6 Tips on Using Google Keyword Planner Effectively

How to Use Google Keyword Planner Effectively: 6 Tips

Using Google’s Keyword Planner in Your Business’ Digital Marketing Strategy

A woman’s hands typing on a laptop in front of a window

Today, it’s essential that businesses of all sizes have a digital marketing strategy. Whether you’re a small startup, a regional business, or a global brand, the truth is that Google processes over 3.5 billion searches every day. With that volume, Google Ads is the #1 search advertising provider. If your business is not familiar with how to use Google’s Keyword Planner to create Google Ads, you’re missing out.

For your digital advertising to be successful, you need to have a plan, and using Google Keyword Planner can help you create a solid one.

 

What is Google Keyword Planner?

Keyword Planner is a free feature within Google Ads that helps your business build lists of strong, relevant keywords that can help land your pay per click (PPC) ads in front of the right people. According to a 2020 report in Tech Jury, 80% of businesses use Google Ads for their PPC campaigns – the adoption rate is high because it’s easy to use and effective!

Are you ready to dive into the fundamentals of how to use Google Keyword Planner? This overview will explore strategies that will boost your PPC advertising to a new level.

 

Filter and Refine

Wondering how to use Google Keyword Planner to determine audience and PPC advertising budget? With this tool, there are several different options:

  • New Keywords Search: This is a great keyword brainstorming tool to input a phrase, webpage, or product category to come up with new keywords.

a screenshot of Google Keyword Planner’s New Keyword Search functio

  • Lists for Multiple keywords: Once you’ve created keyword lists, this feature allows you to combine them to search for new, relevant keywords.

a screenshot of keyword ideas on Google Keyword Planner

  • Search trends and volume: Show a keyword’s search volume and how it trends over time. 

a keyword’s search trends and volume on Google Keyword Planner

  • Forecasts for clicks and costs: Explore keyword performance projections based on your budget and average bid price.

a keyword forecast on Google Keyword Planner

Let’s now explore some of the terms and criteria you’ll encounter when using the Google Keyword Planner.

REACH: Who are you looking to connect with, and how will you “reach” them?

As you learn how to use Google’s Keyword Planner, you’ll discover how to analyze a keyword’s reach in a few different ways. These include:

  1. Location (the world, a country, region, city)

location forecasts on Google Keyword Planner

  1. Language (mission-critical for websites presented in multiple languages)
  2. Search Network
  3. Negative Keywords (removes any words or phrases you don’t want to see included)

a negative keyword list on Google Keyword Planner

DATE RANGE: How keywords trend over a particular time period. This feature allows you to see performance throughout different times of the year.

FILTERS and OPTIONS for Keywords: Target your ideal customer and maximize your budgeted dollars.

filter options on Google Keyword Planner

  • Average Monthly Searches: Filter select keywords by average monthly search volume for a date range. For smaller ecommerce businesses, zeroing in on keywords with mid-level search volume can help you run targeted ads on a small budget.
  • Suggested Bid: Explore keyword options to stay in control of your PPC advertising budget.
  • Ad Impression Share: Forecasts how many times your targeted audience will see your ad, divided by the overall number of Google searches for your selected keyword in the selected geographic location over the last month.
  • Impression Share for Organic Search: The percentage of times your business’ website appeared in organic search results for the targeted keyword.
  • Average Position for Organic Search: This shows how your business’ website pages rank in unpaid, organic search results.
  • Competition: Order your keywords by the level of difficulty for attaining a top Google Ads placement.

Filters help you refine your keyword lists but don’t get too carried away with restrictions, or you may miss opportunities! Cast a wide net to begin with and gradually test and narrow your filters as you become more familiar with using Google Keyword Planner and the suggestions it provides.

 

Quality vs. Quantity

A young woman sitting in an art studio looking at her smartphone.

Learning how to use Google Keyword Planner is also useful to help balance the number of keywords with keyword ranking. Keyword Planner can help you uncover new search terms and phrases customers are using to find goods and services directly related to your business. You can find suggested keywords in a few different ways:

  1. Enter words or short phrases relevant to your business.
  2. Enter the URL from a page on your business’s website to get a list of relevant keywords.
  3. Select a product category that describes your business to explore relevant keywords.

It’s easy to feel like a kid in a candy store when you’re given so many interesting suggestions, but remember to stick to your budget and make keyword selections that are realistic for your Google Ads campaign.

 

Target Your Geographic Audience

Knowing how to use the filters within Google Keyword Planner can help you customize where your ads are displayed based on your geographic location or language selections. This filter can help you determine which keywords and ads will be popular in a selected area or for designing campaigns in other languages.

 

Setting a PPC Advertising Budget

Every keyword is ranked at a low, medium, or high competition level. Keywords in the high competition category will cost much more per average bid than those in the low competition category. If you understand how to use Google Keyword Planner and interpret the data you can glean from it, you can use it to inform your bids for keywords. After determining which keywords fit into your advertising budget, you can create your PPC campaign around them.

 

Analyze and Maximize

Once you select viable keywords using the Google Keyword Planner, add them to your keyword plan. You can then receive a performance forecast that shows the keywords’ potential within your established budget. Use the forecast to add and remove keywords until you have a quality list. Knowing how to use Google Keyword Planner can help you analyze your advertising plan and maximize your budget.

 

Ready to Give it a Try?

Learning how to use Google Keyword Planner will give your business a useful tool for creating a successful Google Ads campaign. As you evaluate the outcomes of each PPC ad, you can easily make changes based on what works best. Ask questions, explore, and always be on the lookout for ways to improve the effectiveness of your digital advertising. If you have questions, reach out to our team to learn how Coalition Technologies can help your business succeed.

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