In paid search advertising firms need to make decisions on a matching strategy between broad match and exact match to target their current and prospective customers. Broad match broadens the scope of targeting while exact match provides more accurate targeting. This paper investigates the relative effectiveness of matching decisions using both secondary data and a field experiment data. Both studies show that compared to exact match, broad match leads to lower advertising performance. Moreover, the negative effect of broad match on CTR is more prominent for more specific or lower (better)-position keywords, and the effects of broad match on CR, revenue and profits are less negative for higher (worse)-position keywords. These results suggest that managers of paid search advertising campaigns should take into account keyword specificity and position in making optimal matching strategy decisions for their keyword portfolios.

在付费搜索中，广告公司需要根据广泛匹配和完全匹配之间的匹配策略制定决策，以定位其当前和潜在客户。广泛匹配可扩大定位范围，而完全匹配可提供更准确的定位。本文研究了使用辅助数据和现场实验数据进行匹配决策的相对有效性。两项研究均表明，与完全匹配相比，广泛匹配会导致广告效果下降。此外，广泛匹配对CTR的负面影响在位置更具体或更低（更好）的关键字中更为明显，而广泛匹配对CR（CR），收入和利润的影响对较高（更差）排名的关键字不利。