Amazon PPC targeting settings controlling how closely a shopper's search query must match a keyword before it triggers an ad.
Match type choice is the axis the six-campaign structure is built on: each campaign name encodes both a keyword list and a match type.
In manual campaign structuring, use only Exact and Broad match — skip Phrase match entirely, since anything Phrase would catch is already covered by Broad match. This keeps campaign structure to two match types per keyword list rather than three, simplifying the Six-Campaign PPC Launch Structure campaign matrix.
Amazon has been getting progressively more liberal with match-type enforcement — even 'exact' match now matches a wider range of search terms than its name implies (plurals, minor reorderings, close variants). Match type should be treated as directional tightness rather than a strict guarantee, which raises the importance of Amazon Negative Keywords to keep loosely-matched exact/phrase campaigns clean.
Even "exact" match keyword targeting is no longer literal: Amazon now also shows ads for search terms it judges merely equivalent to the exact keyword, not just identical strings. Sellers relying on exact match for tight control should account for this drift when reading match-type-segmented reports.
Match types (exact, phrase, broad) only apply to keyword targeting in Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands. Sponsored Display Targeting Taxonomy (Contextual, Remarketing, Audiences) has no keyword targeting at all — only categories, products, audiences, and remarketing — so match-type selection is never a Sponsored Display decision.
Since 2024–2025, Amazon has stopped treating exact match as truly exact: an exact-match keyword can occasionally trigger for a close variant Amazon judges equivalent (e.g., an exact match on "wooden phone holder" showing for "wooden phone stand"). Exact match should now be read as "almost-exact, with occasional Amazon-driven substitution" rather than a hard guarantee of the literal seed term.
Phrase match (any search term containing the keyword phrase in the same word order) is the least popular and least important of the three documented match types; its main value is discovering longer-tail variants around a known root phrase (e.g., "wooden phone holder for kids" from a "wooden phone holder" seed).
Broad match lets Amazon substitute equivalent or related terms even without shared words (e.g., an "iPhone stand" seed triggering "phone holder" searches), placing it between pure keyword targeting and full Automatic Campaign Four-Way Split (Close Match, Loose Match, Substitutes, Complements) autotargeting — still seeded by the advertiser's chosen root terms, but with far more platform latitude than exact or phrase. The same search term can perform very differently under broad vs. exact match for the same product, sometimes favoring broad — attributed to Amazon (like Facebook, YouTube, and Google) shifting toward AI-based ad targeting, where broad match gives the algorithm more buffer to place ads where they're predicted to perform best. See Broad Match Modifier (Undocumented Fourth Match Type) for the undocumented fourth match type that constrains this flexibility.
Since 2024–2025, Amazon has quietly given itself leeway to substitute or vary words even on exact-match targets, undercutting the traditional 'shows only for the literal seed term' definition. Treat exact match as directionally tight rather than perfectly literal when auditing search term reports.
Из тем: PPC Campaign Structure & Bidding