Google Ads Updates to Phrase and Broad Match Modified Keywords
Google Ads just announced a change to phrase and broad match modified (BMM) keywords. As a top digital marketing agency and one of Google’s Premier Agency Partners, we wanted to break this down for you to help you understand what this change means for advertisers.
Essentially, Google Ads is going to be phasing out broad match modified keywords, with plans to completely phase them out by July 2021. Phrase match keywords will take the place of broad match modified keywords. In other words, phrase match keywords are going to begin to cover many additional similar phrases. You should expect to see an increase in impressions for your phrase match keywords and fewer impressions for your broad match modified keywords starting now.
However, Google says you can still use broad match modified keywords in your account after July 2021. So how should you make changes to your account to ensure your campaign perform well?
What To Do About This Change
We recommend working your way out of broad matches but keeping (or creating) BMMs of only your top keywords. You should also have phrase match of these keywords. Then, you should take all the other BMMs that you have in your account that have earned impressions and clicks and create phrase match keywords out of these. This way once the change goes into effect you can see if there is a performance difference between the BMM and the new Phrase Match usage.
It will also be even more important to regularly review the search terms report and filter out any erroneous searches via negative keyword lists.
In summary, be aware of the following:
- Google Ads is going to be phasing out broad match modified keywords by July 2021
- Expect to see an increase in impressions for your phrase match keywords
- Start making changes to your keywords now to align with this change
- Monitor the performance difference between BMMs and the new phrase match usage
- Regularly review the search terms report and implement negative keywords as necessary
By eliminating BMM keywords, Google Ads is removing one more tool advertisers use to tailor traffic and understand the search landscape. However, with a knowledgeable paid search management team looking after your account, this change should have a minimal impact on the overall performance of your search campaigns.
Need help managing your Google Ads campaigns? Contact us today. We are a PPC management and paid media agency with core expertise in search marketing, Facebook advertising and online advertising.