The number 1 mistake companies and individuals make while executing PPC campaigns for the first time with little knowledge on how it works pertains to matching options.

90% of our client base in which we have taken over their PPC campaign have their word banks setup to be all broad match.

So what does it all mean?  It means the difference between throwing money right out the window and executing a successful campaign.

Google: Exact Match: Will only match if the exact text is entered.  A bid on [pet toys] will not hit on toys pet. Singular and plural are not considered identical.

MSN: Exaxt Match: 99% equivalent to Googles exact match with exceptions.  Words with apostrophes are combined into 1 variation on Google.  MSN ignores extraneous words like, a, an, the, etc…

Yaoo: Standard Match: Similar to exact match, but Yahoos match driver technology also includes singular, plural, common misspellings, and alternative spellings.  Match driver is used with all matching options, and you can’t opt out.

Google: Phrase Match: Will match any query that includes the exact phrase.  A phrase match for "pet toys" will hit on big pet toys but not big toys.

MSN: Phrase Match: Equivalent to Googles phrase match.

Yahoo: N/A

MSN: Broad Match: Will hit on any search that includes all the words.  MSN does not combine singular/plural consistently, but they do dome light synonym matching.

Yahoo: Advanced Match: Will match any search query that includes all of the words, plus singular, plural, spelling variations, and synonyms.  Dog may be considered for puppy as an example.

Google: Broad Match: Like Yahoo Advanced Match, but Googles expanded broad match system also matches related queries.  Dog toy could be matched up with pet toys or pet gifts or anything Google thinks is related.

Google/MSN: Negative Match: Negative matches are keywords that your don’t want to appear in the query.  This allows you to avoid advertising on free television set when you do phrase or broad match for "television set", by setting a negative word for -free.

Yahoo: Excluded Words: Similar to Google and MSN, but toy and toys are considered equivalent.

Google: Embedded Match: Most advertisers have never heard of this one, but its extremely powerful.  Its a special type of negative match, where you can exclude exact or phrase matches.

Google: Automatic Match: Not an actual match type, but a feature Google rolled out this year, that extends their already aggressive expanded broad matching even further.  Your ad for adidas tennis shoes could be triggered when someone searches for running shoes.