What happens if you enter a negative keyword with brackets and set it to broad match?

[starrychloe S.]

What happens if you enter a negative keyword in a negative keyword list with brackets and set the match type to broad? The API lets you do that but the web interface doesn't. Which takes precedence, the exact match from the keyword, or the broad match from the match type?

[Umesh Dengale]

Hello,

When you add a negative keyword with brackets, it added as exact match negative keyword. (e.g. -[women's hat]). You could add the exact match negative keyword to prevent your ad from showing to people who searched for that exact keyword. 

With broad match, your ad may show if a search term contains your keyword terms in any order, and possibly along with other terms. Your ads can also show for close variations of your keywords. With exact match, your ads can appear only when someone searches for your exact keyword, without any other terms in the search.

Please check out the Using keyword matching options document for more details.

Thanks,

Umesh, AdWords API Team.

[starrychloe S.]

That totally did not answer my question. I don't know what the point of reiterating it is since the original is above, but what happens if you use both brackets and have broad match selected?

[Umesh Dengale]

Hello,

If the keyword text is added with brackets e.g. [my keyword] and match type is set as Broad e.g. KeywordMatchType.BROAD then keyword is considered as broad match type. 

Regards,

Umesh, AdWords API Team.