Keyword Wrapper

You know why this tool is there if you have ever manually added brackets around 50 keywords for an Exact Match ad group. It's a 20-minute-too-many-campaigns-taken-five-seconds solution. What is a keyword wrapper, how the match type symbols work and how to use bulk wrapping to avoid copy and paste and build faster, cleaner PPC campaigns.

What is a Keyword Wrapper?

A keyword wrapper is a programmatic solution that adds the punctuation used by Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising to specify match type into a simple list of keywords, such as quotation marks for phrase match, square brackets for exact match and the plus sign for the (mostly retired) modified broad match. You don't have to manually format each keyword, copy/paste all your keywords and have all the match type variations returned in seconds.

Let's take a look at the actual change that took place. A raw list is the starting point of the process.

running shoes
trail running shoes
best running shoes for flat feet

Put it in a keyword wrapper with all three match types, and you get:

Broad match:

running shoes
trail running shoes
best running shoes for flat feet

Phrase match:

"running shoes"
"trail running shoes"
"best running shoes for flat feet"

Exact match:

[running shoes]
[trail running shoes]
[best running shoes for flat feet]

Three targeting behaviors, three times the keywords, three times the clicks, but one click less of manual work.

Google Ads Match Type Symbols, explained.

The same syntax used for Google Ads – what you see is what you get (brackets and quotes).

Step-by-Step, you will learn how to wrap in bulk.

1. Paste your keyword list, one keyword or phrase per line. The vast majority of wrapper tools can take hundreds of lines at a time.
2. Select your match types. Make broad, phrase, exact or negative — often you can make more than one at once.
3. Select a separator (if available). Others tools allow you to specify how variations are linked or grouped together in the output.
4. Click on "Wrap" or "Generate. The tool automatically puts the right symbol on each line.
5. Clean the output. Good tools also remove characters that are disallowed by Google Ads (such as exclamation marks, which are disallowed at the keyword level) and identify duplicate keywords that only vary by capitalization (Google Ads considers Running Shoes and running shoes as the same keyword so they don't clutter up your account).
6. Copy or export. Pick the item from the wrapped list or export the entire list to paste into Google Ads Editor or a spreadsheet to review prior to upload.

Why Keyword Wrapping is still relevant

That's a good question — given the amount of targeting that happens automatically with Smart Bidding and broad match, is it still worth the effort to manually wrap keywords? Yes, in a lot of respects, but here are a few specific reasons:

• Account structure control. It's a great idea to put the same keyword theme in wide, phrase and exact match ad groups so you can adjust your bids accordingly and find out over time which of the match types is really converting for the theme.
• Negative keyword lists. One of the quickest ways to prevent wasted spend is to put the list of irrelevant or low-intent terms into properly formatted negative keywords – and that's the same wrapping process, just reversed.
• Speed at scale. Manual formatting is tedious, not to mention being a portal to error (if you have hundreds of keywords in dozens of ad groups, the other guy will get an "exact match" keyword without you realizing it just changed the whole strategy, right under your nose!))
• Cross-platform consistency. Microsoft Ads employs the same syntax, so a single formatting pass works for both platforms.

A key word wrapper will help you avoid some of these common mistakes.

• A mismatch of brackets or quotes (a missing ], or " without brackets or quotes) alters the match type or cancels the import altogether.
• Duplicate keywords across capitalization — Running Shoes and running shoes are equivalent but are treated as if they're different keywords in Google Ads.
• Symbols, such as the exclamation mark (!), are not allowed in Google Ads keywords and are disallowed characters that would prevent an upload.
• Unconsistent match types in similar ad groups — manually wrapping keyword-by-keyword allows you to easily get hit with inconsistent match types in ad groups, which can make performance data confusing.
• Not to mention the negative match dash — negative keywords are simple to include as normal keywords by accident when formatting by hand!

The use of a Keyword Wrapper is common among several different types of users.

• Google Ads managers and agencies with large Google Ads and Microsoft Ads accounts who are building or restructuring their accounts.
• In-house marketers managing all of their paid search campaigns without a team of PPC professionals.
• Owners of campaigns who want a list of helpful keywords should not have to memorize each and every match type.
• SEO/PPC hybrid teams re-using their organic keyword research for paid search ad groups.

Some of the key points to consider when deciding on a good keyword wrapping tool are as follows.

• Bulk processing. It shouldn't get bogged down or limit your input with hundreds of keywords per list.
• Several matches simultaneously. The best tools do not require that you run the list three times to get the broad, phrase and exact match; they combine all three into one and then do it.
• Negative keyword support. An exclusive negative match output eliminates a second manual step.
• Make copies; clean up characters. Avoidable upload errors are avoided with automatic lowercase conversion and removal of disallowed symbols.
• Copy options in groups/combination. It's important to be able to copy one match type or all match types (simultaneously) when you are pasting to other ad groups.
• No login required. This is a simple and repeatable task — one that a signup gate adds unnecessary friction to it.
• Completes Google and Microsoft Ads tasks. Both share the same syntax so a tool which explicitly supports both saves you from having to re-check compatibility.

Frequently Asked Questions