Earlier quoted context omitted.
> included as well not so closely related variants like synonyms and related searches, given that you said it meant "plural to singular." That is not true except with broad match. you are confusing broad match with close variant matching. close Variant matching on phrase and exact match only triggers really close variants, like I indicated. There are also adwords scripts that give you even more control http://www.bra…
I don't think it's me who was confused here. Or let's say my confusion arose from trying to reconcile what you said ("There is no default other than showing you very closely related variant matching") with the actual default. Probably it's good advice to never used the default settings. And maybe it's ok to ignore what is the default. But I find really amusing that you, an expert with over a decade of experience, is…
Broad match is really not a default in the traditional sense...it is a default if you are too lazy/arrogant/dumb to understand how Google serves ads in the most basic way before flipping the switch on.
If you are too lazy to google Adwords Beginner or read Googles getting started documentation, you only have yourself to blame. Understanding match types is absolute fundamentals day one stuff.
Yes, if you want to be completely blind, you get backed into a default, but you only have yourself to blame if that happens...it is so fundamental and easy to discover that I just cant reconcile a rational scenario with not knowing enough to not end up defaulting to broad match with no idea that there is even a thing called match types.
Edit: just to add to this, I was being literal when I mentioned 2 minutes...it literally does not take more than 2 minutes to learn how Google matches ads to queries...
Edit2: I realize I am being a little defensive and unforgiving. The truth is, I can see plenty of people making this mistake...just assuming that its super easy to advertise...I guess I get a little emotional because its such a easy thing to learn. Its like my mom asking me a technical question that I simply Google and tell her the answer...she could have easily googled it herself :) understandable but frustrating!