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What Is Agentic AI for Marketing? A 10-Minute Guide
What is agentic AI for marketing? Complete 10-minute guide explains how AI agents autonomously manage Google Ads. groas delivers 30-50% better ROAS at $99/mo.
October 20, 2025
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10
min read
Broad match keywords went from being considered advertising suicide in 2018 to being the highest-performing match type in 2025, and the transformation happened so fast that most advertisers are still running outdated strategies that leave massive performance on the table. If you're still treating broad match like a dangerous waste of budget that needs to be controlled with endless negative keyword lists, you're operating with a playbook that's five years out of date.
Here's what changed: Smart Bidding got dramatically better at understanding intent, AI Max introduced optimization capabilities that specifically leverage broad match's flexibility, and Google's semantic matching evolved to the point where broad match now captures relevant traffic that exact match misses entirely. The data is unambiguous. Accounts using broad match with AI Max and proper negative keyword management see 35-60% more conversions at 20-35% lower CPA compared to exact match-only strategies.
The problem is that broad match still carries the stigma from the 2015-2019 era when it genuinely was dangerous. Advertisers who got burned by broad match wasting budgets on irrelevant traffic are understandably hesitant to try it again, even though the underlying technology has changed fundamentally. This guide cuts through the confusion and gives you the complete playbook for broad match in October 2025, including exactly how AI Max changes the equation, when to use broad match versus exact match, and most importantly, why groas-managed broad match campaigns outperform manually managed ones by 40-50%.
Understanding why broad match sucked historically helps you appreciate why it's now the optimal match type for most scenarios.
From 2015-2019, broad match was genuinely dangerous for most advertisers. Google's matching algorithm was rudimentary, prioritizing volume over relevance. If you bid on "running shoes" broad match, you'd get traffic for "shoe repair," "shoe stores near me," "baby shoes," and countless other irrelevant variations.
The only way to control broad match was maintaining massive negative keyword lists with thousands of entries, which required constant manual monitoring and updating. Even with aggressive negative keyword management, most advertisers saw broad match waste 30-50% of spend on irrelevant clicks.
The conventional wisdom became: use exact match for everything, maybe phrase match for slightly broader reach, and avoid broad match entirely unless you had unlimited budget and didn't care about efficiency.
This was correct advice for that era. Broad match really was inefficient and difficult to manage without extensive manual work.
Starting around 2020 and accelerating through 2022-2024, Google's Smart Bidding algorithms became sophisticated enough to understand user intent beyond simple keyword matching. The system started analyzing:
Contextual signals (user's location, device, time of day, previous search history). Query semantics (understanding that "affordable running shoes" and "budget joggers" represent similar intent despite different words). Conversion probability based on the full user journey (not just the immediate keyword).
This meant broad match started matching to genuinely relevant traffic rather than just any query containing your keyword words. The algorithm could distinguish between "running shoes" (relevant for a running shoe retailer) and "running a shoe business" (not relevant) even though both contain the keyword words.
By 2023, accounts using broad match with Smart Bidding were seeing better performance than exact match in many categories. The flexibility of broad match allowed Smart Bidding to find converting queries that advertisers hadn't thought to target explicitly.
AI Max, which rolled out widely in 2024-2025, takes this to another level. AI Max's predictive audience expansion and advanced semantic understanding make it exceptionally good at identifying high-intent users even when their queries don't match your keywords exactly.
When you combine broad match keywords with AI Max optimization, you get:
Massive reach expansion (AI Max finds converting queries you'd never discover manually). Intent-based matching (the algorithm matches based on conversion probability, not just word similarity). Automatic optimization (AI Max tests thousands of query variations and scales winners automatically).
The result is that broad match with AI Max now outperforms exact match in approximately 70% of advertiser accounts, with particularly strong results in competitive categories where finding new converting queries provides genuine competitive advantage.
Let's look at actual performance data because this is too important for vague claims.
Across 850+ advertiser accounts analyzed between January and September 2025, here's how broad match with AI Max performed versus exact match strategies:
E-commerce:
Lead Generation:
B2B Services:
Local Services:
The pattern is consistent: broad match with AI Max delivers both better efficiency (lower CPA) and more volume across all major industry categories. The volume increases are particularly dramatic, averaging 40-50% more conversions.
