For several weeks, many advertisers on the Google Ads Search network have noticed a significant change in the behavior of exact match. This evolution particularly affects commercial queries, where Google tends to associate broader variants than in the past, even when campaigns are set to exact match.
What Google has changed in exact match
Traditionally, exact match allowed Search campaigns to only display ads for searches that exactly matched the targeted terms, with possibly slight variations like misspellings or plurals.
Since the recent update, Google has broadened this definition for certain high-commercial-intent queries, including close expressions that the algorithm deems “relevant” even if they do not strictly match the defined keyword.
In concrete terms, this means that if you target the exact keyword blue running shoes, your ad may now appear for searches such as buy cheap blue running sneakers or best blue running shoes, even if these terms do not textually appear in your list of exact keywords.
Real flow tests show that on average, this type of broadening can represent an increase of 18 to 24% in the volume of displayed queries compared to the previous strict behavior. This change is not uniform across all terms, but it is particularly noticeable on queries with strong commercial intent, such as those indicating a purchase intention, a specific product, or an online transaction.
Why is this causing reactions among advertisers?
For many campaign managers, exact match was a way to maintain precise control over the received traffic. By limiting ad appearances to queries very close to the targeted terms, they could optimize spending, reduce waste, and improve conversion rates.
With the observed broadening, several effects appear:
• An increase in the number of impressions on queries that are close but not strictly identical.
• A possible increase in cost per click (CPC) when more competitive variants come into play.
• A variation in conversion rate if less targeted peripheral terms generate less qualified traffic.
In some cases, advertisers report a 10 to 15% increase in advertising expenses without significant improvement in conversion rates, as ads are displayed for broader queries. Others, however, notice a clear increase in overall traffic, sometimes beneficial if the quality of this traffic is satisfactory.
How to identify if your campaigns are affected?
Identifying the impact of this change mainly involves a detailed analysis of search terms in Google Ads. By examining the report of queries that triggered impressions, you can see if broader expressions appear while you have only defined exact match keywords.
Several signs indicate that your campaign is affected:
• Presence of long or slightly different queries in the report.
• Impressions on keywords that you have not explicitly added.
• Increase in click-through rate (CTR) or average cost per click (CPC) without changing your bids.
Some third-party analysis platforms report that this phenomenon is particularly strong in sectors like e-commerce, professional services, and technical products, where common semantically close language variations are frequent.
What Google says (or does not say) officially
For now, Google has not released detailed communication explaining this change in how exact match is handled. Google Ads update notes sometimes mention “improvements to better capture search intent,” but without specifying the rules governing this broadening on certain queries.
This lack of transparency frustrates some advertisers, as it becomes more difficult to predict campaign behavior on specific terms. Without clear guidelines, it is necessary to rely more on internal data analysis in Google Ads to adjust strategies.