Google replaced keyword matching with AI that reads your search history to guess what you really want, then shows ads based on intent instead of exact terms. This means broader reach but less control over which searches trigger your ads.
The two core changes which have happened are firstly around your keyword targeting, and then also around the AI and how that interacts with your ad copy. So let's firstly talk about keyword targeting. So for as long as Google has been around, there has been three core types of match types, which is your broad, your phrase and your exact match. Google has switched from targeting the keywords that you're entering to actually targeting the user's meaning or the user's intent. And this is why things are getting a lot broader, because Google is using its AI to really look into what the user has, not only searching that individual search term, but what they've been searching over the previous days, weeks and months.