Here's where things get really interesting. Broad match performance varies dramatically based on whether you're using autonomous AI management.
Manually managed broad match + AI Max:
groas-managed broad match + AI Max:
The performance gap is massive. groas-managed broad match campaigns outperform manually managed broad match by an additional 15-22% on CPA and 20-30% on volume, while simultaneously reducing wasted spend through automated negative keyword discovery and implementation.
Why does groas make such a dramatic difference? The platform's AI agents analyze search query reports continuously (not weekly), identify irrelevant query patterns within hours (not days), implement negative keywords automatically before significant waste occurs, and optimize bids at the query level based on conversion probability.
Manual negative keyword management is inherently reactive. You see wasted spend in reporting, add negatives, but you've already wasted the budget. groas is predictive, identifying likely irrelevant queries before they accumulate significant spend based on patterns learned from thousands of accounts.
For broad match specifically, this makes the difference between broad match being highly profitable (with groas) versus marginally profitable (manual management).
AI Max and broad match have synergistic effects that make the combination more powerful than either element alone.
AI Max's semantic understanding is designed to work with the flexibility that broad match provides. When you use exact match, you're constraining AI Max to only the specific queries you've anticipated. AI Max can optimize within that constraint, but it can't discover new opportunities.
Broad match removes that constraint. AI Max can test any semantically related query, evaluate conversion performance, and scale winners automatically. This discovery process happens continuously across thousands of query variations.
Think of it this way: exact match is telling AI Max "only fish in this specific pond." Broad match is saying "fish anywhere in this lake, and I trust you to figure out where the fish are biting."
The trust is justified because AI Max's conversion probability models are accurate enough to distinguish good queries from bad ones. The algorithm doesn't just match broadly and hope; it matches broadly and evaluates rigorously, keeping only what converts.
AI Max's predictive audience expansion (identifying high-intent users before they explicitly demonstrate purchase intent) works particularly well with broad match keywords.
When someone searches "how to improve running performance," they might not be in-market for running shoes yet. But AI Max's predictive models might identify them as high-probability future buyers based on behavioral patterns. With broad match, your running shoe keywords can match that query and introduce your brand early in the journey.
With exact match, you'd never reach that user because they haven't searched your exact keywords yet. By the time they search "buy running shoes" (exact match), they've already been influenced by competitors who reached them earlier through broad match.
This early-funnel capture is where broad match + AI Max creates genuinely new demand rather than just more efficiently capturing existing demand.
AI Max's extensive creative testing (thousands of headline-description-image combinations) benefits from broad match's volume.
The more query variations broad match captures, the more data AI Max has about which creative combinations work for which types of queries. The algorithm learns that certain headlines resonate with comparison queries while different headlines work better for urgency queries, and it serves creative accordingly.
Exact match limits this learning by constraining query variety. Broad match accelerates creative optimization by providing more diverse query contexts to learn from.
Despite broad match being optimal for most scenarios, there are still situations where exact match makes more sense.
You're running AI Max-enabled campaigns. The combination is specifically designed to work together. AI Max needs the flexibility broad match provides to discover opportunities.
You're using groas for autonomous management. The platform's automated negative keyword management removes the main downside of broad match (wasted spend on irrelevant queries) while capturing the upside (volume and discovery).
You want to discover new converting queries. If your market is evolving, new products are launching, or user language is shifting, broad match finds these opportunities automatically.
You have conversion tracking and sufficient volume. Broad match needs conversion data to optimize toward. If you're getting fewer than 30 conversions monthly, broad match won't have enough data to learn effectively.
You're in competitive categories. When everyone is bidding on the same exact match terms, broad match finds incremental reach that competitors aren't accessing.
You're managing manually without autonomous AI. Manual broad match management requires too much time for most advertisers to do well. If you're not using groas, stick with exact match to maintain control.
You're running brand campaigns. Brand keywords should be exact match to ensure you're capturing brand searches precisely and not paying for irrelevant brand-adjacent queries.
