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Lessons Catalogue

Lesson 7a: Account Performance Tools

Keyword Tool
• About the Tool
• Using the Tool
• Reviewing Your Keyword Results
• Quiz

• About the Tool
• Using the Tool
• Quiz

• About the Tool
• Using the Tool

• Campaign Negatives

 		   
Keyword Tool « Previous Topic       Next Topic  »

Objective: Need more keywords? Learn to use this tool to:

  • find and add new keywords to your Ad Groups
  • refine your keyword list
  • find negative keywords and
  • see additional keywords that can also trigger your ads (expanded matches).

About the Tool Back to Top

The Keyword Tool has many uses. It can help you find new or negative keywords, improve your keyword list, estimate keyword traffic and see additional search terms that may trigger your ads. Once you've finished selecting your keywords, you can add them directly to an ad group or download them in a .csv (spreadsheet) file.

Before you begin ...

Before you select your keywords, carefully review the variations returned by the Keyword Tool. Ask yourself if someone searching on these keywords would be looking for your product or service.

If you aren't offering what some of the returned keywords describe, these keywords would be less relevant to your business. You can manually add them directly to your list as negative keywords. For example, if you only sell new books, you can add '-' to the keyword used, since you don't sell used books. Your negative keyword would be -used within an ad group featuring books.

Adding negative keywords can help reduce untargeted impressions for your ad and preserve your account's click-through rate (CTR). CTR is important because it's part of the Quality Score formula that helps determine your ad's position on the page.

Using the Tool Back to Top

Access the Keyword Tool from within your ad group to get results based on your existing campaign settings and your account's performance history:

  1. Sign in to your AdWords account at https://adwords.google.co.uk.
  2. Select the appropriate campaign and ad group.
  3. Select the Keywords tab.
  4. Click Keyword tool.
  5. In the field labelled How would you like to generate keyword ideas?, use the options labelled Descriptive words or phrases, Website content or Existing keyword to create a keyword list. You can switch between options without losing your work. You'll find detailed instructions below for using each option.
  6. Show or hide columns in the statistics table for each group with the Choose columns to display drop-down menu.
  7. If you show the Estimated Ad Position or Estimated Avg. CPC columns, a field labelled Calculate estimates using a different maximum CPC bid will appear. If you leave the field blank, the estimates in these two columns will be based on the maximum cost-per-click (CPC) bid that would be likely to place your ads in the first, second or third position on a Google search result page. To see how the estimates change, enter a different maximum CPC and click Recalculate.
  8. Use the drop-down menu in the Match Type column if you want to change the match type for all your keyword results. The keywords are a broad match by default.
  9. Click Add next to a particular keyword to move it to the keyword list in the shaded box. Use the drop-down menu next to Add if you'd like to change a keyword's match type first. Keywords that are already included in your ad group will be marked and you won't be able to move them.
  10. Click Add your own keywords to expand a field and add any more keywords that you can think of. Click Add to List when you've finished.
  11. Click Get more related keywords to generate additional keyword ideas based on the keywords that you selected for your ad group. This feature is a useful way to refine your original Keyword Tool results.
  12. Download keywords by clicking text, .csv (for Excel) or .csv. You'll need a spreadsheet programme to open a .csv file.
  13. Click Save to a different ad group if you'd like to save your keywords to a different ad group from the one from which you accessed the tool. Choose your preferred campaign and ad group from the drop-down menus.
  14. Click Estimate Search Traffic to see traffic estimates for the keyword list that you've built.
    • Click delete next to any keywords that you no longer want.
    • Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page when you're satisfied with your keyword list.
    • Your new keywords will be lost if you click Cancel. We recommend that you do not click Estimate Search Traffic until you've finished building your keyword list.
  15. If you didn't go to the Estimate Search Traffic page, save your keywords by clicking Save to Ad Group in the shaded box.

'Descriptive words or phrases' option

Choose this option to generate keyword ideas from terms that describe your product or service. This option will be selected for you by default.

  1. In the field provided, enter terms describing your product or service. Make sure that you enter only one word or phrase per line. For example, if you sell tarts, you might enter the terms:
      home-made tarts
      apple tarts
      rhubarb tarts
  2. Leave Use synonyms ticked to get the widest range of keyword results. If you clear the box, the Keyword Tool will only give results that contain at least one of the terms that you entered.
  3. Click Filter my results to restrict the keyword ideas that the tool generates.
  4. Click Get Keyword Ideas. The results will be organised in order of relevance to the terms that you entered.
  5. Follow steps 6 to 15 at the top of the page.

'Website content' option (limited language release)

Choose this option to generate keyword ideas based on the content of any web page.

  1. Enter the full URL of a web page in the field provided (example: http://www.google.co.uk/index.html). In most cases, we would recommend entering your ad group's Destination URL.
  2. Tick Include other pages on my site linked from this URL if you'd like the Keyword Tool to evaluate other web pages with the same domain that are one link away from the URL. For instance, www.mysite.co.uk/apples has the same domain as www.mysite.co.uk/oranges.
  3. Click Or enter your own text in the box below (optional) if you'd like to enter your own text rather than use a URL. A field will expand in which you will be able to input text that is relevant to your product or service. For instance, you could enter seasonal marketing or advertising print copy that may not be available on your website for the entire year.
  4. Click Filter my results to restrict the keyword ideas that the tool generates.
  5. Click Get Keyword Ideas. The results will be organised into groups of related terms. The group that is the most relevant to the web page that you entered will appear first.
  6. Follow steps 6 to 15 at the top of the page.

'Existing keyword' option

Choose this option to generate keyword ideas based on one of your existing keywords that has earned a high click-through rate (CTR).

  1. Click Filter my results to restrict the keyword ideas generated by the tool.
  2. Click one of the keywords listed in the shaded area to get keyword ideas. The results will be organised in order of relevance to the keyword that you selected.
  3. Follow steps 6 to 15 at the top of the page.

Reviewing Your Keyword Results Back to Top

The keyword results returned from your search will be listed in a table. You can view your keywords along with various statistics and sort by the columns provided. Use these features to help you decide which keywords will be the most cost-effective and relevant for your business or service.

I. Keyword Match Type

The tool automatically produces results based on the broad match variation of the keyword(s) entered. All views include a Match type column. You can change the match type shown and add other keyword matching variations directly to an ad group. However, changing the match type via this column won't actually change the broad match statistics shown and is intended to assist you in managing your keyword list only.

II. Keyword Tool Views

Show or hide columns in your Keyword Tool results with the Choose columns to display drop-down menu. Each column shows estimated performance statistics about the keyword results to help you choose the best ones to add to your ad group. Available statistics are:

  • Estimated Ad Position: Your ads' estimated position on Google for these keywords
  • Estimated Avg. CPC: Your ads' estimated average cost-per-click (CPC) on Google for these keywords
  • Advertiser Competition: The number of advertisers worldwide bidding on each keyword relative to all keywords across Google
  • Previous Month's Search Volume: The relative number of users who searched for these keywords on Google
  • Avg. Search Volume: The average monthly search volume on Google for each keyword over a recent 12-month period
  • Search Volume Trends: Fluctuations in Google search volume for each keyword over a recent twelve-month period
  • Highest Volume Occurred In: The month in which·each keyword received the highest Google search volume within a recent 12-month period
  • Status: The predicted status of each keyword, i.e. whether a keyword will be Active or Inactive for search
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