RocketClicks

Can AdWords Keywords Contain Punctuation Marks?

Can I use a question mark in my keyword?  That’s a common question we hear.  Often, search query reports turn up phrases that are clearly questions, so there is merit to asking the question.  Would I get more traffic if I had both a keyword and the same keyword with a hyphen because people type it in differently?  Often PPC analysts prize granularity in AdWords account structure, so this a valid question we hear, too.  These issues are all bits of a bigger picture involving how AdWords defines keywords.  The main issue we want to clarify today: Do  punctuation and symbols matter in keywords in AdWords?

For the most part, the answer is no.  Google’s AdWords platform does not recognize non-letter characters in general when they appear in keywords. Two exceptions to this rule are accent marks an ampersands, so remember those two symbols as being distinctive, but in general you’ll just see an error or your punctuation marks will be ignored.

Before we go further note that for this blog entry we’re talking about punctuation in keywords, not ads.  Available punctuation in text ads in AdWords is more open and obeys its own set of guidelines.  We’re also not talking about what is permitted in naming ad groups or campaigns.  We’re limiting the scope of this article to punctuation and symbol use in keywords.

Characters That Cause Errors

Most symbol characters are not accepted by the AdWords platform in keywords. Expect an error message if you try to add keywords containing the following symbols to your campaigns:

! = ? @ % ^ *; ~ `, \ (){} <> |

Characters AdWords Ignores

Periods and dashes do not register in the keyword field in AdWords in any meaningful way. If you add these two symbol characters, AdWords will show them back to you and preserve where they exist, but AdWords will functionally ignore them. No error will be produced, but they will have no effect on advertising. The platform will act as if you typed a space instead of a period or hyphen.

As an example, AdWords will treat the following keywords as identical:

Rocket-Clicks is equivalent to Rocket Clicks

Wisconsin Ave. is equivalent to  Wisconsin Ave

rocketclicks.com is equivalent to rocketclicks com

Valid Symbol Characters in Keywords

The AdWords system recognizes two kinds of symbols in keywords: ampersands (which look like this: &) and accent marks (for example: á). When a keyword contains one of these characters, the keyword is considered a distinct keyword different from a keyword that does not use the symbol.

The following terms would be treated as different keywords by the AdWords platform:

C & M railway is distinct from C and M railway

Fuel cafe is distinct from Fuel café

Two Special Punctuation Cases: Defining Match Types

A keen observer may notice some common punctuation marks that are not listed as examples, brackets (For example: []) and quotations marks (for example: “).  These symbols have unique applications in AdWords.  They define match types.  Brackets are used around a keyword to note that the match type is exact match.   Quotation markets are used to note that the match type of a keyword in AdWords is phrase match.

[Rocket Clicks] means the keyword Rocket Clicks exact match

“Rocket Clicks” means the keyword Rocket Clicks phrase match

Rocket Clicks means the keyword Rocket Clicks broad match

Do Spaces Or Capitalization Matter When Entering Keywords?

Beyond punctuation, you might be wondering about capitalization and the use of spaces.  In the AdWords platform, capitalization does not matter when entering keywords.  Again, we should stress that we are discussing keywords in AdWords.  Capitalization in the ads that appear of course will yield varying results and should be split-tested.  However, capitalization of keywords as they are entered into the AdWords interface will not affect performance, although capitalization choices will be maintained.

As an example, AdWords will treat the following keywords as identical:

Glenn Livingston is equivalent to glenn livingston

RocketClicks is equivalent to rocketclicks

RocketClicks is equivalent to Rocketclicks

Spaces do matter.  Multi-word keywords are common, of course, and the spaces used to note where one word begins and one word ends are important signposts for the AdWords system.  Also, note that domains are often typed directly into search engines, and domains do not use spaces.

As an example, AdWords will treat the following keywords as distinct:

RocketClicks is distinct from Rocket Clicks

C&M railway is distinct from C & M railway

howstuffworks is distinct from how stuff works

Also, remember a hyphen is treated as a space, so while a hyphen itself may not matter, the space it takes up does matter.

split test is equivalent to split-test

split test is distinct from splittest

split-test is distinct from splittest

May all these AdWords guidelines help you sort duplication from opportunity in your keyword lists.

Rob Sieracki

Director of Paid Search