Search Engine Marketing or SEM is used by website owners, advertisers and marketers to enhance the search criteria. But this has many issues as well. Money spent to just attract visitors is not a choice for SEMs. But using BMM (Broad Match Modifiers) for their target keywords is essential and is consistently been used. However, Google has announced that from July 2021, for ad services, they would be removing BMM (Broad Match Modifiers). Then how will the website owners and paid search marketers rely on ads?
BMM (Broad Match Modified) Keywords:
They are basically broad match keywords, which are modified to set few or all words within the keyword as mandatory for targeting. For instance, if the ad is “computers for rent” and if this needs to be modified, just prefix the word with plus (+) symbol. This means that if the word ”computers” has to be in all the keywords of the ad, then prefix the word “computers” with plus (+) symbol. Or, if the ad has to show all keywords which contain “computers” ”for” “rent”, then prefix all the words with plus (+) symbol. Here are few illustrations for better understanding.
PM (Phrase Match) Keywords Updating:
Google has informed that BMM (Broad Match Modifiers) would be under PM (Phrase Match) keywords. This indicates that manual modification of broad match keywords is removed and it’s integrated with phrase match keyword.
Difference between PM (Phrase Match) Keywords and BMM (Broad Match Modified) Keywords:
The main difference is that broad match modified (BMM) keywords require some words to be in the keyword. For example, computers in “computers for rent” must be in the query which the ad displays.
While PM (Phrase Match) keywords, require the order of words in the query. For example, in “computers for rent”, the order of words should be in the query which the ad displays.
PM (Phrase Match) and BMM (Broad Match Modifiers) Keywords:
As announced, Broad Match Modified (BMM) keywords would be integrated with Phrase match version by Google. Hence, in addition to primary effect, the broad match modified (BMM) keywords would now consider the order of words as well.
Examples for better understanding:
Pros and Cons of PM (Phrase Match) Update:
Pros: To understand PM (Phrase Match) update, let’s assume that the google ads created would be targeted. This means the ads, which are most appropriate would show on the queries. For example, in the keyword “resuming air services from Europe”, after the update, the ads which do/ do not attract the users to click, could be avoided on the queries. This is due to the betterment of intent target. In the above example, if the ads which resulted from the search query “resuming air services from Europe” and the particular website doesn’t provide the required service, the paid search marketers and webmasters would be wasting their money. However with this update, such mistakes could be avoided.
Cons: Opportunity could be reduced. The reason behind the usage of BMM (Broad Match Modifiers) was that all possible opportunities of the world could be targeted. Even if the keyword had a small chance of attracting users to click on ads, the query was also targeted. There was a problem as well, however, the fact that conversion could still happen on small opportunities cannot be overruled.
With this update, it would be interesting to see how it could expand or reduce search performance of the ad. The aim of targeting is good for ads, as burning of everyone’s budget could be avoided. BMM (Broad Match Modifiers) can still be used till July 2021, after which PM (Phrase Match) would be widely used in keyword function.
