Google Ads matches – what is it?

When using Google Ads, sooner or later we always come across the term “keyword matching”. What is under this name? Well, each keyword in Google Ads can be added in three match types: exact, broad, and phrase match. Which option we choose depends on how widely the system will search for recipients to whom our ad should be displayed. Thus, Google Ads matching determines, in short, how exactly the password entered by the user in the search engine should match the one we added as a keyword. Depending on the selected match, the system may display the ad only to recipients who entered the same phrase, or also to recipients who specified their password with additional terms or entered a password only loosely related to the keyword. What meaning ranges do the individual matches cover?

Match types

Exact match – This is the most precise match of Google Ads. It reaches the narrowest group of recipients, but it allows you to maintain the greatest control over who our ad will be displayed to. By using this type of match, we only get to users who entered the exact same keyword or phrase with the same meaning (or differently – with the same search intention). When entering an exact match keyword, put it in square brackets, eg [men’s pajamas]. Then the advertisement will be displayed for this slogan and very similar slogans, such as pajamas for men, pajamas for men, etc.

Phrase match takes into account all searches as exact match, and also allows you to show your ad on terms where the keyword has been specified by the user. We’ll still show your ads only for searches that include our product or service, but it doesn’t have to be an exact repeat of the keyword. So this is a slightly more casual match type, but still allows you to keep a relatively large amount of control over how your budget is spent. We mark phrase match by placing the keyword in quotation marks. If we enter, for example, the word “women’s boots”, the ad will also be visible on more specific inquiries, e.g. black women’s ankle boots, comfortable high-heeled women’s boots, etc.

Broad match allows your ad to appear also on queries that are very loosely related to the selected keyword. Thanks to this, on the one hand, we reach a very wide audience, and on the other hand, we have little control over the contexts in which the system shows our advertisements. Broad match doesn’t have any special characters, so when you type just a keyword into the system, no additional characters, it defaults to that type of match. If you enter, for example, low-sugar diet as a keyword, your ad may also show results such as: low-carbohydrate recipes or low-sugar books.

How to use broad match wisely?

Does this mean that by using broad match, we are wasting resources on users who will not buy our product anyway? Not necessarily. Showing your ads to audiences who are not yet ready to buy is part of guiding them through the buying funnel. So, if your ad is shown to users who are not yet looking for our product, but are interested in a given topic, it may later lead to conversion.

However, to make sure your budget is used optimally, it’s a good idea to use Smart Bidding for each Google Ads match type – and broad match in particular. Thanks to this solution, the system will decide what chance for conversion is given by a specific recipient, and thus how high the rate should be determined in a given case. Considering how much he knows about the users, one can be sure that his forecasts regarding the effectiveness of activities will most often be characterized by high accuracy. What does Google Ads take into account when searching for audiences? Among other things, it may be influenced by the user’s last searches, the content of the page to which the ad leads, or other keywords from a given ad group.

Additionally, in each match type, we can narrow down the search context by introducing the so-called negative keywords. Excluding certain words will result in the ad not being displayed if the user includes these words in the keyword entered into the search engine. This feature allows us to gain a bit more control over the ad and prevent it from showing in contexts that we deem unprofitable.

Which type of approximation is best to use?

There is no clear answer to this question. Exact matching allows you to keep a lot of control over your expenses, but on the other hand, it narrows the field of activity and may deprive you of valuable recipients. Phrase match gives you more freedom and broadens the audience, but still ads are displayed only on terms strongly related to a given product or service. Broad match, in turn, carries a potentially high risk of reaching uninterested recipients. On the other hand, we can reach completely new groups of recipients and learn new keywords that are highly effective for our brand. So let’s just use keywords tailored to the specific goal that we want to achieve thanks to a given campaign.

Positioning the website

Our client’s company has been operating for over twenty years, providing high-quality furniture throughout Europe. Nevertheless, when we started SEO in December 2020, its online visibility was very low. The website did not appear on any phrase, neither in TOP3 nor in TOP10 of search results, i.e. it was never visible on the first page in Google for phrases related to the industry. What’s more – it appeared only for one phrase in the TOP50, which almost completely limited the organic traffic on the site.

Top phrases in December 2020
Therefore, it was necessary to take both on-site activities, i.e. within the website itself, and off-site activities – consisting in acquiring high-quality external links. We started out by optimizing the site technically to improve loading times and usability for the user. We also focused on adding meta elements, important for the website evalsuation by search engine robots. However, these changes were only the beginning. Together with the client, we also decided to implement a blog with tips on the website, and saturate each entry with key phrases best suited to the store’s offer. In addition, we strengthened the website by acquiring links on external websites leading to the client’s website.

