If you’re like me, you love BMM (broad match modifier) as a way to indicate certain words that must be in a search query in order for your ad to trigger. It’s been an essential tool in our agency’s kit for eliminating wasted spend on poor search intent that can result from phrase match.
Well, all good things must come to an end, I suppose.
Google announced that they will be sunsetting BMM as we know it — kind of — starting in mid-February and wrapping up in July 2021.
What’s happening to BMM?
Google Ads is attempting to bring the best of phrase match and BMM into one high-performance match type — the new phrase match.
The new phrase match will “expand to cover additional broad match modifier traffic, while continuing to respect word order when it’s important to the meaning.”
Here’s an example:
Source: Google
Mid-February 2021
- Phrase match and BMM will begin the transition to the new matching behavior
- No action required (yet)
July 2021
- New phrase match behavior enforced globally
- Can no longer create new BMM keywords
- Existing BMM keywords will still work, reflecting the new behavior
As with any Google Ads change, Google typically rewards advertisers who adopt new behaviors early. If you’re a fan of BMM, strongly consider a strategy to switch over to the new phrase match behavior based on your account structure and goals.
If you’re struggling with the change, ask our healthcare and life sciences PPC experts for an account audit to discover untapped potential in your campaigns.