Even if all the search engines use the same concept of match types, there are few differences in their specificity in all the three main search engines.
The three main keywords match type are:
1. Exact Match: an ad return for this keyword only if it is exactly the same spellings and the words are typed in this order.
e.g.: [hotel Paris] = only if an user type exactly those two word, your ad can return. It won’t return if the user type “Paris hotel”
2. Phrase Match: your ad can return if a query include your keyword in the exact same order but also if another term is added to the query before or after, the term you bought.
e.g “hotel Paris” = your ad can return for keyword “hotel paris” but also for “4 star hotel Paris”or “hotel Paris la defense”
3. Broad Match: this is the most flexible match type but also the less targeted. Your ad can return if any query includes your keywords in any order, contain misspellings, singular/plural or have words between the terms you bought.
e.g: Hotel paris = your ad can be shown for “paris hotel”, “hotel in paris”, “paris hotels” or “hotels near paris la defense”.
This last match type can be interesting to use when you start a new campaign, to get some new ideas of the keywords you can buy, as you could run a “Search Query Performance Report” on Google after a couple of weeks and it will tell you for which keyword Google decided to show your ad. However, the more your campaign is developed, the more you stay away from this match type. You will notice in the search query report that your ad return also for terms you are not interested in, so in this case you should put those words as negative keywords.
e.g: your hotel is located in the West part of Paris, you bought the terms “Hotel Paris” and you don’t want to return for the terms “hotel east paris” as the traffic will not be relevant for you.
4. Negative Keyword: if your terms is “hotel Paris” in Broad match, if you add the terms “east” as a negative, your ad won’t return for request “hotel east paris”.
Comment: Google only distinguish between keywords with accent mark or not. “Café” is a different keyword than “cafe”. It doesn’t impact a campaign run in English as few words have accent mark, but it has huge consequences for campaigns run in German, French or Spanish, for example.