Thanks to these actions, after six months we can see a significant improvement in the visibility of the website – we currently have 5 phrases in TOP3 of search results and 25 phrases in TOP10, i.e. on the first page. Naturally, the TOP50 saw the greatest progress – here we have already introduced over 500 phrases and we are constantly fighting for their even better positions.

Top phrases in June 2021
It is worth remembering that indexing pages by search engine algorithms is a time-consuming process, and it is sometimes even a dozen or so months for Google robots to be “recognized”. So this is just the beginning of the SEO road, and even better results can be expected in the coming months.

In a short time, however, you can achieve a significant increase in traffic and conversion thanks to Google Ads. Let us compare the results of our client’s campaign from 3 months ago with those achieved now.

In the period from February 16 to March 16, the ads generated over 21,700 clicks. In the period May 16 – June 14, this number dropped by approximately 1,500 clicks. However, does this mean a decrease in the effectiveness of the campaign? On the contrary. Clicks themselves do not bring the customer tangible profits – they only mean that the user has entered his website. In the process of optimizing ads, we try to limit accidental, empty clicks from recipients who are not really interested in the offer and do not plan to make a purchase. Choosing the right target group may therefore slightly reduce the number of clicks, but this does not translate into a reduction in profits.

The number and cost of the conversion

During the three months of campaigning, the number of conversions doubled – there were 319 of them at the turn of February and March, and now their number is 663 per month. At the same time, however, the cost of acquiring one conversion decreased by over 50%, which means that at the price you had to pay three months ago to acquire one customer, you can now acquire two.

How it’s possible? The answer is simple. The longer the campaign runs and the more data our specialists and bid optimization systems have to analyze, the more effective your ads can be. We constantly monitor when there is the greatest chance of conversion, what devices are used by users who most often show interest in the offer, where are the people who convert and many other factors. On this basis, we can predict which actions will bring the best effect and optimize the rates per click to achieve the campaign’s goal at the lowest possible cost.

What profits did the campaign bring?

Together with the client, we agreed that we would stick to the chosen budget for the campaign – for 3 months it increased by only 2.6%. With almost the same budget, revenues increased by more than 56%, i.e. about 88,500.

So how has the return on investment changed? At the turn of February and March, each euro spent on campaigns brought the client about EUR 14.50 in revenue, which is a very good result anyway. Now, however, EUR 22 in costs corresponds to EUR 22 in revenue, an increase of 50%.

Channel bonding = more profits

By combining a Google Ads advertising campaign with positioning, you can significantly increase not only brand visibility and recognition, but also real profits in a relatively short time – this applies to both online stores and service industries. Can we promise that the profits for each company will be on a similar level? Of course not. Marketing campaigns on the Internet are governed by too many variables to take anything for granted, and we focus on honesty and transparency in contact with the client. Instead of empty promises, however, we offer experience, knowledge and commitment, and this in many cases, with good cooperation with the client, brings even higher profits than expected.

The system is very simple and works in such a way that both the advertiser and the page on which the ads are placed profit from it. The advertiser gets access to a huge number of potential customers, while the partner website earns money by providing advertising space – depending on business decisions and design, it can be a small panel (or panels) or large frames obscuring the content of the page.

Importantly, banners on Google Display Network can only be displayed to specific people thanks to targeting and remarketing. This means that a given user will receive a different message (a different banner will be displayed) than the other person entering the portal, based on their previous behavior on the Web, the history of entered search terms and websites visited. This guarantees a better match, and thus – campaign results than in the case of static banners displayed in the same form to all Internet users visiting a given portal.

However, even perfect use of the targeting possibilities offered by Google Display Network will not be sufficient if the displayed Google Ads banners are not well designed and visually attractive. After all, their task is to encourage recipients to click. The right banner design has a huge impact on the effectiveness of the campaign and achieving a high CTR (click through rate).

Google’s guidelines for banner attributes are simple and fairly straightforward. The advertisement must refer directly to the offer being promoted (without “smuggling” other companies or products), and it must not:
– contain low-quality images (too heavily compressed or unreadable for other reasons);
– mislead the user (contain false information, e.g. warnings about an imaginary virus to increase click-through rates);
– promote pornographic or erotic content (the Internet is also used by minors).

You can see the dimensions of the banners in Google Display Network in a separate article on our blog.

How to design Google Ads banners?

There is no universal way to create a banner that will guarantee excellent campaign results. However, when designing, you can take into account good design practices, thanks to which banners will have a very good chance of achieving the desired CTR.

Google Ads banners typically consist of:
– product photos (packshot) and / or photos illustrating the offer (from a dedicated photo session or from the stock portal);
– brand logo;
– optional advertising slogan;
– call to action (CTA).

