Keyword Match Type Tool
Paste your keyword list once and get it wrapped in every Google Ads and Microsoft Ads match type — broad, phrase and exact — formatted correctly and ready to upload.
0 keywords
Enter your keywords above, then press Make keyword list.
What each match type does
Match types tell the ad platform how closely a person's search has to resemble your keyword before your ad is allowed to enter the auction. Wider types reach more people; tighter types keep your spend focused.
| Match type | Format | Triggers on | Reach vs. control |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broad | running shoes |
Searches related to your keyword, including synonyms and closely related themes. | Widest reach, least control. Pair it with a solid negative keyword list. |
| Modified broad | +running +shoes |
Historically required every + word to appear in the search. |
Retired by Google in 2021 and folded into phrase match. Kept here for legacy exports and platforms that still parse it. |
| Phrase | "running shoes" |
Searches that include the meaning of your keyword, with words before or after. | The practical middle ground, and where most accounts do their volume. |
| Exact | [running shoes] |
The keyword itself plus very close variants — plurals, misspellings, reordering that keeps the meaning. | Tightest control and usually the best cost per conversion, but the smallest audience. |
Frequently asked questions
The short answers to what people ask most about keyword match types.
What does this tool actually do?
It takes a plain list of keywords and wraps each one in the punctuation that Google Ads and Microsoft Ads use to signal match type — quotation marks for phrase, square brackets for exact, plus signs for legacy modified broad. Doing it by hand across a few hundred keywords is slow and easy to get wrong; this does the whole list at once.
Is it free? Do I need an account?
Free, with no signup, no keyword limit and no account. There is nothing to upgrade to.
Are my keywords uploaded anywhere?
No. Everything runs in your browser using JavaScript on this page. Your keyword list never leaves your device and is never sent to a server, logged or stored. Close the tab and it is gone.
What does the word separator option do?
It controls the character placed between the words inside each keyword. Space leaves keywords as normal phrases, which is what you want for almost all ad campaigns. Dash and Nothing are there for building URL slugs, tracking parameters, hashtags and ad group naming conventions from the same list.
Which match type should I use?
A common structure is to launch on phrase and exact so spend stays close to intent, then add broad once you have conversion data and a negative keyword list to steer it. Exact usually earns the lowest cost per conversion, broad finds queries you would never have thought to write down.
Why is modified broad match marked "legacy"?
Google stopped serving modified broad in July 2021 and merged its behaviour into phrase match.
Uploading +keywords to Google Ads today will simply be treated as phrase match. It is left
in the tool because some agencies still keep historical sheets in that format, and a few other
platforms and internal tools still parse the syntax.
What about negative keywords?
Negative keywords use the same broad, phrase and exact syntax — you just add them to the negative list instead of the keyword list. So you can generate them with this tool exactly the same way, then paste the output into your negative keyword list rather than your campaign.
Can I paste the output straight into Google Ads?
Yes. Copy any result block and paste it into the bulk keyword box in Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, or into Google Ads Editor. One keyword per line is exactly the format those fields expect.