Brandefyn
Short answer: Amazon Ads has three keyword match types. Broad reaches the most searches, phrase keeps your words in order, and exact only shows for your keyword and close variants. Use broad to discover search terms, phrase to expand with control, and exact (with the highest bid) to scale the terms that already convert.
The three match types at a glance
| Match type | What triggers your ad | Example keyword: "wireless earbuds" | Use it for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broad | Your words in any order, plus related searches and close variants | "earbuds wireless bluetooth", "bluetooth earbuds for running" | Discovery, finding new search terms |
| Phrase | Your words in the same order, with words allowed before or after | "best wireless earbuds", "wireless earbuds for iphone" | Controlled expansion |
| Exact | Your keyword or close variants (plurals, misspellings) | "wireless earbuds", "wireless earbud", "wirless earbuds" | Scaling proven terms and ranking |
Match types are available for keyword targeting in Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands. Sponsored Display doesn't use them.
Broad match: cast the widest net
Broad match shows your ad when a search includes your keyword's words in any order, along with related terms. That's useful early on, because you don't yet know exactly how shoppers search for your product.
The risk is wasted spend. Broad match can show your premium headphones for "cheap earbuds" or "earbud cleaning kit". Read the search term report weekly and add the bad terms as negatives.
Tip: a one-word keyword behaves almost the same in broad and phrase, because word order doesn't matter when there's only one word.
Phrase match: the middle ground
Phrase match requires your words in the same order, but lets shoppers add words before or after. "Wireless earbuds" in phrase match can show for "best wireless earbuds" or "wireless earbuds with mic", but not "earbuds that are wireless".
Phrase is a good balance: it still finds new long-tail searches, with less junk than broad.
Exact match: precision and scale
Exact match is the most controlled type. It's also not literally exact: Amazon includes close variants like plurals and common misspellings.
Exact match is where you put the search terms that have already proven they convert. It gives you:
- The cleanest data per keyword
- Control over bids, so you can push for top-of-search placement
- The best tool for ranking a product on a specific keyword, because the ad sales count toward that search term
Negative match types
Sponsored Products also has two negative match types:
- Negative exact blocks one specific search, e.g. "earbuds for kids".
- Negative phrase blocks any search containing the phrase, e.g. "free" or "case".
Use negative phrase for words that are never relevant (like "used", "replacement", or a size you don't sell). Use negative exact when the phrase is too broad and would block searches you want.
How to bid across match types
Amazon's own guidance is to bid highest on exact, lower on phrase, and lowest on broad. That makes sense: exact traffic is the most relevant, so it's worth the most.
There's one important rule. Amazon's help pages say that if the same keyword is in several match types with different bids, the highest bid is used for a matching search. So if your broad bid is higher than your exact bid, broad can win the search and muddy your data.
The broad-to-exact workflow
This is the routine we run on most accounts:
- Discover. Run auto and broad match campaigns at modest bids for 1-2 weeks.
- Mine. Every week, pull the search term report.
- Promote. Search terms with sales at a profitable ACoS move into an exact match campaign at a higher bid.
- Block the duplicate. Add each promoted term as a negative exact in the broad and phrase campaigns, so the exact campaign "owns" it.
- Cut waste. Search terms with clicks and no sales get added as negatives.
- Repeat. Your exact match campaigns slowly fill with proven terms, and spend shifts from discovery to scale.
Common mistakes
- Mixing match types in one ad group with one bid. You lose control of which type wins.
- Running only exact match. You stop finding new search terms.
- Running only broad or auto. You pay for a lot of irrelevant traffic.
- Never adding negatives. This is the biggest source of wasted spend in the accounts we audit.
- Judging match types on ACoS alone. Broad will usually have a higher ACoS because it's doing the discovery work.
Should you still use match types with Amazon's AI campaigns?
Yes. Amazon's newer AI tools can suggest keywords and adjust bids, but match types are still how you tell the system how tightly to target. See our guide to AI in Amazon PPC in 2026 for how to mix the two.
Related: Using competitor brand names as Amazon keywords and what's included in Amazon PPC management.
Want us to check your match-type setup? Get a free Amazon PPC audit and we'll show you where spend is leaking. Or see our Amazon PPC management service.