Exact match and auto campaigns are not the same investment.
By Elizabeth Greene ยท August 8, 2026 ยท Curated by George's Blog
Exact match and auto campaigns are not the same investment.
Grading them against one ACoS number means you'll strangle your best performers and overfund your worst ones.
Usually both at the same time.
We stopped doing that years ago.
Every account we run gets five ACoS targets.
Not one.
๐ญ) ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ณ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ฒ โ ๐ฐ-๐ฒ%
Someone's already searching your name.
You should barely be paying for this.
If your branded ACoS is anywhere near your blended number, you're funding a click you'd have gotten for free.
๐ฎ) ๐๐ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ ๐บ๐ฎ๐๐ฐ๐ต, ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ป ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ โ ๐ญ๐ฌ-๐ญ๐ฑ%
Sales history. Known converters.
This is your most efficient bucket, and it should get the biggest chunk of budget.. not just the tightest target.
๐ฏ) ๐ฃ๐ต๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐บ๐ฎ๐๐ฐ๐ต, ๐ฒ๐ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป โ ๐ญ๐ด-๐ฎ๐ฑ%
You're testing adjacent relevance.
Some converts, some doesn't.
You give it room because you're mining for the next exact match winner.
๐ฐ) ๐๐๐๐ผ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฏ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ฑ, ๐ฑ๐ถ๐๐ฐ๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ โ ๐ฏ๐ฌ-๐ฐ๐ฌ%
Not supposed to be efficient.
Supposed to find keywords you didn't know to bid on.
Auto does the real discovery work.
Broad these days overlaps so hard with phrase.. sometimes even exact.. that lumping it in here is generous.
Grade this bucket against your branded target and you'll kill the exact match winners before they ever exist.
๐ฑ) ๐ก๐ฒ๐ ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฑ๐๐ฐ๐ ๐น๐ฎ๐๐ป๐ฐ๐ต โ ๐ฑ๐ฌ%+, ๐๐ถ๐บ๐ฒ-๐ฏ๐ผ๐ ๐ฒ๐ฑ
Ranking has a cost.
You're buying data and position, not profit.
This one gets a deadline, not just a number.
These are the ranges we start from.
The spread matters more than the exact numbers..
if all five collapse toward one, you're right back where you started.
One ACoS target on the account looks disciplined on a dashboard.
In reality it's five different jobs graded on one scorecard. Three of them will always fail it.
What's your setup.. one target for the account, or segmented?