Reply To: What keyword match types are you actually using for Search Ads right now?

[QuantumWolf99]

Broad match with smart bidding outperforms phrase in almost every client account I manage now… but only when you have offline conversion tracking feeding closed deals back into Google. Without that, broad match just burns budget on curiosity traffic.

I run dual campaigns for lead gen clients… broad match for discovery at 60% budget, phrase match for proven converters at 40%. This lets the algorithm explore while protecting baseline performance.

Phrase-only strategies miss too much qualified search volume in 2025 because Google’s query matching has evolved past exact keyword dependency.