Close Variant Keyword Matching is Coming!

Keyword match types have been around for a long time. They help you control which searches trigger your ads on AdWords. If you aren’t familiar with them – here is a good video that explains the basics:

But this blog isn’t about those match types that have been around for awhile – it’s about a new match type that Google recently announced called Close Variant Keyword Matching!

What is Close Variant Keyword Matching you ask? Well, what these extra smart Googlers figured out is that many times people doing searches have misspellings or typos. Or, for example, people looking to buy a backpack for their child might do a search like “kid backpack”, “kid’s backpack”, or “kids backpacks”. Unfortunately if you are advertising backpacks but have chosen phrase match keywords like “child backpack”, “child’s backpack”, or exact match keywords like [boys backpacks], or [girls backpacks] then your ad wouldn’t show up. Here is where close variant keyword matching comes in handy! You see, even though a person is searching for “kid’s backpacks” they are most interested in getting results for the very best businesses or products and Google is all about delivering the very best search results to their customers. In Google’s words, close variant keyword matching is “an intuitive way to connect people with the businesses they’re searching for.”

Now, close variant keyword matching won’t be available until September and it will be applied to exact match and phrase match keywords only. So take a look at the keywords you are using in your PPC campaigns and if you are using exact match or phrase match keywords start thinking about how close variant keyword matching will impact your campaigns. If you aren’t using exact match or phrase match – then I suggest you watch the video – they are the best way to get highly relevant and targeted clicks on your ads.

by Josh Becerra

Explore Our Latest Digital Marketing Tips