A question we often get asked is:
“when I add a keyword in PPC Ad Lab is it broad, phrase or exact match?”
The answer is well, none of these actually.
Let me explain.
Although we use the label “Keywords” in PPC Ad Lab as it’s commonly used, what we are actually adding is search terms. ie the actual search term that Ad Lab will enter into a Google search and deliver a result for.
Technically, this is incorrect but so far we’ve found our users understand it the best this way.
To relate back to real keywords inside a Google account, you need to consider – would my keyword by triggered by this search term.
Of course an easy way to check is to look at the search terms report.
Take a look at the screenshot below:
In PPC Ad Lab if you added any of the highlighted search terms in the keyword box you could see ads for advertisers bidding on the broad match keyword “dental services” shown in the filter above.
To conclude, PPC Ad Lab rather misuses the term keywords to actually refer to search terms. After all, that’s what real browsers are doing on Google every time they search. To understand your own data better, check your search terms report for the terms that matter to you most.