Packshot photo

The packshot photo focuses on the product. Making a good packshot is not easy – you need to take into account, among others:
– Perspective – the product must be presented in such a way as to present it – as far as possible – in all its glory, and at the same time at the right angle that will emphasize its advantages and most important functions. When promoting, for example, a stroller for a child, it is better to show it not directly from the front, but slightly at an angle, thanks to which, apart from the seat, we will also show other elements – handles for the parent or rear wheels.
– Background – as a rule, a packshot photo has no background, which of course does not mean that the banner cannot be “applied” to the selected background. The process of removing the background from the original photo is called scratching, and it is quite important – poorly done, ie leaving fragments of the “old” version at the edges, will reduce the visual quality of the packshot. Some companies also choose to include a shadow cast by the product on their packshots – this is one option to consider.
– Lighting – products present differently depending on the intensity of light – the same plastic housing can look low or high quality. Poorly selected lighting will highlight the flaws of the product, harming sales. Of course, a lot can be “fixed” with post-production, but it takes time, costs and the involvement of a retoucher.

Illustrative photo

An image that shows the context of our offer in a more or less obvious way. A travel agency may decide to visualize a paradise beach or a luxurious spa center, and the rally track will probably present a dynamic visualization of a speeding car. How many companies and industries, so many possibilities.

In the case of, for example, expert services or recruitment offers, it is worth using a real photo of a person working in the advertised company, best dealing with a given topic – it builds credibility and a professional image. Another option is to use an external photo of a person who inspires confidence and encourages you to click.

Images from the stock photo (stock) can be downloaded from paid sites, such as Adobe Stock or Shutterstock. However, there are many portals with a huge number of free images available – Pexels, Pixabay, Unsplash and a few more. The graphics can be freely edited (if the license allows it) and adjusted to our own needs.

Brand logo

If the size of the banner allows it, it’s a good idea to put your brand logo on it. The display of the logo builds recognition, and in the case of premium brands it significantly increases the CTR. However, it is worth remembering that the logo should usually be just one of the elements, not the central, dominant point of the banner. There is also no need to force it if it would disrupt the entire composition or violate the protective field described in the visual identity of the brand.

Call to action (CTA)

The banner presents the offer in a visually attractive form, but the CTA is the factor that “finalizes” the click. A call to action is a text that encourages you to take an action, which should be as short and simple as possible on the one hand, and explaining on the other what benefits the user will receive after completing the conversion. The most popular phrases in CTA are, for example, “buy now” (sales offer), “download a free guide” (encouragement to read) or “join us” (job advertisement) – but you can get a little more creative, depending on your what we offer and how we want to communicate it.

The text, however, is not the only element – the CTA should usually be separated from the rest of the banner, e.g. placed on a background of a different color than the rest of the creative.

The most common mistakes when creating Google Ads banners

– Excess– it often happens that advertisers want to present their offer in an extensive form and list all the advantages of a given product or service or put several photos. The time for that will come after clicking, when the customer will go to the landing page. The purpose of the banner is to encourage conversion by presenting the strongest point (or possibly the points) in an abbreviated form. In the vast majority of cases, less is more, and the empty space (the so-called whitespace) is an integral part of a well-designed banner.
– Ignoring visual identification – consistency is one of the keys to creating a recognizable, reliable brand. If a given brand has been using a specific color combination for years, you can – if the brand book allows it – make subtle modifications, but a complete change of the color palette, in isolation from the developed identification, will cause dissonance in the customer. This does not mean that the campaign will fail, but it is a short-term action that may prove harmful in the long run.
– Clickbait – the content placed on the banner – both graphic and text – must be related to the offer. The Google Display Network system will not allow the advertisement to be clearly incompatible with its message, but the devil is in the details. A clique-oriented campaign, in which you unethically “overdo” the presentation of the offer in relation to its real value, will probably have an excellent CTR, but in the end the customer will not make many final conversions, and will also become alienated from the brand.

Display advertising – what is it?

Display ads are promotional content that has a graphic form and appears not in the search engine itself, but on specific websites. Every Internet user contacts them almost non-stop, every time they visit the web. Where are they visible? Virtually everywhere. Display ads include banners that appear next to the body of the page or at the top of your website, or between paragraphs of articles you are reading. Display is also pop-ups, i.e. pop-ups, interstitial ads and ads that appear in the background behind the website content.

Most often we use the term display advertising in the case of google campaigns, i.e. those displayed on the Google Display Network. This extensive structure has about 2 million websites, and its reach covers the lion’s share of all active Internet users around the world. GDN has news portals, blogs, video platforms and lifestyle websites. Thanks to this, the display format works for almost every industry, regardless of the preferred group of recipients.

What are display ads made of?

Most often, this type of sales messages contain an image and a small amount of text, although there are display ads that are based solely on the word – then these are small, white squares with a slogan and a button containing a CTA. As a rule, however, advertisers try to use the full potential of the display format and create image-based messages that attract the attention of recipients much more effectively.