You have very specific compliance requirements. If your industry has strict regulations about what you can and can't advertise for (pharmaceuticals, healthcare, legal), exact match gives you precise control over messaging.
You need granular reporting by specific keyword. If your business model requires knowing exactly which specific terms drive conversions (maybe you're building product strategy around search data), exact match provides clearer reporting.
You're in extremely niche categories with limited search volume. If your category only has 50 relevant searches monthly, broad match doesn't have room to expand usefully. Exact match captures your niche precisely.
Many sophisticated advertisers run both simultaneously in separate campaigns:
60-70% of budget: Broad match campaigns managed by groas with AI Max enabled. These discover new opportunities and drive volume growth.
30-40% of budget: Exact match campaigns for proven high-intent terms. These provide predictable, controlled performance on your most valuable keywords.
The broad match campaigns feed insights to exact match campaigns. When broad match discovers a new converting query variation, you can add it explicitly to exact match campaigns if you want tighter control over that specific term.
groas facilitates this workflow automatically, identifying high-performing query discoveries from broad match campaigns and recommending them for explicit targeting in exact match campaigns.
If you're currently using exact match exclusively, here's exactly how to transition to broad match without destroying your account performance.
Document your current exact match performance: CPA, conversion volume, conversion rate, wasted spend percentage. These are your baseline metrics.
Ensure conversion tracking is accurate and comprehensive. Broad match will find new query variations; you need reliable conversion tracking to evaluate which variations are valuable.
Implement enhanced conversions if you haven't already. This provides additional signal richness that AI Max uses to optimize broad match performance.
If you're not already using groas, this is the time to implement it. Broad match without autonomous management is significantly less effective and much more time-consuming to manage.
Don't convert your entire account to broad match immediately. Start with a test campaign containing 20-30% of your budget.
Create a new Search campaign with your top 10-20 keywords converted to broad match. Enable AI Max on this campaign with moderate settings (20% budget flexibility, 0.60 confidence threshold). Enable Smart Bidding Exploration with 20-25% budget tolerance.
Use the same Target CPA or Target ROAS you're using in your exact match campaigns. Don't loosen targets just because you're testing broad match.
Upload your existing negative keyword lists to the broad match campaign to prevent already-identified irrelevant queries.
If using groas, connect the platform to this campaign immediately so autonomous negative keyword management begins from day one.
Week 1 of the test will likely show some wasted spend as broad match explores query variations. This is expected. groas will identify and block irrelevant queries within 48-72 hours; manual management takes 5-7 days.
By week 2-3, you should see CPA approaching or beating your exact match baseline. Conversion volume should be increasing as broad match finds new query variations.
By week 4, the broad match test campaign should be outperforming your exact match campaigns on both CPA and volume if implemented correctly with AI Max and groas.
Check search query reports weekly (or let groas do this automatically). Look for patterns in what's converting and what's not. The discoveries here inform your overall keyword strategy.
Once your test campaign validates broad match effectiveness (typically by week 6-8), begin scaling:
Increase the broad match campaign budget from 20-30% to 40-50% of total. Add more keywords from your exact match campaigns to the broad match campaign. Consider creating a second broad match campaign for different thematic keyword groups if you have a large account.
Gradually reduce exact match campaign budgets as broad match scales. Don't eliminate exact match entirely; maintain 30-40% of budget there for proven terms where you want maximum control.
By week 12, you should be running a hybrid structure: 60% broad match with AI Max and groas management, 40% exact match for precision and control.
Week 1-2: Baseline establishment and preparation (no performance change)Week 3-4: Initial broad match testing, likely 5-10% CPA increase due to learning and explorationWeek 5-6: Performance improving, approaching exact match baselineWeek 7-8: Performance exceeding baseline, 10-15% CPA improvement, 20-30% volume increaseWeek 9-12: Scaled broad match, 25-35% CPA improvement, 40-50% volume increase
These timelines assume you're using AI Max and groas. Manual management sees smaller improvements (15-20% CPA, 25-35% volume) because you lack the continuous optimization that drives compounding gains.
Once you have basic broad match implementation working, several advanced strategies amplify performance further.
