How to Use Google Keyword Planner

Google Ads, formerly known as Google Adwords, has an immense reputation among entrepreneurs, high-ranking executives, and business owners. You simply open an account, create an ad, and run it live.

The only caveat is that you’ll pay for every click your campaign generates, whether the person behind the click visits your website or place of business and converts or not. This is certainly a risk proposition, but if you execute your campaign properly, you can generate more attention and revenue for your business, much more than your ad budget.

To make matters better, Google allows advertisers to easily locate popular keywords people use to find local businesses and shop for online products. This tool is called Google Keyword Planner.

It’s been used for decades by advertisers, and while there are certainly other keyword research tools available, Google Keyword Planner is still useful. Below, you’ll learn what Google Keyword Planner is, why it’s important, and how to use the tool to achieve success with your campaign.

What is Google Keyword Planner?

Google Keyword Planner is a keyword research tool that’s native to Google Ads. The tool allows advertisers to perform research on search terms consumers use to find businesses.

Google Keyword Planner lists an exhaustive number of keywords that are relevant to your industry in the following categories:

• Keyword (by relevance) — This is simply the categories of keywords or search terms you’ll encounter based on the relevance of each term to your search.
• Monthly Searches — This is the number of searches each keyword receives. The higher the number, the more popular the keyword is.
• Competition — This is the level of competition you’ll encounter when bidding and ranking for a keyword. Competition and search volume are usually intertwined. This makes sense because popular keywords will be heavily bidded on by your competitors, so ranking for them will be difficult and vice versa.
• Top of Page Bid (Low-High Range) — This is the amount you can expect to pay to bid for a keyword.

As you can see, Google Keyword Planner provides a lot of insightful data that can help you choose suitable keywords to bolster your campaign. It’s an invaluable tool for advertisers to turn popular keywords into conversions.

Benefits of Using Google Keyword Planner

A lot of advertisers resort to using their own imagination when selecting keywords for their campaign. Some barely glance at Google Keyword Planner and others rely on external keyword research solutions.

If you’re here, then you’re likely to ask “why should I even give Google Keyword Planner a chance?” Here are all of the benefits of choosing to use Google Keyword Planner for your campaign:

• Precision — By using Google Keyword Planner, you can target keywords that will deliver adequate search traffic to your ads. This will create precise ads designed to capture the attention of your target audience.
• ROI — By investing into keywords that are balanced in search volume and competition, you can earn much more than you spend on bids. Thus, you’ll receive the possibility to earn $5 for every $1 you spend.
• Foresight — By using Google Keyword Planner, you can gain crucial foresight into how your campaign will perform. The tool shows you exactly how much traffic your campaign can generate.
• Money-Saver — Other keyword research tools will cost you money, especially if you plan on performing bulk research. Using Google Keyword Planner is completely free.

Using Google Keyword Planner can make or break your Google Ads campaign. The good news is that Google Keyword Planner is a very simple tool to use. Below, we’ll show you the steps for finding keywords and creating lists using the tool.

How to Use Google Keyword Planner

The first step of using Google Keyword Planner is knowing what type of data you want to receive. When opening the tool, you’ll be presented with four options:

1. Search for new keywords.
2. Multiple keyword lists.
3. Get search volume and trends.
4. Get click and cost performance forecasts.

If you’re new to creating a campaign, you’ll need to select the first option. Then, you’ll be able to insert a sample keyword to find other relevant ones. For example, if you’re selling men’s athletic gear, you can try using the keyword “men’s running shoes” to see which search terms people are using to find this product.

Google Keyword Planner will showcase thousands of different keyword combinations you can choose to add to your campaign. Once you add a keyword to your campaign, you’ll automatically place a bid on it.

Thus, it’s important to review the third and fourth option first to see how much search volume a keyword is bringing in and how much you expect to spend in the long run. If your campaign is already running, you can experiment with the second option to consolidate multiple keyword lists to achieve maximum exposure.

Should You Use Google Keyword Planner on Your Own?

At first, Google Keyword Planner looks like an intimidating tool. After all, it shows a lot of important data for your campaign. If you’re willing to devote the time and resources to mastering the tool, using Google Keyword Planner is a great idea.

However, if you want to instead focus on running your business and simply don’t have the bandwidth to invest in Google Ads or Google Keyword Planner. The obvious reason is that you’ll be charged an amount for every time a person clicks on your ad.

If you just run your campaign and forget about it, you’re bound to lose hundreds and even thousands of dollars in the process. To avoid making this costly mistake, partner with a reputable PPC agency today to explore your options.

Want to Grow your Google Ads Campaign?

Elevating your Google Ads campaign will ultimately depend on the PPC agency you hire for the job. Are your Google Ads not showing? Perhaps, you’ve had your Google Ads account suspended?

At PPC.co, we specialize in helping companies fix their broken ad spend and turn wasted opportunities into lucrative conversions.

Contact us today to speak to a member of our expert keyword planning team about receiving a free proposal for your campaign.

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Samuel Edwards

Chief Marketing Officer at PPC Agency

In his 9+ years as a digital marketer, Sam has worked with countless small businesses and enterprise Fortune 500 companies and organizations including NASDAQ OMX, eBay, Duncan Hines, Drew Barrymore, Washington, DC based law firm Price Benowitz LLP and human rights organization Amnesty International.

He is a recurring speaker at the Search Marketing Expo conference series and a TEDx Talker. Today he works directly with high-end clients across all verticals to maximize search engine marketing (SEM) ROI. Connect with Sam on Linkedin.

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