Blog. Home > Blog > Is the recent Google Ads announcement on match types a glimpse of the future? Is the recent Google Ads announcement on match types a glimpse of the future? 15 February 2021 Back to all posts “This is a glimpse,” says Cash (Don Cheadle) in the 2000 film The Family Man to Wall Street Investor Jack Campbell (Nicolas Cage). And just like Cash, Google has given us another glimpse of its future with an announcement regarding changes to its keyword match types on Google Ads. The question is, how big a glimpse has Google given us? Well, first off, starting from mid-February 2021 Google will be rolling out changes to phrase match and broad match modifier that will make it apparently easier to reach your customers, no matter how they’re searching. What this essentially means is, I quote, “bringing the best of broad match modifier into phrase match. As a result, phrase match will expand to cover additional broad match modifier traffic, while continuing to respect word order when it’s important to the meaning.” This change therefore means from the middle of February instead of four match types there will now be three match types: Exact match for precision Broad match for reach Phrase match for a balance of both According to Google, this will give advertisers more control and better reach. Essentially “phrase match will expand to cover additional broad match modifier traffic, while continuing to respect word order when it’s important to the meaning.” This has the potential to make life a little simpler for advertisers, but at the same time it reduces keyword match types to just three and raises the question – will Google go further one-day and make it just two types or even less? If so, then perhaps Google will eventually offer no match types and instead a complete smart bidding service and no opportunity to manually match phrases to searches. Time will tell of course, but in the meantime one thing advertisers will need to accept is Google’s continuous move towards automation and machine learning. Author: Chris Baines. Head of Projects Share this post: Back to all posts Related Posts. Previous SRL’s Monthly Marketing Round-Up Zoom to Teams Next Work with us. Get in touch Sign up to our newsletters. NORWICH OFFICE Unit 5, Upper Thatched Barn Kirby Road, Kirby Bedon Norwich NR14 7DU LONDON OFFICE 81 Rivington Street London EC2A 3AY SITEMAP About Services Case Studies Blog Contact Terms Privacy Policy Cookie Policy SERVICES PR & Comms Content Marketing Design Digital Marketing Web Design GET SOCIAL Facebook Twitter Instagram LinkedIn © SHORTHOSE RUSSELL LTD.