I created an adwords campaign using the phrase match. It seems to pick up the words in the phrase only if they are the only words. For example: Let say that I want to use the phrase Red Apples. I put the following in the adwords keyword list: "red apples" Now if the user types in 'Red Apples' (without quotes) in the google search box, it displays the ad. But if the user types in 'Red Apples Today' in the google search box, it does not display the ad. Why is the Phrase Match not working correctly?
Google's never been totally clear on exactly how phrase match works. Here's what they say: Phrase Match - If you enter your keyword in quotation marks, as in "tennis shoes", your ad will appear when a user searches on the phrase tennis shoes, in this order, and possibly with other terms in the query. In this case, the search can also contain other terms as long as it includes the exact phrase you've specified. For example, your ad may appear for the queries buy tennis shoes and tennis shoes store but not shoes for tennis. The emphasis should be on the phrase "your ad MAY appear..." I've heard it suggested that your Quality Score may impact when phrase match does or does not work. I've also heard it said that it depends on the number of words before/after the phrase you're matching to. But unless somebody knows better, these appear to be theories.
As custardmite said it has something to do with the Quality score! I had the same issue long time ago and i asked the adwords rep for this. The answer was that it should work 90% of the time! I am not very convisted though! (I still thing that broad match with some good negative keywords is much better!)