Google Keywords Planner

• Search for “Google AdWords”
• Select Start Now when prompted
• You’ll get to a screen that asks “What’s your main advertising goal?” – At this point, you can opt to create an account and pay for the actual ad, OR, you can scroll to the bottom and select “Switch to Expert Mode”
• You’ll unlock the Google Ads campaign screen and you can do all kinds of things from there, but for today’s discussion you’ll want to select the small link beneath the main options once again, “Create an account without a campaign”
• You’ll be asked to confirm your business information and should hit submit. Worry not, no credit cards will be asked for.
• Click Explore Your Account
• Select the Tools/Settings and Switch to Expert Mode. This allows you to continue without making a paid account.
• The Keyword Planner is also located in the Tools menu.

How to Use Google Keywords Planner

• You have two choices when beginning the Keywords Planner. Find keywords or Get search volume and forecasts. Both paths lead to the Keyword Plan, but they will be a teensy bit different.
  • Find Keywords: This is where you should look to get an idea of what keywords you should be picking for your website.
    • Enter the products or services related to your business or website when prompted, along with your URL.
    • Depending on the items you entered, you’ll get a general report showing you the average monthly searches, competition rate, prices to get to the top of the SERP’s (search engine results page) and some suggestions on other keywords.

Fiddle around with these suggestions as much as you like, and when you have the list of words you want to use, move to the search volume and forecasts.

• Get search volume and forecasts: If you already have your list of keywords to research results on, you can come straight here. If you’ve used this after the “Find Keywords” tool, that’s fine too. This is where you get reports and stats.
  • Here you add all your desired keywords to get an idea of how well your ad would do with such keywords attached.
  • You’ll see how much it will cost per click, how many clicks you could get, projections for impressions (how many times your digital ad appears on a web user’s screen), and CTRs (click through rates: measures how many clicks your advertisements get based on the impressions).
  • If you’re just trying to find the best AdWords to use, you’ll also want to click on the Historical Metrics tab. This shows you the range of searches from the last year.

Now if you’re like me, you’ll see these ranges of 1K-10K or 10K-100K and be very very annoyed. That doesn’t tell you much does it? For example, one of my keywords was content. Why? I produce it! Well that range was 100K-1M. Well which is it? There’s a 900,000 difference! You can find other programs out there that will give you exact numbers (or at least closer), but they won’t be free.

Another way to get ideas for your keywords is to check out your competitors. Now, you don’t want to do this for your content, as that’s a cheap way to steal, but definitely look at their keywords. They may have a better insight to your niche than you do. Especially if you’re like me these days and trying to find those free tools that don’t really exist. Do some research into your area or your products. Maybe there’s something you’re missing altogether. Maybe you’re just advertising the wrong way. Are you aiming your keywords too broad or too narrow? It will all depend on your niche and your audience, so you’ll need to know those too.

As always, if you have any questions, leave a comment. Want to have a more detailed discussion? Check out the contact form and drop me a line!