Find out if competitors are using Broad match

How do you guy's generally find out if your competitors are using broad match? I generally just type in a broad keywords and see if there ad gets triggered, but sometimes that can be misleading. For example if you just searched an exact match keywords then did a broad the ads will still show up from last query..

 

keyword spy?

 

Keyword spy does no give you such information.
The only way to see if your competitors are using either phrase or broad match is to add keywords to your search string and see if their ads still appear. I usually add meaningless words just to make sure that they have not added them exactly.

 

There's no way to tell what match type other advertisers are using with any degree of certainty.

 

True - What I usually do though is just type in a broad keyword for example credit asd cards and if they show up then I know their using broad match.

 

They could (but likely are not) also be using extensive exact matching...

 

Well I'd imagine it wouldn't show up if they we're using exact match. I mean it only makes sense if it would show up as credit adslfj cards.

 

ahh, I thought "asd" in your first post actually stood for something, didn't realize it was keyboard smack....hsdljfkshd

So yea, it likely be either broad or automatic matching.

 

Automatic matching?

By the way do you do much affiliate marketing?

 

you cant really tell unless you type something really obscure. Lets say the topic is iphones.

If you type in "iphones watermelon" and they show up you can be assured they are using either phrase or broad match.

 

Automatic matching automatically extends relevant keywords that you don't have in your keywords list.

They extend them by analyzing your landing page content and campaign.

 

interesting I haven't even paid much attention to that feature.

How's the affiliate business going?

 

http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=13669&hl=en_US

Just mmall stuff for myself, couple $K net a month tops.