The Google Ads Keyword Planner tool is a useful resource for building strong keyword lists and helping to get your PPC campaign off to a running start. A free-to-use feature within Google Ads, its tools for generating keyword ideas and bid estimations can help you plan your marketing strategy. By using the Google Ads Keyword Tool, you can search for keyword and ad group ideas, see how a list of keywords might perform, and even combine keyword lists to create new ones. It can also help you choose competitive bids and budgets to use in your campaigns. For example, let’s say you run a Vermont-based business selling locally-made and sourced maple syrup across the country. The Google Ads Keyword Tool can help you identify terms, phrases, and words potential customers are searching for related to your business that you may not have thought of before. You may be bidding against the phrase “handmade syrup” and “locally sourced syrup,” but the Google Ads Keyword Tool might uncover related and frequently-searched terms like “breakfast condiment,” “handcrafted syrup,” etc. Once you understand the basics of using the Google Ads Keyword Tool, there are several strategies you can adopt to help take your campaign to the next level. Check out these tips on how to use the Keyword Planner to help your ad find its way to a potential customer’s search the moment they want what you offer.
When you start using the Keyword Planner, you’ll be given four options:
When you input keywords into any of these options, you’ll get a list or report which you can then filter based on a variety of elements:
REACH
DATE RANGE Lets you enter a specific date range so you can see average monthly searches for that time period. You can also compare two different date ranges. This could be especially useful in determining if certain keywords perform better during different times of year, to help you strategize your campaign timing.
KEYWORD FILTERS
KEYWORD OPTIONS Lets you further narrow your research to show only ideas that are closely related to your search terms or content, keywords that are already in your plan, and more.
While the purpose of filters is to whittle down your keyword list or report, remember not to set too many restrictions. Consider starting general, using just one or no filters to start, and testing out the filters to make sure you aren't overlooking any opportunities. As you become more familiar with keywords in your industry and the filtering options available, you’ll start to find what filter options work for you. Now that you have the basics on how to use the Keyword Planner, it's time to explore some strategies for making the most of it.
If you’re struggling to think outside the box for keywords, or to find ones that are relevant to your business, the Keyword Planner can help you discover new terms and phrases potential customers are using to search for businesses like yours. The tool allows you to view Google-recommended keywords generated by:
When analyzing the suggestions the tool gives you, keep in mind that if a keyword has high search volume, there might also be a lot of competition for it, raising its suggested bid. Try to choose keywords that are realistic for your campaign, and that won't absorb the majority of your budget.
The Keyword Planner’s filters allow you to customize where your ads show up based on language or location. This may be particularly useful if, for example, your business has a physical storefront, and you’re therefore hoping to reach more people searching around your location. While a keyword may have a high search volume nationally or across other wide areas, the filter can help you determine whether it’s a popular and relevant term in your local area. Back to our Vermont-based maple syrup business example, you can set your filters to whatever specificity — whether that’s within your city (Putney), state (Vermont), country (USA) and beyond. Your results in the keyword planner tool will show the average monthly search volume, search trends, suggested bid, etc., for Putney, Vermont, or whatever you’ve set as your geographic area. These filters will also let you design your campaigns around different languages. If you find that your company is popular with both English and Spanish speakers, using the Google Ads keyword tool helps you find the most relevant keywords in each language, so you can create separate ad groups to reach both audiences.
The competition level for keyword choices can substantially inflate their costs. Based on how many other people are bidding on it, a particular keyword’s competition level is ranked low, medium, or high. High competition keywords cost more per average bid, and using them may make it more difficult — and expensive — for your ad to gain a top-level viewing position. Using the Google Ads keyword tool can help you find effective keywords that fit your budget by showing you what other advertisers are paying for keywords. The tool’s suggested bid column shows the average amount being spent to rank in a top level position for a particular keyword. You can see which of your desired keywords are within reach of your budget, and build your campaign around them to improve your chances of being seen by potential customers. While the suggested bid feature provides a good estimation of general costs, Google's first page bid estimate tool provides an estimate of how much it will cost to rank on the first results page based on the Quality Score of your keywords and current competition for them. To view the estimated first page bid metric for your keywords, follow these steps:
If the first page bid estimate is very high, it may mean that your keyword's Quality Score is poor. You can click the Help bubble next to your keyword to find more details. To find out more about this topic, check out our article on first page bid estimates.
As you discover keywords that are viable options, click the button to the right of the column to add them to your keyword plan. This will temporarily store your potential keywords. Once the keywords are in your plan, you can set a daily budget, bid maximum and location to receive a detailed forecast about the potential for the keywords that you've chosen. Once you have a list of 10-20 keywords for your group, clicking on the Review Forecasts button will display the estimated clicks, impressions, average position, and average conversion rate for your potential keywords so you can analyze whether they’re realistic for your budget range. Use your findings to add and delete keywords until you have a refined list that will help make the most of your budget. The Google Ads Keyword Planner is a useful tool to lay the groundwork for a successful PPC campaign. No matter your budget or company size, this tool can help you customize your keywords for more efficiency. Keep these strategies for how to use the Keyword Planner tool in mind to help your online marketing campaign succeed. If you still have questions about using the Google Ads Keyword tool, check out this helpful support page.
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