Despite Google heavily pushing broad match, it is not as good as they think it is. However, it is also important to consider that for some businesses, broad match will get great results.
A study performed by the PPC optimisation tool Optmyzr (view here) has studied over 2,600 PPC accounts. This software has looked at all the conversions in the accounts to determine which keyword match types are driving the conversions.
Which accounts had a better CPC:
56.55% of accounts performed better with exact match keywords, compared to 27.34% of accounts which performed better with broad match keywords. These figures counteract what Google say, as they claim broad match keywords are cheaper. This is the case as they will trigger very low quality clicks, which in turn brings down the CPC but often leads to poor quality traffic.
Which accounts had a better CTR:
85.65% of accounts performed better with exact match keywords, compared to 13.88% of accounts which performed better with broad match keywords. This shows that exact match is getting better quality clicks.
Which accounts had a better CPA:
70.79% of accounts performed better with exact match keywords, compared to 27.48% of accounts which performed better with broad match keywords. This shows that exact match is giving cheaper conversions than broad match.
Which accounts had a better ROAS:
72.52% of accounts performed better with exact match keywords, compared to 26.47% of accounts which performed better with broad match keywords. Again, there is a massive difference in these figures between broad and exact match.
Which accounts had a better conversion rate:
56.73% of accounts performed better with exact match keywords, compared to 22.72% of accounts which performed better with broad match keywords.
Which accounts had more clicks:
51.28% of accounts performed better with exact match keywords, compared to 48.56% of accounts which performed better with broad match keywords. These figures are a lot closer, however this is to be expected. The percentages for clicks are almost even, which suggests that exact and broad match keywords generate the same amount of clicks. Despite this, it could still be seen as a loss for broad match, as it is expected to generate more clicks.
Which accounts had more conversions:
50.32% of accounts performed better with exact match keywords, compared to 47.26% of accounts which performed better with broad match keywords. Broad match is supposed to give you more conversions, however the study shows that the volume from broad match people are getting from conversions isn’t as high as it should be.
Which accounts had better conversion value:
52.09% of accounts performed better with exact match keywords, compared to 47.29% of accounts which performed better with broad match keywords. This shows that despite Google’s push on broad match keywords, more often than not, exact match wins on every front.
Despite the results from this test, it is important to remember that you can not definitively say that exact match is better than broad match. The data reinforces that you are going to be better off with exact match rather than broad match more often than not. However, if you are getting results with broad match, you should not change.
