Overview

Amazon Seller University has released new training material covering keyword match type strategy for Sponsored Ads campaigns. The guides explain how broad, phrase, and exact match types work alongside negative keyword targeting, giving sellers a framework for controlling ad spend efficiency and driving more relevant traffic to their listings.

What Keyword Match Types Control

Match types determine how closely a shopper's search query must align with the keywords you bid on in Sponsored Ads. Selecting the right match type for each keyword is one of the most important levers for balancing reach against relevance. The choice directly impacts your advertising cost of sales (ACoS), impression volume, and conversion rates.

Amazon offers three primary match types, each suited to different campaign goals and stages of optimization. Sellers who understand when to deploy each one can build more efficient campaigns that reach the right shoppers without wasting budget on irrelevant clicks.

Broad Match: Casting the Widest Net

• How it works — Your ads appear for search queries that include your keyword terms in any order, plus related variations, synonyms, and closely related phrases.
• Best for — Discovery campaigns, new product launches, entering new categories, and identifying which search terms customers actually use to find your products.
• Trade-off — More impressions and potentially more clicks on queries that may not convert well. Monitoring search term reports and adjusting bids is essential.

Broad match is the starting point for most campaign strategies because it generates the raw data you need to understand how shoppers search for products like yours.

Phrase Match: Targeting Long-Tail Keywords

• How it works — Your ad appears when a search query contains your keyword phrase in the exact order you specify, though additional words can appear before or after it.
• Best for — Long-tail keywords (three-to-five-word phrases describing specific product attributes or use cases) that tend to have lower competition and higher purchase intent.