Google’s different match types allow you to change the audience you reach with any search.  That means you also change how you measure costs per day and search volume.

Here’s a review of what each match type means and how an advertiser might set it up in their campaign.

Broad match

The total search volume for the keyword idea, synonyms and related words. Includes matches on at least one word of a 2 (or more) word-phrase.

Advertiser setting: Jet engine  (no special characters)

Matches could include jet engine models, jet stream, and engine parts.

Phrase match

Matches on all terms that include that whole phrase, with other words coming before or after it.

Advertiser setting: “Jet engine”

Matches could include jet engine models, find jet engine parts, jet engine specialists

Exact match

Matches must include keyword idea, exactly as written, and without any other words in the search term.

Advertiser setting: [Jet engines]

Matches are limited to jet engines. 

Also, consider Modified Broad Match

Modified Broad Match (Phasing out, summer 2021)

The matched results include similar variations of the word like misspellings and stemmings (like turning “buy” into “buyer” and “buying”).

Advertiser setting: +rent +cars

Could easily trigger “car rentals” and “rental car bargains” but not “house for rent.”

Note: Google has announced that it will phase out support for Modified Broad Match keywords starting in February 2021. Users can still create mbm ads through July 2021, but once it is fully phased out, these ads will behave like phrase match. Watch for duplicate keywords after that change.

Each keyword has its own cost-per-click depending on the match type. That means that the average CPC of all keywords coming from broad match will be different than the average CPC of all phrase-matched results.

The traffic volume we show is an estimation of the daily traffic that keyword gets (for that match type) on Google:

Local Searches (US)

Broad /Local Search Volume: Search volume reflects broad match-based searches for all queries on Google (averaged for one day) that came from within the United States*.

Phrase/ Local Search Volume: Search volume reflects phrase match-based searches for all queries on Google (averaged for one day) that came from within the United States*.

Exact /Local Search Volume:  Search volume reflects exact match-based searches for all queries on Google (averaged for one day) that came from within the United States*.

*If you are searching UK data on SpyFu, the local search volume reflects broad match-based searches for all queries on Google.co.uk (averaged for one day) that came from within the United Kingdom.

Global Searches

Broad Global Search Volume:  Search volume reflects broad match-based searches for all queries on Google (averaged for one day).

Exact Global Search Volume: Search volume reflects exact match-based searches for all queries on Google (averaged for one day).

Phrase Global Search Volume: Search volume reflects broad match-based searches for all queries on Google (averaged for one day).

Find out more about match types and local/global settings.