What is Exact Match?

Exact match is the narrowest of the three Sponsored Products keyword match types. Your ad is eligible only when the shopper's query is the keyword itself or a close variant of it, such as a plural or a common misspelling.

What exact match reaches

Take the keyword glass water bottle.

Close variants are Amazon's own normalisation, not literal string matching, and the set Amazon treats as close has widened over the years. Treat exact as the tightest control available rather than as absolute control, and read the search term report to see what it actually served on rather than assuming the keyword and the query are the same thing.

Why exact is the unit you optimise on

A broad or phrase keyword aggregates many intents, so its clicks and orders are a blend of several different shopper behaviours. An exact keyword carries roughly one intent, which is what makes revenue per click meaningful:

RPC = Ad sales ÷ Clicks
Target CPC = RPC × Target ACoS

Work from CPC, which is a measured fact, rather than from the current bid, which is only a setting. Immediately after a bid change the trailing ACoS still reflects the old bid.

Worked example

Suppose an exact keyword has produced £300 of ad sales from 200 clicks. RPC is £1.50. At a target ACoS of 25%, target CPC is £1.50 × 0.25, which is about 38p. If the keyword's actual CPC is 55p, the bid is too high for that goal. The right response is to step towards 38p across successive runs rather than drop straight to it, because every change alters the data that justified it.

Where exact belongs in a structure

Exact is where proven demand is held. Terms are discovered in auto, broad and phrase campaigns, then promoted once they clear a harvest gate: two or more orders on the same SKU, genuine category relevance, and enough volume to be worth separating. Branded, non-branded and competitor terms are kept apart, because branded conversion rates distort any blended figure.

How Shurq treats exact match

The bid engine applies its organic rank zone modifier to exact match targets only, since organic rank is defined against a specific query. Exact also carries the shortest patience allowance before a spending, non-converting target begins decaying: the patience budget is weighted by match type, with exact at 1.0, phrase at 1.25 and broad at 1.75.