To create such a campaign, it is not necessary to have professional graphics made by a specialist. The Google Ads system has a library of free photos that advertisers can use to build their messages. However, if we have such an opportunity, it is worth using a unique design – then on the banner we can place, for example, products from our online store, photos of specialists working in the company, photos from the premises, etc. Such materials inspire much greater trust of recipients and build a stronger relationship with the brand.

Display advertising – on which pages is it visible?

As already mentioned, display ads are served on sites belonging to the 2 million pages of Google’s partner network. This does not mean, however, that our ad will be displayed in random corners of the Internet. The advertiser can control where banners are published by choosing the targeting types. For example, we can only target websites with a specific topic, selected from a wide thematic list. It includes categories such as home and garden, games, travel, sports, cars and vehicles and many, many more. By choosing this type of targeting, you can be sure that your ad will not appear in relation to completely random topics.

However, we can also put emphasis on recipients and set the campaign so that it appears to users who have interests that meet our needs or have recently searched for products from a specific category. Then the ads will be able to be displayed on websites unrelated to them, but only to those recipients who may be interested in what they present.

Display ads are also great for remarketing. With their help, we can “pursue” recipients who have already interacted with our website and display them various types of ads, including dynamic ones, showing the products they have previously viewed on the website.

Display ad types

Among display ads, there are several formats that focus on different marketing goals. We find among them such types of advertising as:

Traditional display ads
In this case, we send the finished product to the Google Ads system in the form of a banner designed in such a way that it always displays exactly the same. Most often it consists of a background or a photo, an advertising slogan and a company logo. It may contain additional information, for example about a promotion, discount or other special offer. We send such advertisements to the system in .jpg, .png or .gif format. An alternative to them are banners created in HTML5, which are mobiles and interactive, and therefore extremely interesting for the recipients. (The uploaded files must have dimensions that meet the Google Ads requirements – the system allows banners in many sizes, so it is not a limitation for advertisers).

Responsive display ads
Responsive ads work in a slightly different way. In this type of message, we upload to the Google Ads system only individual elements of the banners: separately the logo, at least one image and several versions of the text. Then the system analyzes the sent materials and combines them in various ways, testing individual versions of the message. The type of advertising seen by a given recipient is determined by artificial intelligence, guided by the likely preferences of this user (based on his previous behavior on the Internet). Thanks to this format, we do not have to use ready-made graphic solutions, and in addition, we have a message that is as closely as possible to the needs of the target group.

Standard remarketing ads
Such banners are created for users who have already visited the site, perhaps even performed some action – for example, they put the product into the basket – but did not convert. In this case, we also send the ready material to the system, but with a slightly different message – here it is no longer about familiarizing the recipient with the brand and its offer, but about encouraging them to return to the website and finalize the transaction.

Dynamic remarketing ads
Here, as in the case of responsive ads, users are shown sales messages whose components are selected by self-learning algorithms. The difference, however, is that in this case the recipient gets an advertisement showing exactly the products / services that they previously viewed on the website.

Lightbox ads
This type of ad is a banner that, when hovered over with the mouse (or touched with a finger on mobiles devices), expands and presents the user with a video or a set of images. It can expand to the full width of the screen or only to a slightly larger window. This format is designed to maximize audience engagement.

The advantages of display advertising in Google Ads

Display advertising is a useful tool for any marketer who invests in Google Ads campaigns. Its biggest advantages are:

Huge range
Due to the fact that the google network covers such a wide range of portals from various industries, it is difficult to find a better way to advertise your offer than using the opportunities offered by display advertising. The total reach of the sites that belong to it covers over 90% of all users of the global network, so we can be sure that the ideal target audience for our product will be among its audience.

Increasing brand awareness
Keyword-targeted text ads are great for people who are already looking for a specific product, but don’t have a significant impact on brand recognition. Display ads, in turn, allow the user to remember the name of the company and its logo, build the first associations with the brand and shape its image in the eyes of recipients.

Many targeting options
The target group can be selected very precisely in display ads. In the targeting options, we can determine the corresponding demographic data, interests of recipients or their behavior on the Internet. Contextual targeting is also available, i.e. placing ads only in the vicinity of content corresponding to them thematically, which increases the chance that the campaigns will be successful.

Visual attractiveness
The image catches the eye more effectively the text itself and gives much greater possibilities of influencing the recipient. Interesting graphics combined with a properly selected CTA give a great opportunity to gain the attention of the recipient.

Effects easy to measure
We can monitor the effect of the advertisement we have created on an ongoing basis. Statistics from Google Analytics allow us to see the ratio of the number of impressions to conversion, which gives us a picture of how attractive the ad is to our target group. This way, it is much easier to track the results than when we decide, for example, for traditional banners on the streets of the city.