Keyword Match Types
The rules (broad, phrase, exact) that decide which searches trigger your keyword.
Match types are the settings that control how closely a search has to match your keyword before your ad can show. Google Ads has three: broad match (the widest net, including related and implied searches), phrase match (the meaning of the phrase), and exact match (the tightest, though it now includes close variants).
The trade is reach versus control. Broad finds new queries but wastes money without tight negative keywords around it; exact keeps you precise but can miss demand. Google's move to include close variants in exact match is why a perfect one-to-one between keyword and search term is no longer possible, the shift covered in the iceberg effect and single keyword ad groups.
Used together with disciplined negatives, match types are how you keep the search terms you pay for close to the keywords you chose.
Put the number to work: the break-even ROAS calculator turns your margins into the ROAS you need, and a free Due Diligence Audit checks whether the figures you see are the ones you are getting. Back to the glossary.