January 17th, 2010 | 
Author: I know there is too much confusion regarding match types and it took me a while to get it right. I have Stompernet to thank for this in detail information that I am presenting below.
Stompernet published this information in their 2nd issue of their montly Net Effect magazine to which I subscribe to. FYI, you can get a 30 day trial (= the first issue) and a DVD of the famous Stomping The Search Engines Course to your mail for just $1. It always contains top notch insider info on SEO and SEM.
Anyway, here is a table below that will hopefully help you put things in order with all the match types out there.
Edit: And don’t forget to read my latest post on how to use these match types right in your campaigns and save some cash in the process:) Click on the link to learn how to use the verious keyword match types to save some serious money and increase your ROI.
| Search Engine | Match Type | Description |
| Google Adwords | Exact Match | Matches the exact text entered. Your ads would NOT show up you bid on [credit reports] a user types credit report (singular). |
| MS AdCenter | Exact Match | In general, same as G’s exact match with two exceptions: 1. They do not ignore apostrophes, whereas at adwords words with apostrophes are considered the same as with no apostrophe. 2. Bing ignores words such as a, the, an etc |
| Yahoo SM | Standard Match | Yahoo also includes singulars, plurals, common typos and alternative spellings into the same variation. |
| Google Adwords | Phrase Match | Will show ads when prospects type any phrase that includes the phrase you are bidding on. For example, if you bid on “doll house” your ad will appear if prospects type Barbie doll house, but not if they type house for barbie doll. |
| MS AdCenter | Phrase Match | Same as G’s phrase match |
| Yahoo SM | N/A | Yahoo does not offer phrase match |
| MS AdCenter | Broad Match | Will match any query that includes all of your words. They will not always match plural with singular and vice versa, but they sometimes do some discrete synonym matching. |
| Yahoo SM | Advanced Search | Like G, they will match any search query that includes all of the words, including synonyms and spelling variations. |
| Google Adwords | Broad Match | Google goes one step beyond Bing and Yahoo in broad match and their system will match any query that they think is relevant to the query, making this traffic very untargeted in some cases. |
| Google Adwords | Negative Match | This feature allows you to match keywords that when queried, you do not want your ad to appear. This allows you to avoid showing your add to people looking for “Free ringtones” when you only bid on “ringtones” by setting a negative match for -free. |
| MS AdCenter | Negative Match | Same as above |
| Yahoo SM | Excluded words | Same as above |
| Google Adwords | Embedded Match | This is a match type that most people have never heard of. It is kind of negative match that will allow you to exclude exact and phrase matches. |
| Google Adwords | Automatic Match | A feature Google introduced last year, which extends the current broad match to beyond imagination. A query on “Ferrari cars” could theoretically trigger ads on “Luxury cars”. |
Posted in Adwords and other PPC providers
Very interesting
thanks for the comprehensive table I’ve been looking for a Bing mathing options description
Adwords is a really great tool for promoting your website, forum or affiliate link. the ppc cost of adwords is even cheaper than Friendster or Facebook. before, i used to advertise on facebook but the ROI is so low. Adwords gives me a much better ROI compared to Facebook ads.
You know, Facebook ads can give you a much better ROI if you know how to target your demographics right.
In adwords when you are choosing keywords and writing ads, you have to think “What is my prospect currently thinking?”, whereas in facebook you have to think “Who is my prospect and what does he want”
In facebook you can target demographics so well that no other advertising platform can match it. For example you can target women golf players between the age of 30-35 in Dallas, and only those women will see it. No other platform can do that and if you can leverage this power I bet you can get a way better ROI than adwords, YSM or adcenter
I use both Bing and Google search engine and i dont see much difference in their search results. I use google for searching hard to find academic topics and Bing for general search.