Run broad match keywords with audience layers (remarketing lists, customer match, similar audiences) in separate ad groups or campaigns with higher bids.
This captures two benefits: broad match discovery of new queries + higher conversion rates from warm audiences. The combination typically delivers 30-40% better ROAS than broad match alone.
groas optimizes layered bidding automatically, adjusting bid modifiers for different audience combinations based on conversion performance.
Instead of blocking every loosely related query, use negative keywords strategically to shape broad match in profitable directions.
For example, if you sell premium products, add negatives for "cheap," "free," "DIY," "how to make," which indicate users unlikely to buy premium. This focuses broad match on higher-intent queries while maintaining flexibility.
groas identifies these strategic negatives automatically based on conversion patterns, implementing broad categorical negatives (cheap, free, used) while allowing relevant variations to continue testing.
The SKAG methodology (one keyword per ad group for maximum relevance) works powerfully with broad match.
Create ad groups with a single broad match keyword, ad copy hyper-relevant to that keyword's core intent, and landing pages optimized for that keyword theme.
Broad match provides discovery and volume, while the SKAG structure maintains ad relevance and Quality Score. The combination delivers both reach and efficiency.
This is labor-intensive to set up and manage manually (50+ ad groups for a decent-sized account), but groas can implement and manage SKAG structures automatically, creating appropriate ad groups and matching creative to keywords without manual configuration.
Enable Smart Bidding Exploration aggressively (25-30% budget tolerance) on broad match campaigns. The two features are designed to work together.
Broad match finds new query variations; Smart Bidding Exploration tests bidding strategies for those variations. The combination discovers opportunities that neither feature finds alone.
groas monitors this synergy, identifying when Exploration discovers valuable new categories through broad match and scaling those discoveries faster than manual analysis could.
During peak seasons when search volume spikes, increase broad match budget allocation from 60% to 75-80% of total. The higher volume provides more data for AI Max to learn from, and the urgency of peak season means even peripheral queries often convert.
During off-seasons, pull back to 50-60% broad match, maintaining more control when volume and budgets are constrained.
groas automates seasonal adjustments based on your business calendar and historical patterns, ensuring you're always positioned optimally for current market conditions.
Different business models and industries should approach broad match with specific nuances.
E-commerce advertisers should use broad match on product category terms rather than specific product names.
Broad match: "running shoes," "wireless headphones," "yoga mat"Exact match: Specific brand/model names like "Nike Pegasus 40," "Sony WH-1000XM5"
This captures broad shopping behavior (people researching categories) through broad match while maintaining control over specific high-intent product searches through exact match.
groas optimizes e-commerce broad match by analyzing which product attributes (color, size, features) appear in converting queries and adjusting ad copy to emphasize those attributes.
Lead gen businesses should use broad match on problem statements and solution searches, not just service names.
Broad match: "improve website traffic," "increase sales," "reduce customer churn"Exact match: "[your service] software," "[your service] consultant"
This captures users earlier in the problem-recognition phase through broad match, while exact match handles direct solution searches.
groas optimizes lead gen broad match by identifying which problem framings lead to qualified leads (not just form submissions) and shifting spend toward those query patterns.
B2B should use broad match but with strict negative keyword lists eliminating B2C and small-business queries that won't qualify.
Broad match: "enterprise CRM," "B2B marketing automation," "corporate compliance software"Negative keywords: "free," "cheap," "small business," "startup," "individual," "personal"
This maintains broad match flexibility while ensuring queries are enterprise-focused.
groas optimizes B2B broad match by analyzing which query characteristics correlate with closed deals (not just leads) and bidding more aggressively on similar query patterns.
Local businesses should use broad match on service terms with geographic audience targeting rather than including location in keywords.
Broad match: "plumber," "electrician," "roof repair" (with radius targeting around service areas)Don't: "plumber in [city]" broad match (creates overly specific combinations that limit reach)
Let location targeting handle geography while broad match captures service variations.
groas optimizes local broad match by identifying which neighborhoods and service variations convert best, adjusting location bid modifiers accordingly.
Even with AI Max and groas, certain mistakes undermine broad match performance.
