Using Smart Bidding together with Broad Match in Google Ads can unlock stronger reach and smarter bid optimization. But activating those tools isn’t enough on its own — you need to follow key practices to keep performance healthy, efficient, and scalable.
Here are three campaign best practices you should adopt:
1. Be Mindful (and Strategic) with Negative Keyword Targeting
Broad Match casts a wide net — that’s part of its power — but that also means there’s risk of triggering for irrelevant or unwanted queries. To guard against wasted spend:
- Regularly review your Search Terms Report to see actual queries triggering your ads.
- Add negative keywords for irrelevant terms that drain budget (but do so judiciously — avoid blocking variants that might truly convert).
- Use negative match types (phrase, exact) when appropriate to retain control.
- Don’t over‑overdo negativity — give the algorithm some flexibility to find new converting queries.
This balances reach (via broad match) with protection (via negatives). miteart.com+2Google Help+2
2. Use Responsive Search Ads (RSAs)
Responsive Search Ads complement Broad Match + Smart Bidding extremely well:
- You provide multiple headlines and descriptions; Google dynamically tests/adapts combinations to match user intent.
- This flexibility helps your ads better align with diverse queries that broad match may attract.
- More ad variation = more chances to match context, which supports improved relevance and performance.
- Over time, the system learns which combinations perform best, strengthening the feedback loop for Smart Bidding.
In short: RSAs give the algorithm more room to work. Google Business+2miteart.com+2
3. Allow Full Use of Contextual Signals
Smart Bidding excels when it can adjust bids using real-time contextual signals. To harness that:
- Avoid restricting signals by over-limiting targeting layers (e.g. device, time, audience) unless necessary.
- Let Google see user context: device type, location, time of day, browser, search intent, etc.
- Don’t override or hard-set bid adjustments unless there is strong evidence; let the algorithm make micro adjustments.
- Monitor signal performance and adjust if you see consistent biases (e.g. performance is weak on mobile, so you may refine device splits, but only after solid data).
By enabling the system to see full context, you let Smart Bidding optimize at auction time more precisely. miteart.com+2Google Help+2
(Bonus) Why Some Other Options Are Less Optimal
You might also see suggestions like “monitor Quality Score” or “use cross‑device reporting.” But these are more diagnostic or reporting practices rather than active campaign best practices in the context of broad match + Smart Bidding:
- Quality Score is useful to check occasionally for signals of ad relevance or landing page issues — but it doesn’t directly guide optimization in a broad match + Smart Bidding environment.
- Cross‑device reporting helps with understanding attribution and user paths, but it’s not a lever you actively pull to drive performance.
In contrast, the three best practices above allow you to steer performance while still giving automation room to work.