Google Modified Broad Match (MBR): A Match Made in Heaven

By: IMPAQT Analytics and Decision Support Team

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Google has implemented a new match type: Modified Broad Match (MBR), which was developed to strike a balance between traditional broad match's tendency to be too broad and phrase match's tendency to be too narrow. Phrase match can be too limited because, while it could include phrases like "how to buy pastry," it would not allow potentially relevant terms such as "pastries to buy."

Broad match, as the name implies, matches to a broad swath of potential searches. It can introduce a lot of uncertainty, as it shows ads to qualified and unqualified traffic alike. Traditional broad match terms often have low conversion rates, leading to low ROIs, because they can match to what Google considers synonyms. For example, the broad match keyword "buy pastries" could also match to "buy cookies," "purchase baked goods," or even "find cake recipes. "

MBR gives advertisers the option to require specific words to be included in any queries that match by adding "+" signs in front of each word. It essentially excludes synonyms and some misspellings, but allows variation in the order of the words.

Putting MBR to the Test

To figure out just how much opportunity lies within MBR, IMPAQT tested MBR against traditional broad and phrase matches on several client accounts. (Note: match types were segregated into individual campaigns for the duration of the test).

For one of the largest international bookstores, IMPAQT ran an MBR campaign parallel to its broad match campaign. For a portion of this time, IMPAQT also added negative keywords to the broad campaign to ensure the MBR campaign was absorbing all of the traffic that it should have.

The chart above shows the decline in spend for the client once MBR was launched. The MBR campaign spent 50% of what the Broad campaign spent, while maintaining constant revenue and doubling ROI.

Another test was done with a high-end retail client in which IMPAQT tested MBR against phrase match. The chart below shows clicks, CPSs, revenue, and cost of phrase match vs. MBR for this test.

The MBR campaign had roughly consistent CPCs to the phrase, but it brought in significantly more clicks, and therefore, more cost than phrase. However, these clicks brought in 20% more revenue for MBR, completely offsetting the increased cost due to additional traffic. This allowed the campaigns to maintain constant ROI and show that MBR is a better strategy.

Maximizing MBR's Benefits

IMPAQT's testing found that MBR terms indeed absorb most of the traffic for the corresponding broad match terms, when correctly implemented. Our testing also found that MBR offers several benefits:

More Targeted Traffic- MBR traffic is more targeted than standard broad match, which results in lower CPCs and higher conversion rates.
More Flexibility- – MBR is more flexible than phrase match, which results in more traffic without sacrificing ROI goals.
Less Time- When segmenting campaigns by matchtype, MBR decreases the number of keywords in an account and the amount of time required to manage bids and budgets for these keywords. It also allows for increased campaign segmentation without violating Google's campaign limits.
Less Cost- MBR saves cost on broad terms, which could be better spent elsewhere in an account.
Less Uncertainty- MBR minimizes the uncertainty associated with understanding which campaigns attract which searches, making forecasts and reports more accurate.

Recommendations for Implementing MBR

Add MBR terms to new campaigns with the same bids and budgets as old phrase campaigns.
Add proper negatives to ensure that traffic goes where it should.
Pause existing broad and phrase match campaigns to eliminate redundancy.
Use caution when applying MBR to branded terms, as they already tend to have low CPAs and high ROI.
Don't try to compare MBR keywords across match types, because MBR alters the actual keywords.
Investigate the performance of long-tail queries that weren't served with phrase match. These queries should be added as exact match keywords if they don't currently exist in the account.