Targeted Advertising

Google AdWords is one of the most well-known pay-per-click platforms. This platform offers various forms of targeting to reach your audience in the most effective way. The keywords used play a very important role to reach your target audience. A user searching for something in a search engine will see advertisements that are relevant to the user search query. The AdWords platform offers different types of keyword match types so the set of keywords you are targeting can be matched to the user search query. Based on the use of the keyword match types it is possible to target specific searches or a much wider audience. In fact there are four main match types. These are: broad, phrase, exact and negative match type.

Broad Match Type

This type of keyword targets a broader and wider audience. Using a broad keyword such as "blue widgets" will make your advertisement appear for searches that contain "blue" or "widgets" for instance "blue widgets", "green widgets", "cheap widgets", "cheap blue widgets", "blue watercolour" and so on. This type of match type can make your advertisements show for irrelevant topics, so it should be used carefully.

Phrase Match Type

Phrase match starts to restrict the keyword by allowing only the advertisements to appear for a specific phrase. For instance, if your keywords are "blue widgets" the advertisement can appear for searches containing "blue widgets" such as "best blue widgets", "luxury blue widgets, "blue widgets supplies" and so on. As you can see the phrase "blue widgets" must always appear in that specific order for your advertisement to be eligible.

Exact Match Type

Exact match types are the most specific keyword match types for the AdWords platform. These type of keywords can target an identical search such as "blue widgets" with no variations.

Negative Match Type

Negative keywords are used to prevent the advertisement from appearing for certain searches. For instance, "cheap" set as a negative keyword would not make the advertisement eligible for "cheap blue widgets".

The AdWords platform apart from offering keyword matching options also provides other targeting options such as country and language targeting. Combined together all of the targeting features present an effective advertising tool which targets the required audience.

Conrad Bugeja is a Search Engine Optimisation Consultant and Pay-Per-Click Consultant at Alert eBusiness Internet Marketing Division - www.alertemarketing.com