If you’re reading a Google Ads tutorial that tells you to put plus signs in front of your keywords — +running +shoes — close the tab. That technique controlled a match type called the broad match modifier, and Google retired it in 2021. The syntax no longer does anything special. Understanding what BMM was, and what absorbed it, still matters though, because the logic behind it lives on in how phrase match works today.
What the broad match modifier was
The broad match modifier (BMM) was a keyword match type in Google Ads that sat between broad match and phrase match. You created it by adding a plus sign directly in front of any word you wanted to require: +women’s +shoes. That syntax told Google your ad could only show if the search query contained those specific words, or close variants of them, in any order.
So +women’s +shoes would match “women’s running shoes” or “red shoes for women” — both contain the required terms — but not “men’s shoes” or “women’s boots,” because each is missing one of the words you’d locked in. It gave advertisers the wide, order-independent reach of broad match while forcing the searches to actually include the terms that mattered. For years it was a workhorse, often the default choice for advertisers who found plain broad match too loose and exact match too restrictive.
Why Google retired it
In February 2021, Google announced it was sunsetting BMM and merging its behavior into phrase match. By July 2021, you could no longer create new broad match modifier keywords, and existing ones were converted automatically. The plus-sign syntax was deprecated entirely.
The reasoning was consolidation. Google had two match types — BMM and phrase match — doing similar jobs with confusing, overlapping rules. The fix was to combine them. The new phrase match kept phrase match’s respect for word meaning while adopting BMM’s flexibility around word order, so advertisers no longer had to choose between two subtly different tools. One match type now does what previously took two.
What replaced it: the new phrase match
This is the part that still matters for anyone running campaigns today. After the merge, phrase match was redefined to cover most of what BMM used to do. Modern phrase match shows your ad for searches that include the meaning of your keyword, and it’s no longer strictly bound to word order the way old phrase match was.
So if you used to run +women’s +shoes as a broad match modifier, the equivalent today is simply the phrase match keyword “women’s shoes”. It captures essentially the same intent without any plus signs. If you have old documentation, spreadsheets, or naming conventions still using BMM syntax, the practical move is to read them as phrase match keywords — that’s what they’ve already become inside your account.
What this means if you’re auditing an old account
We still run into the ghost of BMM regularly. From our agency experience, when we take over a Google Ads account that’s been running for several years, we routinely find keyword names, internal playbooks, and bid-management rules written around the plus-sign system — even though the platform converted those keywords to phrase match long ago. A few things we check:
- Don’t trust old documentation. Any guide or internal SOP referencing the plus-sign modifier predates July 2021 and is stale on this point.
- Read converted keywords as phrase match. The keywords still in the account behave as phrase match now, regardless of how they were originally built.
- Re-evaluate the match strategy from scratch. Because the underlying matching changed, accounts built on old BMM assumptions often need their match-type mix rethought rather than just relabeled.
What we consistently see is that the merge made matching broader than the old BMM was, so accounts that relied on its tighter control sometimes started catching looser traffic after the conversion — which makes a solid negative keyword list more important than ever.
Frequently asked questions
Can I still use broad match modifier keywords?
No. Google stopped allowing new BMM keywords in July 2021 and converted all existing ones to phrase match. The plus-sign syntax is no longer a functioning match type — adding a plus sign to a keyword today does not create a modifier.
What should I use instead of BMM?
Use phrase match. It was specifically redefined to absorb BMM’s behavior, so a phrase match keyword now delivers roughly the reach and intent control that a broad match modifier used to. For most former BMM use cases, the phrase match version of the same keyword is the direct replacement.
What happened to my existing broad match modifier keywords?
Google converted them automatically — you didn’t need to do anything. They continue to run, now governed by phrase match rules. The main thing to know is that their matching behavior shifted somewhat during the transition, which is worth accounting for in older accounts.
Why does so much content still mention the broad match modifier?
Because it was a staple of paid search for years and a huge volume of articles, courses, and tutorials were written about it before 2021. Plenty of that material was never updated. If a resource walks you through plus-sign syntax as a current tactic, treat it as out of date.
Related terms
- Phrase Match — the match type that absorbed BMM’s behavior and is its direct replacement today.
- Broad Match Keywords — the widest match type, which BMM used to sit just below.
- Exact Match — the tightest match type, for maximum control over which searches trigger your ad.
- Negative Keywords — more important than ever after the merge made matching broader.
- Smart Bidding — the automated bidding that has reduced the need for the granular control BMM once provided.
