Beneath all the technical jargon, complicated tools, and ever-developing strategies, search marketing still comes down to one thing - which words your customers are typing into a search bar. If you don’t know what those words are, you are essentially trying to navigate the world of digital marketing without a map. And relying on guesswork is unlikely to get you very far. This is where Google Keyword Planner comes in.
Google Keyword Planner remains of the most reliable and useful platforms in the business because it’s built directly using Google’s own data. And best of all, it’s completely free! So if you're new to digital marketing, here’s a straightforward guide to getting real, actionable value out of Keyword Planner.
First off, let’s just clear up one of the most common misconceptions about Keyword Planner - that you need to be running paid ads to use it.
You don't.
When you first set up a Google Ads account, Google will try very hard to get you to create a smart campaign and enter your billing details. But if you’re not ready to run ads, you can just ignore this.
There should be a link that says ‘Switch to Expert Mode’ or ‘Create an account without a campaign’. From here, you’ll be able to access Google Ads, and you can find Keyword Planner in the ‘Tools’ section.
The only downside to this, is that with a free account, you will get less granular data. For instance, search volumes will show in much wider brackets. However, it still offers a lot of value and is a great place to start.
Now we’ve cleared that up, here’s how you can use Keyword Planner to your advantage:
When you open the tool, you’ll be given a few options. Always start with ‘Discover new keywords’. From there, you can get things going in one of two ways:
When you first get Google to provide you with results, you will be met with a big table of information, which might look intimidating if you're new to keyword research. However, you can easily filter this down to something more manageable, and to a set of keywords that are actually important.
To do that, keep your eyes on these three columns:
This is the number of times that a term is searched in a month. Just be aware that bigger isn’t always better. A keyword with 10,000 searches might be way too broad for you to easily convert into sales, while a highly specific keyword with 150 searches might be exactly what you can provide and what your buyers are looking for, proving more effective for conversions.
This tells you how many advertisers are actively bidding on a term. High competition is not a bad thing because it means there is plenty of actual intent. If other businesses are willing to pay for that click, it means it reliably leads to revenue for them.
This summarises the intent and the value of the end conversion. If advertisers are happily paying £5.00 a click for a search term, you know that keyword has serious buying power.
Use the filters at the top to clean up your list. You can also use phrases to filter - for example if you are selling a premium service, immediately filter out queries containing words like ‘cheap’ or ‘free’, as these aren't relevant to you.
Once you have a clean list of keywords, it's important that you don't just export the CSV and call it a day. You need to group your keywords by user intent - are they looking for information or are they ready to buy?
Informational queries (e.g., ‘how to train for a trail run’) belong on your blog and in your organic content strategy, but transactional queries (e.g., ‘where to buy waterproof trail running shoes online’) belong on your product pages and ultimately in your paid search campaigns.
If you group your filtered keywords this way, you’ll have a better idea of how to use the information you’ve gathered from Keyword Planner.
Google Keyword Planner isn't just for PPC managers building ad groups. It provides a direct look into the market and into the mind of people who are searching for the product or service that you offer. Load it up, use the filters, and start building a marketing strategy backed by actual data, rather than just guesswork.
If you need expert guidance using Google Keyword Planner or conducting keyword, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us today.
