Campaign structure can be very important when it comes to overall account organization, campaign optimization and gathering useful data.  An optimal campaign structure can be achieved through many strategies, including various segmentation strategies. One of these segmentation strategies involves segmenting by keyword match-type at the campaign level, but not all PPC advertisers agree that this method of segmentation is necessary or even very helpful. To help you determine what you believe, I have outlined both sides of the “keyword match-type segmentation” argument in this article.

Why You Should Segment By Keyword Match-Type

• Exact-match only campaigns provide greater control and better data.

  • Exact-match only campaigns provide precise keyword performance data.
  • You have the ability to allocate additional budget to the profitable exact-match keywords via their segmented campaign.
  • Exact-match keywords allow for more precise bidding.
  • Negative keywords are not necessary.
  • Exact-match only campaigns provide the best user experience by forcing search engines to trigger the most relevant keyword/ad/landing page combination.

• Broad and phrase-match only campaigns provide a separate environment for testing and greater reach.

  • Broad and phrase-match only campaigns provide a separate environment for testing by allowing you to expand your keywords and identify negatives via search term reporting without affecting exact-match keyword data.
  • Broad-match campaigns allow you to show for long-tail search queries.

Why Keyword Match-Type Segmentation Is Unnecessary

• Some campaign structures are already complicated.

  • Campaigns are often already segmented by keyword theme, location, device etc.
  • Further segmentation by keyword match-type could result in MANY campaigns.
  • The additional effort and time it would take to create and monitor these additional campaigns can be too much for a lot of teams to handle.
  • Segmenting at the ad group level is an option and may be less complicated, but it doesn’t provide the added benefit of budget control.

• Segmenting campaigns by keyword match-type isn’t necessary during the initial campaign creation.

  • Keyword match-type segmentation can be a lot of work to implement without even knowing if it will be helpful for a particular campaign/advertising effort.
  • It can be a good optimization strategy after you have collected enough data.

• Combining all match-types in one campaign can work and provide you with the data you need.

  • Always include exact-match keywords.
  • Phrase-match keywords are great to include for those long-tail queries.
  • Including broad-match keywords can be a good way to find new, relevant keywords.
  • Implementing ad group level exact-match negative keywords will improve ad relevancy and provide more precise data.
  • Use the search term report to find more keywords, add more negatives and maybe create more ad groups.

Wrap Up

Although it may not be worth the extra effort if your time and resources are already limited, segmenting campaigns by keyword match-type can provide some helpful and potentially more precise data. But, don’t rule it out completely, it could be a good optimization strategy down the road. Are you for or against keyword match-type segmentation?  Continue the conversation below or find me on Twitter.