Google Keyword Planner, the free tool inside Google Ads (formerly called Google AdWords), lets you research keyword ideas, check monthly search volumes, and estimate what you’d pay per click. To use it, sign in to your Google Ads account, click the wrench-shaped Tools icon, and select Keyword Planner. From there you’ll see two starting paths: “Discover new keywords” and “Get search volume and forecasts.” Here’s how to get the most out of each one.
Setting Up Access
Keyword Planner is free, but it isn’t open to everyone with a Google account. You need a Google Ads account with billing information on file. You don’t have to be running a paid campaign, but Google requires that you complete account setup, including entering a payment method, before it unlocks basic features like generating keyword ideas. If you only want to use the planner for research and don’t plan to spend money on ads, you can pause any campaign Google prompts you to create during signup.
Discovering New Keywords
The “Discover new keywords” tool is where most people start. It generates a list of keyword suggestions based on inputs you provide. You have two options for feeding it information.
Start with keywords. Type in words or short phrases that describe your product, service, or topic. You can enter up to ten seed terms at once. Think the way a potential customer would think. If you sell running shoes, try phrases like “trail running shoes,” “lightweight sneakers,” and “best shoes for marathon training” rather than internal product names your customers wouldn’t search for. Using several related phrases about the same topic tends to produce more useful results than a single broad word.
Start with a website. Paste in a URL and Google will scan the page content for keyword ideas. This works with your own site or a competitor’s. By default, the tool pulls ideas from the single page you enter. If you want it to analyze your entire domain instead of just one page, you’ll need to add and verify site ownership inside Google Ads. After verification, it can take up to a month before keyword ideas reflect your full site.
You can also combine both approaches. Entering a keyword along with a website URL often produces more targeted results than either input alone.
Reading the Results Table
Once you generate ideas, Keyword Planner returns a table with several columns. Understanding what each one means helps you decide which keywords are worth pursuing.
- Average monthly searches: How many times people search for that keyword each month, averaged over a 12-month period. Accounts without active ad spend often see ranges (like “1K–10K”) instead of exact numbers. Running even a small campaign can unlock more precise figures.
- Competition: Rated Low, Medium, or High, this reflects how many advertisers are bidding on that keyword relative to all keywords across Google. High competition means lots of advertisers want that term, which usually pushes costs up.
- Top of page bid (low range): The lower end of what advertisers have historically paid for a click when their ad appeared at the top of search results.
- Top of page bid (high range): The upper end of that same range. Together, these two bid columns give you a realistic price window for what a click on that keyword would cost.
A keyword with high search volume and low competition is the sweet spot, but those are rare. In most cases you’ll weigh volume against cost and pick terms where the traffic justifies the spend.
Filtering and Refining Results
The default results list can include hundreds or thousands of keyword ideas, many of which won’t be relevant. Use the built-in filters to narrow things down quickly.
Location and language. At the top of the results page, you can set a target country, region, or city and choose a language. This is critical if you only serve a specific market. A keyword that gets 50,000 searches worldwide might only get 2,000 in your target area.
Keyword text filters. You can require that results contain (or exclude) specific words. If you sell premium products, you might exclude words like “free,” “cheap,” or “DIY” to focus on commercial-intent searches.
Date range. Adjusting the date range lets you see seasonal trends. A keyword like “winter boots” will show dramatically different volume in July than in November. Checking a full 12 to 24 months of data helps you plan campaigns around demand spikes.
Competition filter. If you’re working with a small budget, filtering to show only Low competition keywords can surface affordable opportunities that bigger advertisers are ignoring.
Checking Volume for Keywords You Already Have
The second tool, “Get search volume and forecasts,” works differently. Instead of generating new ideas, it analyzes a list of keywords you already have in mind. Type or paste your keywords into the search box, separated by commas or line breaks. You can also upload a CSV file with a single column headed “Keyword.”
For more advanced planning, download Google’s template file, which lets you include optional data like campaign names, ad groups, and target locations alongside your keywords. This is useful when you’re building out a full campaign structure and want forecasts organized the way your account will be set up.
The forecasts tab shows estimated clicks, impressions, cost, and click-through rate for your keyword list at various bid levels. Drag the bid slider or enter a specific daily budget to see how your projected results change. This is the closest thing to a preview of campaign performance before you spend anything.
Turning Research Into a Campaign
Once you’ve identified keywords worth targeting, you can add them directly to a campaign plan from within Keyword Planner. Select keywords by checking the box next to each one, then click “Add to plan.” From the plan overview, you can organize keywords into ad groups, set bid targets, and review forecasted performance before launching.
Group tightly related keywords into the same ad group so your ad copy can match what the searcher typed. A group containing “women’s trail running shoes” and “off-road running sneakers” can share a single ad. Mixing unrelated terms like “running shoes” and “yoga mats” into one group forces your ads to be generic, which lowers click-through rates and raises costs.
When you’re ready, click “Create campaign” to push your plan into Google Ads. You’ll still need to write ad copy, set your daily budget, and choose bidding strategy before the campaign goes live. But the keyword research you did in Planner forms the foundation of everything that follows.