What we cover in this blog
What are Amazon match types?
If you’re a third-party seller looking to increase sales for your Amazon store through sponsored ads, it’s a useful concept to understand.
Keeping the uses for broad match, exact Amazon match types, and phrase match in mind while creating Amazon pay-per-click ads, and even choosing product keywords can help launch your store to success by helping you reach the right customers.
The Amazon search tool functions in a similar way to Google search by matching the entered search words to available products. That’s where match types come into play.
Knowing how to utilize each one is key when it comes to making the most of Amazon PPC ads.
Exact Match
As you might expect, with exact Amazon match types, Amazon will only show your PPC ad to customers who have entered that exact term into the search bar.
For example, if your product includes only the keywords “Blue Dog Collar,” Amazon will only show that ad to customers who have typed those exact terms into their search bar.
Exact Amazon match types are a good option for products that cater to a niche market, or for sellers looking to target shoppers who are looking for something very specific.
In other words, if the shopper searches for the phrase “dog collars” or even just “amazon blue dog collar,” your ad for a product using only the keywords “Blue Dog Collar” wouldn’t appear in the results.
You can see the difference in the results for these two searches with similar but slightly different keywords in the images above.
Each search yields a different PPC ad because one of them did not include the correct keywords.
So, how should you use keywords to ensure your ad reaches as many relevant shoppers as possible? Use more keywords!
When using exact Amazon matche types, be sure to try to include any potential words or phrases someone might search for when looking for your product.
The more keywords you’re able to include, the better the odds your PPC ad appears at the top of a shopper’s search results.
Phrase Match Type
If you’re using phrase match, Amazon will show your PPC ads to customers who use your exact keyword amongst a sequence of words.
In the image below, the PPC ad shown at the top of the search results likely used phrase match with one of the keywords included in the search term.
This means that when shoppers include keywords like “Blue Dog Collar” or even search something like “Red Dog Collar,” Amazon will still show your ad.
Board Match Type
With a Broad Amazon Match Type, Amazon will show your Amazon ads to customers who have entered any of the terms in your keyword phrase, along with plural forms, acronyms, misspellings, abbreviations, and accents.
So, “blue dog collar” could also match “buy blue dog collars amazon,” “dog collars for sale,” or “where to buy dog collars.”
Choosing a broad match is a good way to cast a wider net and reach the largest number of shoppers.
However, there is a fine line between reaching the maximum number of interested parties and wasting time your Amazon ads to people who aren’t interested.
Going back to the previous example
Going back to the example above, a customer searched “Red Dog Dollar” and because we used a phrase match to target the customer, your blue dog collar still showed up.
Assuming the customer is looking for a red collar, your product isn’t the right ‘fit’ in this situation and you may end up spending money for a customer who just wasn’t looking for your item
Now if you had a red dog collar to advertise….different story.
You might be increasing traffic, but not increasing qualified traffic. It’s important to keep your specific target audience in mind to be sure your ad reaches the right people.
The best way to perfect your Amazon broad match targeting formula is to use Amazon’s keyword tool or another keyword tool. This will help you learn important information like the average monthly searches for a specific keyword and the competitiveness of that keyword.
You can also use this tool to get ideas for other keywords related to your product. Once you have a list of targeted keywords, you can use them to refine which customer demographic sees your Amazon ads when using broad match.
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Auto-targeting match type options
Using a manually targeted Amazon PPC ad campaign will enable you to manually input keywords. Exact match, phrase match, broad match all require the user to manually input keywords.
For an automatically targeted campaign, Amazon offers two other match types you can use called close match and loose match.
Close Match
Close match can be used when you don’t want to manually enter your own keywords, but you want your ad to appear in searches that use similar variations of the words included in the product title.
For example, when using close match, a book titled Getting Started with Amazon Advertising might appear in a search for “how to get started with Amazon advertising,” or “get started advertising on Amazon.”
Loose Match
Loose match is meant for when you want your ads to show similar keywords that aren’t necessarily the same as the ones in your product title.
This option is the best choice if you believe your target customer might search for something close, but not exactly what’s on the page of your campaign or sponsored product.
For example, if a loose match is chosen for a book titled Getting Started with Amazon Advertising, the product might appear in search results for “how to advertise on Amazon” or even just “advertising.”
AMS negative keywords
In addition to controlling which keywords trigger your PPC to appear in search results, you also have the ability to specify which keywords will prevent your ad from showing. For sellers managing dozens of campaigns, tools built for Amazon negative keyword automation can flag these irrelevant search terms automatically instead of relying on manual search term report reviews.
How to utilize AMS negative keywords
For example, when creating an ad for a book about organic gardening without chemicals or pesticides, “pesticide” or “chemical” could be added as a negative keyword.
Doing so means the product would be left out of results for any search containing these keywords.
Negative Keywords are very useful for campaigns in which multiple keywords trigger the same PPC ad, but each one is relevant to a different product or service offering.
Consider a store that sells a similar product in both adult and children’s sizes.
Even though the product descriptions may be very similar, the corresponding negative keywords could be added to each product’s PPC ad to ensure the ad is shown to the targeted customer.
Negative phrase vs. negative exact
Negative phrase and negative exact are the inverses of phrase match and exact match.
With negative exact, Amazon uses the specific negative keywords you have entered to stop your ads from being shown in searches using those keywords.
When using negative phrases, your ad won’t be shown in search results that include your negative keywords, regardless of what order the words are mentioned.
Which match type is best for my Amazon Advertising Strategy?
When it comes to choosing your Amazon advertising match types, you’ll need to consider your business goals and how much effort you want to put into managing them.
Using looser matches with phrases or broad matching will generate more traffic, but not necessarily more customers, which can increase ad spend and reduce conversion.
Using closer matches and exact keyword matching will reduce yourclick-through rate, but will improve your conversion rate. This can help you lower ad spending and increase the return on investment over time.
While optimizing your headlines search ads, don’t forget to refine your keyword targeting using the right Amazon keyword match types to ensure your ads reach the most relevant audience.
Conclusion
The best way to find out which one is best for your business? Ask the experts. Amazon Advertising is difficult and without the proper strategy, it can be difficult.
Whether it means going to forums, asking popular facebook groups, listening to podcasts or consulting with a firm like ours – make sure to do your due diligence prior to launching to make sure your Amazon PPC campaigns are profitable.
By partnering with an Amazon advertising Agency like Sequence Commerce, you can get help finding the right keywords and managing your Amazon PPC and Amazon advertising campaigns to ensure that they are effective and profitable. Best part? Completely hands off for you.
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Alex Kung is the Founder and CEO of Sequence Commerce, with over a decade of hands-on experience in Amazon advertising, marketing, and marketplace strategy. As a certified Amazon Advertising Specialist, Alex has personally managed more than $15M in Amazon ad spend, helping brands achieve an average 40% increase in ROAS across diverse product categories. His expertise spans Amazon DSP programming, inventory optimization, A9 algorithm strategies, and multi-channel e-commerce scaling.
Before founding Sequence Commerce, Alex led e-commerce operations for several 7-figure brands, developing proprietary methodologies for Amazon keyword research and listing optimization now used industry-wide. A regular speaker at e-commerce conferences including SellerCon and Prosper Show, Alex’s data-backed insights have been featured in publications like Entrepreneur and Digital Commerce 360. Through the Sequence Commerce blog, he shares proven, actionable strategies based on current marketplace trends and algorithm updates to help sellers build sustainable Amazon businesses.