Refine your new keywords in Keyword Planner

To access Keyword Planner:

  • Your account must be using Expert Mode. You won’t be able to access Keyword Planner if your account is using Smart Mode.
  • You must complete your account setup by entering your billing information and creating a campaign. If you’re not yet ready to spend money, you can choose to pause your campaigns.
Keyword Planner lets you discover new keyword ideas to help you create a list of keywords for your Search campaigns. The next step is to refine the ideas that are most relevant to your campaigns.

This article shows you how to narrow your list of keywords to find those most relevant to your business.

Instructions

With the “Discover new keywords” option of the Keyword Planner, you can:

1. Filter and refine by category

  • Filter your results to get a better understanding of the potential success of specific keyword ideas. To edit filters, click the filter icon Filterabove the table of results, then select the filter you wish to edit.
  • Filter your results by:
    • Keyword text
    • Average monthly searches
    • Top of page bid (low range)
    • Top of page bid (high range)
    • Competition
    • Organic impression share
    • Ad impression share
  • Exclude keywords already in your account.
  • Refine your list using categories related to your keyword ideas. For example, if your keywords are related to running shoes, you may see a category for shoe color.
  • All categories are selected by default. To narrow your search, uncheck the boxes next to the categories that you’d like to remove from your list of keyword ideas.

2. Narrow by location

  • Location settings: Enter a geographical location, including countries, territories, regions, and cities in the box. Click “Nearby” to get ideas for locations that are near the location you entered. If you want to target globally, remove any locations you're previously entered. This will automatically set your targeting to "All locations".
  • Language settings: Enter a language in the box or scroll through the list of languages that you can get ideas for.
  • Network settings: Select "Google" to get ideas for Google Search or select "Google and search partners" to get ideas for Google Search, other Google search sites like Maps, and Google search partner sites (sites that partner with Google to show ads).

Example:

Let's say you want to show ads for your Cabo San Lucas resort to customers in Switzerland who speak French and are searching on Google and Google search partner sites. You can edit the settings in the "Targeting" panel above the graph to get keyword ideas and historical statistics for such a campaign.

3. Customize by date range

If you’re running a seasonal campaign or looking for keywords that are trending on Google Search, it can be helpful to pay attention to the calendar. The date range feature lets you adjust the date range in order to view search volume trends over specific time periods, and get suggestions for keywords that are more relevant during certain times of the year.

4. Match seasonal trends

You can use the date range feature to find other keywords that have been popular that specific month. Just click on the date field above the graph. You can also use the date range feature with your traffic forecasts.

Example:

Let’s say your business delivers flowers. When you look at your search volume trends, you notice that your keywords were most popular in February, the month of Valentine’s Day. You could choose to get forecasts just for the month of February to plan for a Valentine’s Day campaign for your flower delivery business.

5. Break down into segments

Break down your keyword ideas to see their impact on specific segments. Use the “Keyword ideas” page menu to break down your results in the following ways:

  • Breakdown by platforms: Break down your average monthly searches by computers, mobile devices with full browsers, and tablets with full browsers.
  • Breakdown by locations: Understand how many clicks your keywords get in each of your targeted locations.

Note

To get keyword ideas generated from your whole website, and not just from the single page you entered, add and then verify your site. If your account is managed, the account owner must add and verify site ownership. After you add and verify your site, it can take up to a month to see keyword ideas generated from your whole website.

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