Surfside PPC Podcast Episode 4 - Should I Use Broad Match Keywords?
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Corey:What's up everyone? Welcome to episode four of the Surfside PPC Podcast. Today, gonna be talking about keywords, and it's really just gonna be one question today because I was gonna do a couple questions, but really I have one main focus question. I just kinda wanna talk about keyword targeting and how I think about it right now. I do kind of see the death of the keyword sort of coming.
Corey:I mean, it's kind of here, but keywords obviously are still very, very important in Google Ads campaigns. But I can tell you over the last couple years, like keywords in campaigns, it it is definitely becoming more and more of just like a, we are trying to target audiences of people that are searching for this right now. So that's kind of the main thing that I'm looking at. But what we're gonna do is we're gonna go through our first question right now. Now, before we get started, if you're interested in consulting, management, my 2026 Google Ads course, my premium content, go to surfsidepc.com.
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Question 1:I have a campaign that performs well with phrase match keywords. We haven't tested broad match keywords, but we are looking for more conversion volume. Does it make sense to test broad match keywords at this point? And when should we avoid broad match keywords altogether?
Corey:Let's put in our question right now. Okay. So the question was, we've been using exact match and phrase match keywords and primarily phrase match keywords for the last several years. We want to expand our campaigns, we wanna get more leads, we wanna drive more volume. Does it make sense at this point to switch to broad match keywords?
Corey:So this is a really, really good question, and it's not an easy answer, but it's really when do you decide, should I try broad match keywords? If you go on Google Ads, they're basically gonna tell you launch your campaign with broad match keywords, maximize conversions, give a conversion signal, spend your money until Google figures out what works, and then it will just kind of work for itself. Anybody who's ran Google Ads campaigns knows that's not how it works whatsoever. So I do think that a campaign and account that has really good conversion data that is sending back qualified leads or at least higher quality leads and you don't have conversion actions kind of throwing off the data. I'll go into this in more detail.
Corey:I do think broad match keywords are almost gonna be like a necessity in a lot of accounts. It's becoming one of those things where I'm going back and forth on what the best way to target a keyword is. But if I'm, for example, trying to get people for Google Ads consulting, I can just tell you that targeting the broad match keyword, literally even just Google Ads consulting services is likely not going to perform that well. Like it's just not going to perform that well. It's gonna bring in a lot of informative searches and a lot of irrelevant clicks.
Corey:So here are my thoughts on it. If you have a very good performing campaign and you are hitting the volume you need to hit and your metrics look good, your cost per conversion is in an area where you want it to be, then I am less likely to try to add too many broad match keywords. I think broad match keywords are primarily for one, if you are looking for more of that volume. So if you do have good conversion data, give it a test. The best way to test it is not to go into Google and add every single phrase match keyword as a broad match keyword.
Corey:That is honestly the last thing you wanna do, and it's one of those things in the recommendations tab where, you know, you learn this the hard way sometimes, but you work with a Google rep, and you're talking to a client, and the Google rep's like, you know, you can just test broad match keywords in here. Drink more, let's give it a try. And then, you know, two weeks later you realize your lead quality is terrible. You're getting all sorts of irrelevant searches in. Your costs haven't really gone down and your cost per conversion is pretty similar with just lower lead quality.
Corey:So that's kind of what you always have to look out for when it comes to broad match keywords. Lower lead quality is something that I see at times and there's times where it works really well. So it's just one of those, you really have to test it and see what works well specific to your industry. What I would recommend doing is go to your keyword list, find your top five to 10 keywords, and it could even be your top three keywords, and just literally keep everything the same in your account, and just add in a few of those keywords as now broad match keywords in the existing ad groups that they're in. Main thing to keep in mind is you are now going to be expanding the search terms you're targeting.
Corey:You're gonna basically have a larger search term list. You're gonna get more irrelevant searches come in. So just one of those things like broad match keywords, if you've never targeted them, they can kind of throw your campaign off and make it all kind of go to crap. They can also be very effective in helping you find some additional leads. And in certain industries, they do work pretty well.
Corey:I have a client I work with that they are like a 10 location business. They do a specific type of home service. And we started with phrase match keywords. We got a bunch of conversion data in and our cost per conversion in this account is, let's just say around $60 So what we ended up doing is we said, let's add in, and this client wants to spend, they wanna be the biggest in the market, they want all the leads in the market, they have basically teams of people they need to keep busy, so they need to spend a lot of money on advertising, millions of dollars a year. So basically what they do is we put in broad match keywords and over the next thirty days, we just put together a really aggressive negative keyword strategy, got rid of a lot of the irrelevant search terms.
