Whilst Brand Activator is designed to work best with exact match keywords, you can technically track broad and phrase match keywords — but there are a few important limitations to keep in mind. 

Broad Match

Broad match keywords in Google Ads can trigger your ads for a wide range of search terms — even if the user’s query doesn’t closely resemble the original keyword. 

Example:

For broad match keyword "sell my tesla", triggered search terms might include:

• how to sell a tesla
• trade in my tesla
• advertise my used tesla

How Brand Activator Handles That

Scenario:

• You set up a broad match keyword in your campaign → sell my tesla
• You add a search term to Brand Activator → advertise my used tesla
• Actual search term triggered → advertise my used tesla

Even though the search term was triggered by your broad match keyword, it doesn’t exactly match that keyword. Since Brand Activator only matches on exact terms, this can lead to inefficiencies:

Reduced savings

We don't have close variants for broad match, so savings will only apply to the terms you added into Brand Activator.

Confusing Alerts

Brand Activator relies on exact matches to link search terms to keywords back to Brand Activator campaigns connected to the Negative Keyword List (NKL). This can cause confusion when using broad match keywords.

For example, the search term “advertise my used tesla” might be triggered by the broad match keyword “sell my tesla”. But because Brand Activator only recognizes exact matches, it can’t link the search term back to the keyword in the campaign. Instead, it assumes the term was triggered by a different keyword — possibly in a non-Brand Activator campaign that isn’t connected to the NKL — and raises an alert.

Scenario 1:

• Adding a broad match keyword to Brand Activator.
• Example: “sell my tesla”.
• No alert is raised — Brand Activator recognizes it as a valid keyword and links it properly.

Scenario 2:

• Adding a search term triggered by a broad match keyword.
• Example: "advertise my used tesla" (triggered by "sell my tesla").
• This can raise an alert, because the search term doesn’t exactly match the keyword, and Brand Activator can’t confidently link it.

Limited indexing

Brand Activator only indexes the exact term you add — not any of the additional search terms triggered by a broad match keyword.

Phrase Match

Phrase match is more predictable than broad match, but similar principles apply.