Google Broad Match Modifier Keywords – SCRAPPED!

Google recently made an announcement whereby they’re going to be scrapping broad match modifier keywords. That’s right BMM keywords are going to be a thing of the past very shortly.

To find out more check out my video below or keep reading for the full blog.

Now, using keywords is one of the most powerful ways to target your potential audiences. So why are Google going to scrap this? Let’s have a quick recap of the match types in the first place that we’ve currently got.

Broad Match

We’ve got broad match, broad match modifiers, phrase match, and we’ve got exact match. Let’s start off with broad match first. With broad match, these cover keywords whereby they cater for misspellings, synonyms, related searches, or other variants of that keyword. For example, if somebody searches for football kit, it could also trigger a search for football sportswear.

Broad Match Modifiers

We then have broad match modifiers and with broad match modifiers, we simply put a plus symbol before each of the keywords. Now what that says to Google is that each one of these keywords must be contained within whatever the user is searching for, in any order, and they can be any words, before it or after it. It does also cater for close variations of each keyword. For example, if you’ve got the words plus football plus kit, then you could trigger a search for when someone’s typing in men’s football kits or football kits for men.

Phrase Match

We then have phrase match with phrase match. The keywords are denoted by putting double quotes around the key phrase. If you’ve got a football kit, for example, you put double quotes around the phrase football kit. Now what that means is that there can be a word before the word football kit or afterward football kit. But the word football kit must appear in that particular order. With phrase match, we also cater for close variants of that keyword to as well as singular and plural keywords.

Exact Match

We then have exact match. Now with exact match, Google will only deliver results whereby the user has typed in football kits without any leading or trailing words before or after. However, it does also cater for close variations. Moving forward, broad match modifier keywords and phrase match keywords are going to be having the same match behaviour. In other words, if you’ve got a keyword for driveway cleaning near me, that could potentially trigger a search for local driveway cleaning services. So, we’re not using exactly the same keywords but as far as Google is concerned, the intent of the keyword is exactly the same. Therefore, your results will be returned to you though you typed in driveway cleaning services near me.

In a nutshell, close variants will now include words with the same meaning or the same intent or a similar intent. When is this change going to be rolled out? Well, as of February 2021, the change has already started being rolled out. If you’ve got broad match modifier keywords, they’re already being treated the same as phrase match. As of July 2021, broad match modifier keywords will be visually scrapped. You’ve got that period of time to start making your transitions and start looking at your account with a view to making the changes by July 2020, even though I’d recommend you start on that process right away.

Why are Google making these changes in the first place? Well, Google are claiming that what they’re trying to do is make it simpler for us to market our keywords for our business. We shouldn’t need to have four different match types and create an exhaustive list of keywords. I don’t know, do I really agree with it? I don’t think so. Is it more of a strategy to push people more towards smart bidding and automation? That’s what I think the reality really is. But who knows and time will tell? What actions must you take? First of all, don’t panic because you have got until July 2021 to get all these changes implemented. Keep an eye on your search terms. Pay more attention of what searches are now being triggered, especially because now close variance means a word with the same meaning or the same intent. It’s never been more important to take note of your search terms, what are being triggered and the quantities of your search term.

Keep an eye on your negative keywords. Your ads will now be triggered for keywords that you may not have used but Google considers them to have the same intent. It’s up to you now, to keep looking at your search terms, and making sure that your negative keywords are kept really up to date, whether they’re at a campaign level, at group level, or shared library level. Keep an eye on your impressions over the next few months. See what sort of impressions you’re getting. What you’ll probably find is that it is going to vary from match type to match type. My gut feeling is that your impressions for BMM are going to start dropping. Whereas phrase match, they’re going to start increasing.

That then nicely brings us on to budget control because of these changes, and they are quite significant changes. Keep an eye on your budgets, your monthly budget, your weekly budget and make sure there’s no spikes because of these excessive search terms that are now going to be triggered for your keywords. Keep a close eye on the recommendations. With there being a change, there may be some new recommendations from Google. Finally, take a look at your account structure again. Is it still appropriate? Especially because of the volume of searches you might be expecting from phrase match. Do you need to make any structural changes to your campaign structure? Keep an eye on that.