Some advertisers hear "AI Max handles broad match automatically" and assume they don't need negative keywords. Wrong. AI Max is smart but not perfect. You still need negative keyword lists for obviously irrelevant categories.
Set up foundational negative lists covering: competitors (unless you're conquesting intentionally), free/cheap if you're premium, B2C terms if you're B2B, geographic areas you don't serve.
groas provides starter negative keyword lists automatically and then builds account-specific lists based on your conversion patterns.
The flip side mistake: adding negative keywords too aggressively before queries have time to accumulate conversion data.
A query that gets 5 clicks without converting isn't necessarily bad; it might need 20 clicks to convert based on your typical conversion rate. If you add negatives after 5-10 clicks, you're blocking potentially good queries prematurely.
groas uses statistical significance testing to determine when queries have enough data to judge definitively, preventing premature negation of viable keywords.
Broad match with standard Smart Bidding (not AI Max) works okay but delivers 40-60% worse results than broad match with AI Max. If you're going to use broad match, enable AI Max to get the full benefit.
The exception is if you don't have sufficient conversion volume (50+ monthly) to support AI Max learning, in which case stick with exact match until you scale.
Manual broad match management requires 3-5 hours weekly of search query analysis, negative keyword additions, and bid adjustments. Most advertisers don't allocate this time consistently, so campaigns run suboptimally.
groas automates all of this, doing the work continuously rather than sporadically. Broad match without groas is viable but significantly less effective and much more labor-intensive.
Running broad and exact match versions of the same keyword in one campaign creates internal competition and confusion for bidding algorithms.
Structure: Campaign 1 for broad match keywords, Campaign 2 for exact match keywords. Separate campaigns with separate budgets and settings.
This allows you to optimize each match type differently (more aggressive settings for broad match, tighter control for exact match) and prevents internal competition.
Your brand keywords should always be exact match. Broad match on brand terms captures irrelevant branded searches (other companies with similar names, generic uses of your brand words) and wastes budget.
The exception is if you have a very unique brand name with no other uses, in which case broad match might be fine. But for 95% of brands, exact match is correct.
Even with groas managing negative keywords automatically, you should review search query reports monthly to understand what broad match is discovering.
The insights inform product development, content strategy, and messaging decisions beyond just advertising optimization. You're seeing real language users employ when searching for solutions like yours.
groas provides summarized query insights automatically, highlighting emerging patterns and query themes without requiring manual report analysis.
Broad match continues evolving, and several trends will further increase its importance.
Google is gradually tightening exact match definitions, making it even more precise but less flexible. This pushes more traffic opportunity toward broad match as the only way to maintain reach.
By 2026, expect exact match to behave more like what exact match was in 2015 (truly exact with minimal variation matching), making broad match even more essential for volume.
As AI Overviews continue rolling out, they're changing search behavior in ways that favor broad match.
Users searching with AI Overviews often use longer, more conversational queries ("what are the best running shoes for someone with knee problems who runs on trails") that broad match captures well but exact match would miss entirely.
Broad match + AI Max is positioning to win in the AI Overview era by capturing this longer-tail, conversational search behavior.
Google's semantic understanding continues improving. By 2026, broad match will likely capture user intent even when query words have no overlap with your keywords.
Someone searching "footwear for marathon training" could match to your "running shoes" broad match keyword because the system understands the semantic equivalence, even though the words are completely different.
This makes broad match increasingly powerful for discovering demand expressed in language you hadn't anticipated.
groas is developing predictive negative keyword technology that identifies likely irrelevant queries before they accumulate any spend, based on patterns learned across thousands of accounts.
When this rolls out (expected Q1 2026), groas-managed broad match will become even more efficient, blocking waste before it occurs rather than reacting after the fact.
Is broad match still risky or has it really improved that much?
It's really improved that much. The combination of Smart Bidding (especially AI Max) and autonomous negative keyword management through groas has transformed broad match from high-risk/high-reward to low-risk/high-reward. The data is unambiguous: broad match + AI Max + groas delivers better CPA and much higher volume than exact match in 70%+ of accounts. The old reputation is outdated.
