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      How to do keyword research for Google Ads

      How to focus ad groups and find new keywords to maximize conversions through Google Ads.

      It helps to think of this process as a Google Ads audit. 

      In Google Ads, keywords are clustered in “Ad Groups” — groups that target different keywords with the same central idea. For example, an Ad Group called “Printing” may consist of keywords like “poster printing”, “poster printing near me”, and “print services”. By clustering keywords together, it is much easier to manage them and quickly capitalize on changing consumer trends.

      However, if not monitored correctly, these ad groups can quickly become outdated, lowering keyword relevance and increasing unnecessary ad spend.

      To prevent this from happening, do keyword research through Google Ads!

       

      Step 1: Identify high-potential keywords:

      1. In Google Ads, click on Tools (icon on left side of screen) > Planning > Keyword Planner.
      2. Click on “Start with a website” and copy the client URL into the box. Click “Get results.”
      3. Keyword data will appear from the last month. Click download (top right of screen), and select “Google Sheet.”
      4. Open the data in a new Google Workbook. Name the sheet “[Date] Keyword Stats”. 
      5. Notice these specific column headers in the data:
        1. Keyword: The keyword being searched.
        2. Avg. monthly searches: How many times (on average) the keyword is searched.
        3. Competition: How difficult (1-100) keywords are to rank for.
        4. Top of page:  Lower range CPC of the keyword.
        5. Top of page: Upper range CPC of the keyword.
      6. When selecting quality potential keywords, look for the following:
        1. Low (maybe medium) competition.
        2. High average monthly search volume.
        3. Relevant keywords.
          1. Pro-tip: Use the client’s service pages to determine which keywords are most relevant.
      7. Copy all information for any potential keywords into a new sheet in that workbook.
      8. Name the sheet “Potential Keywords.”

      Step 2: Identify high-potential ad groups:

      1. In the “[Date] Keyword Stats” sheet, pay careful attention to keyword patterns. Were there any keywords that met the criteria for quality (Step 1) AND are several to other quality keywords? If so, the general term for these keywords should be considered for an additional ad group!

      Step 3: Assess the value of previous/current keywords:

      Note: If this is the first time the client has run Google Ads, this section will not apply. Skip to Step 4, ignoring the part about the “Current Keywords” sheet.

      1. Using Google Ads, download a list of targeted keywords since the beginning of time. 
      2. Name this sheet “Current Keywords”.
      3. Add this sheet to the workbook with “[Date] Keyword Stats”.
      4. Notice these specific column headers in the data:
        1. Impr.: How many views that keyword has generated.
        2. Clicks: How many clicks that keyword has generated.
        3. Conversions: How many sales have been generated because of a click from that keyword.
      5. Most of all, we want keywords with the highest conversions (as long as they are cost effective and relevant to the client’s ad campaigns). However, we also want some keywords with high impressions and clicks because they may easily lead to conversions in the future. Filter by all of these fields to determine which keywords should be targeted or not. 

      Step 4: Revise current ad groups and keywords

      1. Using quality keywords identified in the “Potential Keywords” sheet, and the highest converting keywords from the “Current Keywords" sheet, create a new sheet with information from both (if doing this for a new client, just use the the "Potential Keywords" sheet from Step 1).
      2. Name the sheet “Final Keywords”.
      3. Create and fill out following columns using data collected:
        1. Ad Group: The ad group each keyword belongs to.
        2. Keywords: The name of the keyword itself.
        3. Type: The type of search match to be used in Google Ads. 
          1. Can be “Exact”, “Phrase”, or “Broad”. 
            1. Pro-tip: Sign into the digital account and ChatGPT 4.0 using Priz’s account to have ChatGPT analyze the data and make these type identifications for you.
        4. Landing Page: A link to the landing page associated with the ad group.

       

      Video Instructions: