Standard or Advanced Match?

That is the question

To be or not to be? Does time have a beginning? What is the meaning of life?

These are some of the great philosophical questions of the ages. A less heady, but perhaps more immediate question for Yahoo! search advertisers might be, “How does “Panama” affect the Standard and Advanced match types?”

Match Game ‘07
A match type, as you may recall, is an option in Sponsored Search that helps determine how search terms are matched to your ads. The Standard “match” type can display your ads for “exact” matches to your keywords, their singular and plural variations, and common misspellings.

The Advanced match type, on the other hand can display your ads for a broader range of searches relevant to your keywords, titles and descriptions, and web content. The Advanced match type is the default setting for all of your ads.

What’s changed
Before we launched the new ranking model in the U.S., ads were ordered like this:

1. All Standard match type ads
- Highest bid to lowest bid

Followed by…

2. All Advanced match type ads
- Highest bid to lowest bid

Now, with the the launch of the new ranking model in the U.S., ads of both match types will be displayed together—i.e., mixed—in sponsored search results.
In short, Standard match type ads no longer receive priority in sponsred search results. Instead, all Standard and Advanced match type ads that are relevant for a given search term are now ranked on their bid amount and ad quality. This may increase the competition on certain keywords for both types of ads, and could cause some advertisers to pay higher click charges and receive more traffic volume—or vice versa—than they received under old ranking model. (But you will never pay more that your maximum bid.)

To change from Advanced to Standard match, or vice versa, go to the “Campaigns” tab. From here you can toggle between Advanced and Standard match by selecting one or more campaigns using the check boxes in the far left column, clicking the “Select Tactic” button and selecting either Advanced or Standard match type.

Excluded Words
To help block unwanted matches when using the Advanced match type, use excluded words. Excluded words can help you refine the matches you receive through the Advanced match type by blocking certain searches that you believe will not be relevant.

For example, if you sell ocean cruises, you wouldn’t want to appear in results for “Tom Cruise,” would you? Or, if you sell engagement rings, your ad may appear in results for “diamond rings,” “platinum rings,” and so forth. That’s great if you sell them all. If you don’t, you should exclude “diamond rings” and “platinum rings.” You should also exclude “Lord of the Rings,” unless of course you sell Hobbit antiques.

Here are some more examples:

You can add excluded words to an ad group by clicking on the “Ad Group Settings,” selecting “Tactic Settings” and clicking the link in the pop-up next to Excluded Words.

—Michael Mattis