Google’s Keyword Planner is a free tool for discovering new keywords related to your business. It also estimates the number of searches they will receive and the cost of targeting them.

Benefits of Keyword planner

• Discover new keywords. The planner suggests keywords related to your products, services or website.
• Monthly search estimates. Get estimates on the number of searches for each keyword.
• Estimate cost. Estimate the average cost for your ad to show for keyword searches.
• Organise keywords. Understand how keywords fit into different categories related to your brand.
• Create new campaigns. Create new campaigns centred on in-depth keyword research.

While Keyword Planner can provide insights into keyword targeting, campaign performance depends on various factors. Success factors include your bid, budget, product and customer behaviour in your industry.

Create a keyword plan

In Keyword Planner, there are two ways to create your keyword plan:

• Search for new keywords by selecting Discover new keywords.
• Upload existing keywords by selecting Get search volume and forecasts.

Get ideas for new keywords

By entering keywords and/or websites related to your business. Google will then generate keywords ideas related to this information. Strive not be too specific or too general. For example, “pizza delivery” is better than “pizza” for a pizza delivery business.

Edit your list of keyword ideas

Once a list of keywords is generated, it can be organised using filters and categories.

Add keywords to your plan and get a performance forecast

The plan forecast estimates how many conversions, clicks or impressions you are likely to get for your keywords based on your spend

The forecast is available on the ‘Forecasts’ page of your plan. It includes keywords you uploaded through ‘Get search volumes and forecasts’ or those you added from the ‘Keyword ideas’ page.

Understand the forecast

The forecast predicts the optimal performance for the keywords in your plan based on your spend.

If conversion tracking is enabled in your account, clicking ‘Conversions’ or ‘Clicks’, will change the metric you are forecasting. Otherwise, click ‘Add conversion metrics’ to review the options.

Change the following to edit your forecast.

• Change the average daily budget by clicking the amount.
• Change your bid strategy by clicking the drop-down.
• Get a chart of your estimated performance based on your spend.