers may search for, be it the material, color, size or anything else. And while this can make your product not entirely relevant to a customer, there’s still a high chance that’ll do.

So, by using Phrase Match, you can narrow a range of customers to those who have much higher chances of getting interested in your product due to their intentions aligning with the core features of your offer.

When to use Exact Match

Having a solid plan for Exact Match Keywords is essential, as they apply only to a small pool of customers. By concentrating on searches that exactly match your keywords, you avoid wasting money on broad, unrelated searches and increase your chances of attracting users who are truly interested in what you offer.

We suggest using this strategy when running campaigns that prioritize precision over broad audience reach, making sure your ads connect with the right and specific audience.

Final Thoughts

Each of the presented match types has its set of advantages and use cases, but to truly master the art of running successful PPC campaigns it’s important not to blindly apply the one that seems the “most successful”, but rather combine all three strategies, evaluate their individual performance and switch between match types when needed.

If you need help with your Amazon PPC Campaign, Reach Out to our experts at Weby Corp. Our approach focuses on putting your products in front of the right eyes, driving both visibility and sales on the world’s largest online marketplace. With our expertise, navigating the complexities of Amazon advertising becomes straightforward and incredibly effective.