Does broad match work for lead generation?

The question "Does broad match work for lead generation?" comes up often. I've written about this before, but I though it time to update my thinking based on more recent experience.

Over the years, I’ve noticed a trend with new Google Ads features:

1. For the first 2 years the new thing is terrible. A skilled PPC manager can get better results the old way.
2. Then, there is a shift. A few people try the new thing and find that it's become much better.
3. After another year or so, the new thing becomes the standard.

It feels like broad match keywords are somewhere between 2 and 3 now. They've become much better, but not for every campaign every time.

Let's get rid of 2 terrible reasons to use broad match before talking about when they might be a good fit.

The worst reason to use broad match keywords is because Google wants you to.

And they really want you to. Their sales team is pushy, and the dashboard bombards you with promises and warnings:

Get more conversions at a similar or better ROI by adding broad match versions of your existing keywords.

Your campaign's reach is limited because your ads may not be showing for all the queries that are relevant to your business. Use broad match versions of your keywords

The second worst reason is because you're too lazy to build the campaign.

I've seen campaigns with one broad match keyword slung into a single ad group. Predictably, the results reflected the effort.

Someday, keyword selection and campaign structure might not matter much, but that day isn’t here yet.

When to use broad match for lead generation.

I've found 2 cases when broad match keywords are useful:

1. Kick starting new campaigns that won't get traction.
2. Increasing leads when existing keywords can’t drive more growth.

Using broad match keywords to kick start new campaigns.

Normally I'd start a new campaign (for an account with no history) by using exact match keywords. This makes it more likely that the ads will show in response to searches that will turn into leads. Most of the time I use the maximise clicks bidding strategy to get going.

This hasn't worked for the last 2 campaigns I launched. Although I had enough exact match keywords, the ads hardly showed.

Adding broad match keywords and switching to conversion-based bidding brought the campaigns to life.

Using broad match keywords to increase leads when existing keywords can’t drive more growth.

I recently used broad match keywords to help 2 very different clients get more leads:

• An immigration law firm who were getting about 1 500 leads a month before we added broad match.
• A home-services business getting about 60 leads a month, again before we added broad match.

Adding broad match keywords to their existing campaigns did in fact increase leads by about 30%. The cost per lead and lead quality didn't change.

I was a little surprised but the data doesn't lie.

What you need before you add broad match keywords.

The original question was "Does broad match work for lead generation campaigns?" A better question is "When does broad match work for lead generation campaigns?"

It's been my experience that it works when you've got:

• Bullet-proof conversion tracking.
• A conversion-based bidding strategy.
• A structure that keeps keywords, ads, and landing pages relevant to each other.
• The budget to grow.
• A client or boss who is OK with some short-term performance turbulence.
• A comprehensive negative keyword list.
• A way to link individual leads with how they contacted you.

Let's get into the detail.

Bullet-proof conversion tracking.

I'd define bullet-proof conversion tracking as when:-

The number of conversions in your account is close to the number of leads you've received. For various reasons it's almost impossible to get this exact, but if you're within 10-15% that's OK.

You're tracking leads for all contact methods you offer. On your ads that'd be call assets (click-to-call), lead form assets and messaging assets. On your site it could be form submissions, calls, WhatsApp messages, live chat or an email link. The thinking here is that no conversions get missed.

You're tracking some sort of lead quality metric. This could be:

• A salesperson's judgment of lead quality.
• Booking a consultation.
• Attending an appointment.
• Making a sale.
• Or some other down-funnel action.

It'd be even better if you were optimising for a down-funnel conversion instead of just form fills, calls and so on.

A conversion-based bidding strategy.

Conversion-based bidding strategies use conversions as feedback on their decisions. Over time, they learn which ad targeting leads to a conversion and which doesn't. The theory is that will eventually improve performance.

Click or impression-based bidding strategies ignore what happens after the ad is clicked. With broad match keywords that tends to result in you paying for lots of clicks which don't become leads.

A structure that keeps keywords, ads, and landing pages relevant to each other.

Let me explain with an example from the immigration law firm:

• When someone searches for a deportation lawyer, we show them an ad stating that we handle deportation cases. The landing page is all about deportation.

• When someone searches for EB-1 visa help, we show an ad about EB-1 visas. We send them to a landing page explaining how we can help with their EB-1 application.

• A fiancé visa search gets a fiancé visa ad and fiancé landing page, and so on.

We maintain relevance from the search to the ad to the landing page. At the moment the best way to do this is to group related keywords:

• The deportation lawyer keywords are in one ad group.
• The EB-1 visa keywords are in a different ad group.
• And the fiancé visa keywords go into their own ad group.

An account structure with keywords grouped by meaning is good because the matching process also considers:

• The landing page content.
• And the intent of other keywords in the same ad group.

The budget to grow.

I haven't seen broad match keywords bring in cheaper qualified leads. So, if you're looking to pay less per lead they're not the right move.

But, if you've got the budget to scale, and you're not able to spend it with your current keywords, then broad match is worth testing.

A client or boss who is OK with some short-term performance turbulence.

Both campaigns I spoke of earlier had a rough first week with broad match keywords. Conversion rate was down and the cost per lead was up. I actually paused the broad match keywords in one campaign because I thought I'd made an expensive mistake.

I should have expected this. Adding broad match keywords is a significant change. And, any significant change to targeting or budget causes turbulence.

I re-enabled the broad match keywords and after a few nervous days the conversion rate and CPA recovered.

A comprehensive negative keyword list.

The theory is that the bidding algorithm will learn what works and show your ads to potential good leads. Having a strong negative keyword list can speed this up by stopping ads from showing for searches that are obviously irrelevant.

A way to link individual leads with how they contacted you.

I've seen that the likelihood of a lead turning into a sale is often related to how they contacted you. Leads who contact you without visiting your website - say by calling from a click-to-call button on the ad - turn into sales less frequently than leads who visit your website before contacting you.

This might be different in your business so being able to measure this is useful.

A common problem is when the lead calls you thinking they're calling another business. They searched for the other business by name and Google put your ad at the top of the screen. The lead clicked the first button they saw and you got (paid for) the call.

You can reduce this by:

• Building up a negative keyword list of competing businesses.
• Optimising for qualified leads instead of just contacts using offline conversions. Some people use call duration as a proxy for qualified leads.

In extreme cases you might have to disable call assets, lead form assets and messaging assets.

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Why I'm rethinking how I audit Google Ads accounts

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Mining the search terms report for negative keywords is a waste of time

What’s the right bidding strategy for a brand new Google Ads account?

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