Broad match
Broad match shows your ad for searches related to your keyword's meaning, even without its words. Widest reach; it needs Smart Bidding and negatives.
In the platformSearch
Broad match
Broad match shows your ad for searches related to your keyword's meaning, even without its words. Widest reach; it needs Smart Bidding and negatives.
Google also uses signals such as the landing page and the other keywords in the ad group. Broad is the default when you add a keyword without quotes or brackets. With Smart Bidding and reliable conversion data, it can find profitable searches you wouldn't have listed. Without them, it can spend on loosely related traffic.
Where you'll see it
In Google Ads, keywords with no symbols under Campaigns > Audiences, keywords and content > Search keywords are broad match; the "Match type" column says "Broad match". To see what they matched, open Insights and reports > Search terms and filter by keyword. AI Max for Search campaigns extends matching further, and those searches are labeled separately in the same report.
Worked exampleThe keyword running shoes
It spends $2,000 a month on 1,000 clicks ($2.00 a click). 250 of those clicks came from searches like running shoe repair and running shoe size chart.
- Spend on those searches = 250 × $2.00 = $500
- Share of the keyword's spend = $500 ÷ $2,000 = 25%
Adding repair and size chart as negatives could free up to an estimated $500 a month, if similar searches continue.
Before you use broad match
- Use Smart Bidding, not Manual CPC or Maximize clicks; broad match needs the conversion signal.
- Make sure conversion tracking works and doesn't count low-value actions.
- Review the search terms report weekly in the first month.
- Add negatives. Broad match won't stay inside your product category on its own.