Broad match isn't the problem. Unsupervised broad match is
Paired with smart bidding and good conversion data, broad match can find buyers you'd never have guessed. Left alone, it finds everything else too.
Broad match has a bad reputation from its older days, when it matched almost anything loosely related. Today it uses much more context — the landing page, other keywords in the ad group, the user's recent searches — and it's built to work with smart bidding.
When it works, broad match finds real buyers searching in ways you didn't predict. When it doesn't, it spends quickly on irrelevant searches.
When we use it
- Conversion tracking is accurate and counts real business outcomes — not page views or micro-actions.
- The campaign uses smart bidding with a sensible target, not manual CPC.
- There's enough conversion volume for the algorithm to learn from.
- Someone reads the search terms report every week and adds negatives.
When we don't
- Small budgets where a few wasted days matter a lot.
- Accounts where tracking isn't fixed yet.
- Very niche B2B offers where the right search is rare and specific — exact and phrase usually win there.
The takeaway
Broad match is only as good as the conversion data behind it and the person watching it.
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