Google has an impressive array of tools that you can use to improve your digital marketing. In this guide, I want to look specifically at Google Ads Keyword Planner. I’ll explain what it is, how you can get started, and a handful of simple ways you can use it for your SEO, PPC, and content marketing.
What is Google Ads Keyword Planner?
The Keyword Planner is a free tool that anyone who has a Google Ads account can use. It offers a wealth of information about search trends including average monthly search volumes, expected cost per clicks and allows you to generate keyword lists to use within your Paid Search campaigns.
The data you gather and the keywords you find can then be put to use in your various digital marketing strategies. The core emphasis is on Google Ads and PPC marketing, but the keyword information can also translate to other areas of your marketing such as SEO and content marketing.
I’ve summarised the main benefits of Google Ads Keyword Planner in the below bullets:
- Discover thousands of new keywords to target in your marketing.
- See useful metrics like monthly search volumes.
- Get an idea of the relevant bidding cost of keywords for Google Ads.
- Manage and organise your keywords in relation to your different marketing strategies.
- As a starting point to create new Google Ads PPC campaigns.
- Identify negative keywords to exclude search phrases from your campaigns
How to Get Started with Google Ads Keyword Planner
As I mentioned, Google Ads Keyword Planner is free to use, but you must have a Google Ads account to use it. You can create your Google Ads account by clicking the “start now” link on the following page – https://ads.google.com/home/.
You then essentially have to go through a preliminary process of creating an initial ad and setting your account up. Once you have completed this, you can logon to your Google Ads dashboard.
When on the dashboard home screen, click on the menu bar on the left-hand side (it should be three horizontal lines), click on tools, then planning, then keyword planner. This will open Google Ads Keyword Planner and you can start exploring what it has to offer.
5 Ways to Use Google Ads Keyword Planner
If you’re not familiar with this tool, the Google Ads Keyword Planner could be daunting – there is a lot to take in. With that in mind, I’ve listed five ways you can use it for your digital marketing and PPC strategies.
1. To Generate Keyword Ideas
The main reason businesses use Google Ads Keyword Planner is to generate keyword ideas for targeting in your Google Ads Search campaigns. It’s common to start your keyword research journey by brainstorming ideas. You might sit down with your team and think about what your ideal customer would search for if they wanted to find your business/services/products.
Your team might be able to come up with a few ideas, but ultimately brainstorming has limits and this is where Google Ads Keyword Planner takes over. You can input those initial brainstorming ideas and Google Ads Keyword Planner will do the rest for you and generate a huge list of related keywords.
Oftentimes I find when using the keyword generation feature, the lists it creates span into the thousands. This is way more than you could ever think of and it will include a heap of niche keywords that you may not have considered – and of course, many that you will not want your ads to show for.
If your industry allows, there can also be the option to “broaden your search” – this shows a list of similar topics that you could create keyword lists for, but remember that this isn’t for everyone. If your offering is very specific then this may not be a great idea.
This wealth of keyword information can serve as the starting point for your entire SEO, PPC, and content marketing strategies. From these lists, you will then be able to generate your Google Search campaigns, blog ideas, tag headlines for SEO, and a wealth of other marketing material.
2. To Analyse Keyword Search Volume and Cost
Search volume relates to how many people have typed in a specific keyword or search term on Google within a set time period such as the MSV (Monthly Search Volume). This is one of the most important keyword metrics to consider and you can gain a wealth of information about this from Google Ads Keyword Planner.
When you generate keyword ideas from the Keyword Planner you should see MSV as the second column. This will be a fairly wide range of search volume, such as 1k-10k, for example. You can refine this and get a more specific figure by adding keywords to your plan – the impression metrics on the plan view is usually a good indication of the MSV.
If there is enough search volume, the planner will also identify expected cost per clicks and level of competition, typically the higher the competition the higher the average CPC, this identifies both the low range CPC and high range CPC – giving you an idea of what you are likely going to pay per click in peak search times compared to when there are fewer advertisers competing for the top spot on Google for that key search term.
Once you understand search volumes, expected CPCs and competition for your keywords lists, you can think about your strategies. For example, do you try and compete for the keywords with the highest search volume? Or do you go for niche keywords that can have less competition, but are also searched for less?
This is a balancing act and you will be able to refine your strategies over time. In most instances, it’s ideal to utilize a combination of high and low search volume keywords.
Key Tip:
Always remember your available budget when completing this research, if you have a small daily budget, let’s say £10 per day, then you ideally need your average cost per click to be no more than £1 to allow your campaigns enough searches to be effective. Try to ensure that your total daily budget is more than 10x your average CPC.
3. To Gain a Better Understanding of Search Intent
Search intent relates to why your customer is typing that specific term into Google – what do they intend to get from their search?
For example, someone searching for “how to find a local business accountant” is nearer the start of the sales funnel – they are simply gathering info and understanding how to pick an accountant. In contrast, someone searching for “local business accountants in Nottinghamshire” has a more immediate intent – they have the info they need and want to find a business they can make an enquiry with.
Goole Keywords Planner allows you to analyse search intent and gain a clearer understanding of what your customers want. You can do this by looking at your keyword lists and also testing these keywords on Google searches to see what results and content are returned.
By understanding search intent, you can then tailor your content accordingly to make sure it matches and results in higher CTRs.
4. Identify Negative Keywords
The main point of Google Ads Keywords Planner is to help you get started with your PPC campaigns.
It can be a great way to identify and exclude certain search terms from triggering your adverts to show, for example, you might want to target “local business accountants” and notice that the keyword planner shows a high volume of searches for “cheap accountant for small business usa”. There are a few keywords here that may not be relevant – “cheap”, “small” and “USA”, so you could look at excluding some or all of these by adding them as negative keywords to your campaigns.
This information will be invaluable in creating your ad campaigns and the more thorough you are with this in the early stages of your campaign set up the more effective your performance will be initially.
5. To Check on Competitor Keywords
If you want to stay ahead of your competition then you have to know what they are doing! Google Keyword Planner allows you to do this by analysing competitor keywords. To do this, simply type in the website address of one of your competitors in the search bar and a list of keywords together with useful metrics is shown.
From this list, you can produce an entire new list of potential keywords to use in your PPC campaigns, SEO strategies, and content marketing. You might see keywords that you would not have considered, or areas where you think you could beat your competitors. You may also notice clear gaps in keyword coverage that your competitors aren’t using that you could jump on.
Remember, just because Google are suggesting a keyword, doesn’t mean that your competitor is targeting it, or that it will work. Be careful with your testing and if you are using this to broaden an existing campaign add new keyword themes gradually so that you don’t disrupt the effectiveness of your existing campaign.
Use Google Ads Keyword Planner as a Part of Your Digital Marketing Strategy
To use Google Ads Keyword Planner effectively you have to be willing to put in a little extra time and effort to understand how the platform works and what it can do. The more you learn, the more you will be able to get out of your keyword research.
Furthermore, with the addition of some key metrics from your business such as average order value and lead to sale conversion rates, the keyword planner can be used to forecast an expected return on investment from your paid advertising campaigns.
If you are new to the world of Google Ads and want to start PPC marketing for your business, you can get in touch with us. This is one of the areas we specialise in and we can help you get the most out of Google Ads Keyword Planner.