Corey:Now the thing is you just kind of have to make it a point to go in and add your negative keywords. This client it works for because they are an endless budget client. So Broadmatch keyword, and when people say there's no such thing as an endless budget, basically there are companies that are like, spend as much money as possible, and basically get me my return. That's kind of one of those things. It's like there are companies that I work with that are like, Hey, you can spend up to $20,000 this month.
Corey:If you spend $10,000 because that's what's gonna be more efficient and work better, great. Those clients are great because I have a communication working relationship with them, and we can test broad match keywords and, you know, spend a little bit more some months. But if you are with a client that, you know, things are tight and you're spending 2,000, 3,000 a month, things are working pretty well, I tend to stay away from broad match keywords in that case because I just don't find that the clicks are much cheaper. I just don't find that it's really something that's all that effective for me. So to me, match keywords are one of those things where if things are going well, I would kind of caution against it.
Corey:If you are in a position of we want more volume, we wanna spend more, we're willing to have more of a test budget, spend more on some of this, then it kind of makes more sense to me. So that's kind of my thought process on it. It's just you really need to make sure that you keep track of your search terms, but I do have current clients I'm working with where in one account we're using phrase match keywords, and for another account, different client, same industry, different location, we're using broad match keywords, and I do see success with it. So it's not something where it can't be successful. It's just that the thing I will always caution against with broad match keywords is it feels at times like Google uses broad match keywords to essentially put you in some of the lower quality inventory that they have rather than putting you in some of these long tail keyword searches that, you know, that you're kind of searching for.
Corey:You know, if you're if if it's something with a garage door repair, for example, yes, you could target phrase match keyword, garage door repair near me, garage door replacement near me, garage door installation near me, garage spring repair near me. You can make sure you target all those keywords locations near me. Ultimately, if you target the broad match versions of those, then you have a better chance of, you know, the person who's my garage door won't raise, what should I do? And, you know, your ad appears, you get a cheaper click for that specific keyword. Doesn't always work that way.
Corey:That's kind of the issue with Google Ads right now. It's especially on the home service side, it's just very, very expensive for clicks. Google is very smart at making every single search just very expensive for their advertisers, and I don't really see that shifting too much, but we are kind of in a scenario where I think home services, gonna hit a little bit of a, not a slowdown, but I just can't imagine that the ramp of spending that I see in certain markets with so many companies, I think you're gonna start seeing people trying to be a little bit more efficient now. So really, one of those things with broad match keywords. If things are going well, I generally caution against it.
Corey:If you're looking for more volume, add in a few broad match keywords. If you're ready to open the floodgates, add in your broad match, give it a week or two, give it a month, and over time, what you can do is start pausing all of your phrase match keywords and just go full broad match. The other thing I didn't really mention is AI Max here. We will talk about that separately. AI Max is still is still in beta, so I assume this is going to change.
Corey:And it's one of those things where today I might be telling you, yeah, I'm not really using AI Max all that much. And a year from today, I might be saying, yep, I kinda have to use AI Max because we really don't have a choice. I do think Google is going a little bit the way of meta ads, where you're kind of we're gonna have some really expensive clicks for these searches that we find very valuable, and then what we're gonna do is we're gonna try to use more audience targeting, long tail keyword targeting, people that are kind of in that informational stage and hopefully reach people in that process. So basically to answer the question today, when should I switch to broad match keywords? Basically, once you're either ready to spend more, do a little bit more testing, trying to go after a little bit more volume, but I would not do it in a very good performing campaign, especially something that took a while to make perform well, because I have seen campaign just absolutely be destroyed by broad match.
Corey:Do it as a two week test, see how the results look, look at your conversion quality, look at the search terms driving conversions, and just look at your overall results. So if you have any questions about any of this, obviously reach out to me, make sure you subscribe to the podcast, share, rate, review, anything you can do to help it will will help me make more episodes for you guys. And and then just make sure you go to surfsideppc.com for any premium content, courses, consulting, management. Thank you for listening, and I'll see you at episode five.
Introduction:Thanks for listening to the Surfside PPC Podcast. Podcast. Please go to surfsideppc.com for management or consulting options, or to get my course or join Surfside PPC Premium through my YouTube channel, my school page, or my Patreon. Please subscribe.