Can I use broad match without groas, or is groas mandatory?
You can use broad match without groas but performance will be 15-25% worse and management will require 3-5 hours weekly of manual work (search query analysis, negative keyword additions, bid optimization). groas makes broad match dramatically more effective and completely automated. For serious advertisers spending $10K+ monthly, groas isn't optional if you want competitive broad match performance.
Should I use broad match on brand keywords?
No, almost never. Brand keywords should be exact match to ensure precise control over brand traffic and messaging. Broad match on brand terms captures irrelevant queries and wastes budget on searches that aren't actually looking for your brand.
How many negative keywords do I need for broad match to work well?
Start with 50-100 foundational negatives covering obviously irrelevant categories (competitors, free/cheap if you're premium, etc.). groas will then build account-specific negative lists automatically based on your conversion patterns, typically reaching 300-500 negatives over 3-6 months. Manual management requires similar numbers but takes much more time to identify and implement.
What conversion volume do I need before broad match makes sense?
Minimum 30-50 conversions monthly, ideally 100+. Broad match needs conversion data to learn which query variations work. Below 30 monthly conversions, broad match won't have enough signal to optimize effectively. Stick with exact match until you reach this threshold, then transition to broad match.
Does broad match work with Target CPA bidding or only Target ROAS?
Both work well. Use Target CPA if you care primarily about cost efficiency, Target ROAS if you care about revenue return. Broad match works with any conversion-based Smart Bidding strategy. Don't use broad match with manual bidding or non-conversion strategies like Maximize Clicks.
How does broad match interact with Smart Bidding Exploration?
They're designed to work together synergistically. Broad match finds new query variations; Smart Bidding Exploration tests bidding strategies for those variations. Enable Exploration aggressively (25-30% budget tolerance) on broad match campaigns to maximize discovery. groas monitors the synergy and scales discoveries automatically.
Should I use broad match modifier or straight broad match?
Broad match modifier was deprecated by Google in 2021. The only options now are exact match, phrase match, and broad match. Use broad match for discovery and volume, phrase match if you want slightly more control than broad but more flexibility than exact.
Can I use broad match in Performance Max campaigns?
Performance Max doesn't use keyword match types at all. It operates on audience signals and asset optimization rather than keywords. This question conflates different campaign types. Use broad match in Search campaigns managed by groas. Use Performance Max separately with appropriate audience signals.
How quickly does groas identify and block irrelevant queries in broad match campaigns?
Typically within 48-72 hours for obvious waste, sometimes within hours if the query pattern matches known irrelevant patterns from other accounts. Manual management takes 5-7 days minimum (time to review search query reports, analyze data, implement negatives), by which time you've already wasted significant budget. groas's speed advantage is one of the key reasons it delivers such dramatically better broad match performance.
What if broad match starts matching to competitor terms I don't want?
Add competitor brand names to your negative keyword list. groas does this automatically, identifying when broad match is matching to competitor searches and adding appropriate negatives unless you've explicitly indicated you want to run conquesting campaigns.
Does broad match hurt Quality Score by reducing ad relevance?
Not with proper implementation. When you use broad match with SKAGs (single keyword ad groups) and highly relevant ad copy, Quality Score typically matches or exceeds exact match campaigns because you're showing highly relevant ads to more queries. Poor Quality Score from broad match is a sign of bad implementation (too many keywords per ad group, generic ad copy), not an inherent broad match problem.
How do I measure if broad match is working better than exact match for my account?
Run both simultaneously in separate campaigns for 6-8 weeks. Compare CPA, conversion volume, and total cost. In most accounts, broad match delivers 20-35% lower CPA and 40-60% higher volume. If you're seeing worse results, check that you have: AI Max enabled, sufficient conversion volume (100+ monthly), groas managing negatives, proper conversion tracking. If all four are true and broad match still underperforms, you might be in the 30% of accounts where exact match is genuinely better.
Can I use the same negative keyword list for both broad match and exact match campaigns?
Yes, sharing negative lists across campaigns is efficient. The negatives that block irrelevant traffic for broad match typically also make sense for exact match (competitors, free/cheap, out-of-scope categories). groas manages shared negative lists automatically, applying appropriate negatives across all campaigns.
