Walmart Match Type Strategy & Keyword Harvesting

Module 8 · Lesson 2

Match Type Strategy & Harvesting

📚 Module 8: Keywords & Bidding⏱ 6 min read🎯 Advanced

What you’ll learn

  • How to tier your bids by match type
  • The search-term harvesting loop in detail
  • The thresholds that tell you when to act
  • How to use negatives to stop waste

You know what exact, phrase and broad mean (Module 3). Now here’s how to deploy them as a system — a continuous loop that funnels loose discovery into tight, profitable exact-match keywords.

Tier your bids by match type

Walmart’s own guidance is clear on this: don’t bid the same across match types. Bid highest on exact, middle on phrase, lowest on broad. The logic is intent — exact match catches your most precise, highest-converting searches, so it earns the strongest bid; broad match is exploratory, so it should risk less per click.

Exacthighest bid — precise, proven intent
Phrasemiddle bid — relevant with reach
Broadlowest bid — exploratory discovery

If a match type is spending but delivering low ROAS and sales is your goal, lower its bid — or disable it — and shift that budget to a match type that’s working.

The harvesting loop

This is the engine that keeps your account improving. Broad and phrase (and your auto campaigns) discover; you harvest the winners into exact:

  1. Run broad/phrase and auto campaigns to surface real converting search terms.
  2. Pull the Search Term Report regularly.
  3. Promote winners — a term converting well becomes a new exact-match keyword with its own controlled bid.
  4. Add losers as negatives so you stop paying for them.
  5. Repeat. Your exact-match core steadily grows more profitable.

The thresholds that trigger action

Give yourself clear rules so you’re not guessing: a term with roughly 2–3+ orders at or below your target ACoS is ready to graduate to exact match. A term with about $3–$5+ in spend and zero orders is a candidate for a negative. Wait for enough clicks (often 30–50+) before judging — acting on thin data just chases noise.

Using negatives well

Negative keywords stop your ads showing for terms you don’t want — the classic example is excluding “cat” if you only sell dog products. Use them to:

  • Block clearly irrelevant searches draining budget.
  • Prevent your broad/phrase campaigns from cannibalising your exact-match keywords.
  • Keep discovery campaigns focused on genuinely new terms.

Where negative options are limited, remember the fallback from Module 3: lower the bid until a bad term stops winning.

The rhythm comes in Module 9

Here you’ve learned what to harvest and which thresholds matter. The weekly routine that turns this into a habit — which report to pull on which day — is the heart of Module 9.

Quick recap

  • Tier bids by match type: highest on exact, middle on phrase, lowest on broad.
  • Harvest converting search terms into exact match; add non-converters as negatives.
  • Act on rules: ~2–3+ orders to graduate, ~$3–$5 spend with no orders to negate.
  • Use negatives to block waste and stop broad campaigns cannibalising exact keywords.
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