Understanding Pay-Per-Click Match Types for Your HVAC Business

In the HVAC industry, digital marketing can get quite complicated. An often overlooked yet highly essential and necessary skill for running a successful HVAC Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign is understanding keyword match types. By properly utilizing keyword match types, you’re able to control how search terms are matched with your HVAC industry specific keywords and how they trigger your ads.

How To Use PPC Match Types For Your HVAC Business

Ranging from narrow to broad there are several different match types that are used for paid search campaigns. Those match types are broad match, broad match modified, phrase match, exact match, and negative match.

Match Type	Special Symbol	Example Keyword	Ads May Show on Searches That	Example Searches
Broad Match	None	air conditioner tune up	includes misspellings, synonyms, related searches, and other relevant variations.	schedule ac tune up
Modified Broad Match	+keyword	+air +conditioner +tune +up	contain the modified term (or closer variations, but not synonyms), in any order.	air conditioner tune up online coupons
Phrase Match	“keyword”	“air conditioner tune up”	is a phrase and close variation of that phrase	when should i schedule an air conditioner tune up
Exact Match	[keyword]	[air conditioner tune up]	is an exact term and close variation of that exact term	air conditioner tune up
Negative Match	-keyword	-car	ensures your ad doesn’t show for any search that includes that term	air conditioner tune up for cars

Broad Match Type

Broad match is the most common match type that all keywords are placed under. With broad match, search engines such as Google and Bing may display your ad on searches that include misspellings, synonyms, singular or plural forms of the keyword, and other variations. Broad match will closely match your keyword with the broadest possible search. Keep in mind that by using broad match, the search engine determines what is relevant. You can easily spend your PPC budget too quickly by returning irrelevant keyword variations. Broad match keywords can help you reach a wider audience. For example, the broad match keyword computer hard drive can cause your ad to show if someone searches for variations such as computer hard drives, where to buy a hard drive for a computer, and hard drive reviews for computers.

Modified Broad Match Type

Modified broad match keywords assist in controlling when your ad appears for closely related keywords. Modified broad match keywords can help you obtain a higher clickthrough rate (CTR) with a more targeted audience, which would also help your HVAC website get more customers. To use the modified broad match, you would need to add a “+” symbol in front of the word that mostly defines your product or service. The keyword would appear in the user’s search in any order. You have greater control of the search because your ad will not be triggered by synonyms and other related searches.

Phrase Match Type

Phrase matches allow a keyword to trigger your ad only when someone searches for your exact keyword phrase or close variations of the phrase. For example, when you add “repair a hard drive” as a phrase match keyword, you are telling AdWords to try to show your ad only when someone’s search includes “repair a hard drive” or close variations of “repair a hard drive” such as “how to repair a hard drive” or “how to repair a hard drive.” Your ad can appear in search engine results when a person searches your keyword phrase in the correct order, but can still display for searches that include additional words. This would look like “how to repair an apple hard drive” To use the phrase match type, you place quotation marks before and after your keyword phrase.

Exact Match Type

By using exact match, your ad can be shown to potential customers that are searching for your exact keyword, or close variations of the exact keyword. Exact match gives you the most control over who sees your ad, and can result in higher clickthrough rates and higher conversions. The exact match type sets strict limits on when your ad will be displayed. Giving you the lowest reach but the highest relevance, your ad will only show to those that are searching for your exact keyword. This highly targeted match type generates the highest chance of conversions without generating as many impressions as the other match types.

What Is The Most Important Keyword Match Type?

Negative Match Type

The negative match type excludes ads from showing on searches for that specific term. This is an important match type because it helps eliminate unnecessary clicks and cut down on total ad spend. So in other words, being a HVAC company that doesn’t repair air conditioners for cars, you could add a negative keyword, designated with a minus sign (air conditioner repair for -cars).

Choose Your Negative Keywords Wisely.

If you use too many negative keywords, your ads might reach fewer customers. The ad might still show on searches that contain close variations of your negative keyword terms. Negative keyword phrases can only be 10 words or fewer. The ad may show when someone searches for a phrase that’s longer than 10 words, and your negative keyword follows that 10th word.

Monitor Your Search Terms

You can see if the campaigns are matching up correctly. To do this, you must refer to the search query report to see how your ad performed when triggered by an actual search. Here you can see the search term, exact word, or set of words a person entered when performing a search on Google. Use the terms in this report to learn more about how your customers search for you both in terms and intent to help craft your online marketing strategies. Then use the report to generate negative keywords lists for search terms results on which you don’t want your ads to show.

Tags: HVAC Marketing