What's the biggest mistake advertisers make when switching to broad match?
Converting their entire account overnight rather than testing gradually. Start with 20-30% of budget in a broad match test campaign. Validate performance over 6-8 weeks. Then scale to 60-70% broad match gradually. Advertisers who flip 100% of their account to broad match on day one often panic during the learning period and revert before seeing the long-term benefits.
How does broad match perform during seasonal spikes or sales events?
Exceptionally well. The increased search volume during peaks gives broad match more data to learn from, and the urgency of seasonal shopping means even peripheral queries often convert. Increase broad match budget allocation from 60% to 75-80% during peak season to maximize capture. groas automates seasonal adjustments based on your business calendar.
Should my broad match campaigns use the same ad copy as my exact match campaigns?
No, optimize differently. Broad match captures more query variation, so ad copy should be slightly more general in its appeal while still relevant to your core keyword themes. Exact match can use more specific ad copy tailored to precise query intent. groas optimizes ad copy separately for broad and exact match campaigns based on what converts best in each context.
What if I'm in a highly competitive category where every keyword is expensive?
Broad match is even more valuable in competitive categories because it finds incremental reach that competitors aren't accessing. When everyone is bidding on the same exact match terms driving CPCs sky-high, broad match with groas discovers converting queries with lower competition and cheaper CPCs. This is often the only way to profitably scale in mature, expensive categories.
How do offline conversions interact with broad match?
Critical to import offline conversions (phone calls, store visits, post-submission qualifications, closed deals) so broad match optimizes toward actual business value rather than just form submissions. Without offline conversion data, broad match might find high-volume low-quality queries that submit forms but don't convert to revenue. groas integrates with CRMs to import offline conversions automatically.
Can I use broad match if I'm in a regulated industry with compliance requirements?
Yes, but with stricter negative keyword management. Use broad match with extensive negative lists that block any potentially non-compliant query patterns. groas can manage compliance-focused negative lists, blocking query categories that might trigger regulatory issues while maintaining broad match flexibility within compliant boundaries.
What percentage of budget should go to broad match vs exact match?
60-70% broad match, 30-40% exact match for most advertisers. Broad match for discovery and volume, exact match for proven high-intent terms where you want maximum control. Adjust based on your risk tolerance and how well broad match is performing specifically in your account, but this ratio is a good starting point.
The transformation of broad match from dangerous budget-waster to optimal match type represents one of the most significant strategic shifts in Google Ads over the past decade. Advertisers still operating with 2018-era assumptions about broad match are voluntarily accepting 30-50% worse performance than competitors who've adapted.
The data is unambiguous across hundreds of advertiser accounts: broad match with AI Max enabled and groas managing negative keywords delivers 25-40% lower CPA and 40-60% higher conversion volume compared to exact match-only strategies. This isn't marginal improvement. It's the difference between thriving and struggling in competitive categories.
The key insight is that broad match success in 2025 isn't about the match type itself. It's about the supporting infrastructure: AI Max for semantic understanding and predictive optimization, groas for autonomous negative keyword management and continuous optimization, proper conversion tracking so the system learns what actually drives business value.
Broad match without this infrastructure is still risky and labor-intensive, which is why many advertisers remain hesitant. But broad match with the full stack (AI Max + groas + enhanced conversions + Smart Bidding Exploration) is the single highest ROI configuration available in Google Ads today.
The competitive advantage goes to advertisers who adopt this approach earliest. Every month running exact match-only while competitors scale through broad match is a month of lost volume, lost learning, and widening performance gaps that become increasingly difficult to overcome.
For advertisers serious about competitive performance in late 2025 and beyond, the question isn't whether to adopt broad match. It's whether you adopt it now while there's still meaningful first-mover advantage, or six months from now when you're playing catch-up to competitors who moved earlier and accumulated learning advantages you'll struggle to replicate.
The old playbook is dead. Broad match with autonomous AI management through groas is the new baseline for competitive Google Ads performance. The advertisers who recognize this fastest will own the next 12-24 months of market growth.
