In Google Ads you don't bid on searches directly; you bid on keywords, and the match type decides how closely a person's search must match your keyword for your ad to show. It's the single setting with the biggest effect on whether a small budget is spent wisely.

Key takeaways from this guide

The three match types

The old "broad match modifier" (+ac +repair) was retired in 2021, with its behaviour folded into phrase match.

Close variants

All match types include close variants: misspellings, singular and plural forms, abbreviations, and words with the same meaning. "AC repair" and "air conditioner repair" may be treated as the same. That's convenient, but it's also why exact match today is less exact than its name suggests.

Which to use

Broad match

Reaches the most searches and works best with smart bidding and plenty of conversion data, because Google uses signals beyond the keyword to decide relevance. On a small budget without good conversion tracking, broad match can spend money on loosely related searches very quickly.

Phrase match

A good default for small businesses: it captures useful variations ("in [area]", "cost", "best") while staying on topic.

Exact match

Most control and usually the highest relevance. Use it for your proven, highest-value searches. Volume is lower, so you may need several exact keywords to cover the main phrasings.

Negative keywords: the other half of the job

Negative keywords stop your ad showing for searches containing them. For an AC repair business:

• Jobs: job, vacancy, salary, course, training
• DIY: how to, yourself, diy, video
• Wrong products: car ac, ac remote, ac price (if you don't sell units)
• Wrong locations: cities you don't serve
• Free: free, online course

Negatives also have match types, and they don't include close variants, so add plurals and common misspellings separately.

The weekly search terms routine

In Google Ads, the Search terms report shows the actual searches that triggered your ads. Every week for the first month (then monthly):

1. Sort by cost.
2. Add irrelevant terms as negatives.
3. Add good, converting terms as phrase or exact keywords.
4. Note phrases worth targeting with SEO pages too; see SEO vs Google Ads for why this data is valuable.

Writing keywords in all match types quickly

Our keyword match type generator takes a list of keywords and outputs them in broad, "phrase" and [exact] format, ready to paste into Google Ads. The keyword combiner helps build lists of services combined with locations or modifiers.

A starter setup for a small local business

• One campaign per main service, location targeting set to your service area.
• Phrase and exact match versions of 10–20 keywords per service.
• A shared negative keyword list (jobs, DIY, free, wrong locations).
• Conversion tracking for calls and form submissions before increasing budget.
• Consider broad match only once you have steady conversion data.

An example week of search terms

Here's the kind of thing a search terms report shows for a phrase match keyword "ac repair service" in Bangalore, and what to do with each row:

Ten minutes a week on this report is what separates accounts that waste half their budget from accounts that don't.

Common mistakes

• Only broad match keywords on a small budget, with no negatives.
• Never opening the search terms report.
• The same keyword in several ad groups competing with itself.
• No conversion tracking, so smart bidding has nothing to learn from.

Match types are the foundation of a lean Google Ads account. Get them and your negatives right, and even a modest daily budget can bring steady, relevant leads.