Phrase Match or Exact

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Search keywords.h Type column and ensure it says Match next to every keyword in your branded search campaign. Even if you think you used the right match type, it’s easy to accidentally leave off a quotation mark or bracket, leaving you with unintentional broad match keywords. branded keywords - keyword match type column screenshot in Google Ads  Use this free guide to find more ways to hack Google Ads for better performance. . You’re not adding negatives Unfortunately, just because you have the right match types, it doesn’t mean you’re only advertising on your branded queries.
  
Over the last year, Google has gotten much more liberal with its definition of a “close variant” match—so wedding photo editing service  liberal, in fact, that I’ve heard reports of Google Ads matching competitor names to brand names, even when using phrase or exact match. Let’s say that you’re using the keyword “joe’s awesome business” and Sara’s Fabulous Shop is down the street, selling similar products. Google might match a search for “sara’s fabulous shop” to your “joe’s awesome business” keyword, even though we can all agree that this would not fit our definition of a matching phrase.



If Google’s algorithm understands the similarity between these two competitors, it will treat them as synonyms, turning your branded search campaign into a competitor search campaign! And, of course, CPCs on competitor keywords are always quite high due to low Quality Score, and potentially high competition. How to know if you’re not adding negatives In Google Ads, go to Keywords, then click on Negative keywords to see if any negatives have been added to your branded search campaign. Whether they have or not, you’ll want to go to Keywords, then.