📚 What You Will Learn Today:
"What keywords should I use?" is the first question every business owner asks about Google Ads. The good news: Google has a free tool that answers it. It's called the Keyword Planner, and it can tell you what people search for, how much each click might cost, and even guess how many clicks you'd get for your budget. This guide shows you how to use it, in plain words.
By the end of this guide, you will know:
- What a keyword is and the 3 kinds you should know about
- How to find keyword ideas you never would have thought of
- How to read the forecast: clicks, cost, impressions, and click-through rate
- How to change your bid and watch the predictions change
- How to add your keywords to a campaign and pick a match type
- The keywords you should block so you don't waste money
🤔 First, What Is a Keyword and Why Does It Matter?
Here's a simple truth: A keyword is just the words someone types into Google.
When you run Google Ads, you tell Google: "When someone types THESE words, show my ad." Pick the right words and your ad shows up in front of people who want exactly what you sell. Pick the wrong words and you pay for clicks from people who will never buy.
Think of it like fishing with different baits. "Dentist near me" is bait for someone who needs a dentist today. "How to become a dentist" is bait for a college student. Same word, totally different fish. Keywords are how you pick who sees your ad.
A chiropractor set up Google Ads himself and picked the keyword "back pain." It got tons of clicks. His bill was $900 the first month. He got 2 patients. When he looked at what people actually typed, it was things like "back pain stretches," "back pain while pregnant," and "back pain from sitting." None of those people wanted a chiropractor. They wanted a free article. He switched to "chiropractor near me," "chiropractor [town]," and "back adjustment near me." His bill dropped and his patients went up.
The 3 Kinds of Keywords
- Buyer keywords: "emergency plumber," "dentist open Saturday," "gym membership near me." These people want to buy soon.
- Research keywords: "best type of flooring," "is invisalign worth it." These people are thinking, not buying yet.
- Junk keywords: "plumber salary," "free workout plan," "dentist school." These will never pay you.
Buyer keywords are where your money goes. Research keywords can work with a small budget. Junk keywords get blocked.
📊 Three Kinds of Keywords
Most wasted ad money goes to the red box. The Keyword Planner helps you stay in the green.
✅ How to Use Google's Keyword Planner, Step by Step
The Keyword Planner lives inside your Google Ads account under Tools. It's free. Here's how to use it.
Discover New Keyword Ideas
Open the Keyword Planner and pick "Discover new keywords." You'll see two ways to start:
- Start with keywords: type a few words that describe what you do, like "med spa," "botox," and "laser hair removal."
- Start with a website: paste in your website (or a competitor's) and Google reads it and suggests keywords.
Set your location to your city or your service area, not the whole country. Then hit "Get results." Google gives you a big list of related keywords with how many people search each one per month.
What to Look For
- Words with "near me," "in [your town]," or "[your town]" at the end. These are local buyers.
- Words with "emergency," "same day," "open now," "cost," or "price." These people are close to buying.
- Words you never thought of. This is the whole point. You might sell "teeth whitening" but people search "yellow teeth fix."
A martial arts school typed in "karate classes." The planner showed them that far more people in their town searched "kids karate near me," "self defense classes for women," and "after school martial arts." Three ad groups they would never have built on their own. The "self defense for women" group became their cheapest source of adult members.
Don't ignore keywords with small search numbers. "Emergency dentist Maple Grove" might only get 30 searches a month. But almost every one of those 30 people needs a dentist today. Small and specific often beats big and vague.
Build Your Keyword Plan
As you scroll through the ideas, tick the box next to each keyword you like. Then click the dropdown that says "Add to plan." You'll get two choices:
- Add to plan: saves it to a new plan you can study before spending anything
- Add to existing campaign: puts it straight into a campaign you're already running
If you're new, always pick "Add to plan." A plan is like a shopping list. You can look at it, change it, and see the forecast before you buy anything.
Organize Into Groups
When you add keywords, Google asks which "ad group" to put them in. An ad group is just a folder. Put similar keywords together so you can write one ad that fits all of them.
A dentist might have three folders: "Emergency" (toothache, broken tooth, dentist open now), "New Patient" (dentist near me, family dentist [town]), and "Cosmetic" (teeth whitening, veneers cost). Each folder gets its own ad. The emergency ad says "Same-Day Appointments." The cosmetic ad says "Free Smile Consultation." One ad for all three would fit none of them well.
Dumping 200 keywords into one group with one generic ad. Google rewards ads that closely match the search. Small, tight groups with a matching ad cost less per click and get more clicks.
Read the Forecast
Once your plan has keywords, click "Forecast." This is where the tool gets really useful. Google looks at your keywords, your location, and your bid, and predicts what might happen over the next month. You'll see a chart and a table.
What Each Number Means
- Clicks: how many times per day people might click your ad if it shows for these keywords. More clicks means more visitors to your page.
- Impressions: how many times your ad might be shown, whether anyone clicks or not. Think of it as how many people walk past your lemonade stand.
- Cost: your average projected spend per day for each keyword. Add them up and that's roughly your daily budget.
- Click-through rate (CTR): the percent of people who see the ad and click it. If 100 people see it and 5 click, that's a 5% CTR. Higher is better. It means your ad fits what people wanted.
- Average CPC (cost per click): the average amount you might pay each time someone clicks. This is the price tag on each visitor.
You can see these numbers for the whole plan, and you can also click on any single keyword to see its own projections. That tells you which keywords are cheap and which are pricey before you spend a dime.
A home services company (roofing) looked at the forecast and saw "roof repair near me" would cost about $18 per click and "roofing company" about $9 per click. They almost picked the cheap one. Then they thought about it: "roof repair near me" is someone with a leak right now. "Roofing company" could be a job seeker or a supplier. They kept the expensive one. It brought far more real jobs. Cheaper isn't always better.
A forecast is a guess. A smart guess based on real data, but still a guess. Use it to plan and compare keywords, not as a promise. Your real numbers after two weeks of running ads matter more than any prediction.
📊 How Bid Changes the Forecast
Slide your bid up and down in the planner. There's usually a point where paying more stops helping. Stop there.
Change Your Bid and Watch the Numbers Move
At the top of the forecast there's a box for your maximum CPC, the most you're willing to pay for one click. Change it and the whole forecast updates.
How to Use This
- Start with a low number, like $2. Notice how few clicks you'd get. Your ad barely shows because other businesses outbid you.
- Raise it to $5, then $8, then $12. Watch clicks go up.
- Find the spot where raising the bid stops adding many clicks. That's your sweet spot. Paying more past that point mostly just makes each click pricier.
- Multiply predicted daily cost by 30. Can you afford that monthly? If not, drop keywords or lower the bid.
A realtor had $600 a month, about $20 a day. At a $3 bid, the planner predicted 2 clicks a day. At $6, about 5 clicks. At $10, about 6 clicks. The jump from $6 to $10 added almost nothing. She set her bid at $6 and used the leftover budget for more keywords instead.
Think about what one customer is worth to you. If a new patient is worth $1,500 over a year and you book one out of every 10 clicks, you can afford to pay a lot more than $5 a click. Set your bid based on what a customer is worth, not on what feels cheap.
Download and Share Your Plan
Once your plan looks good, save it. There's a download button on the forecast page that gives you a spreadsheet of every keyword with its numbers. Keep it. In three months you'll want to compare what Google predicted to what actually happened.
Share It With Your Team
If you have a partner, a manager, or an agency, you can share the plan directly. Click the three dots beside your plan name and look for "Edit sharing." Add their email and they can see and edit the plan too.
Fit It Into the Bigger Picture
Your keyword list isn't just for ads. The words people type into Google are the words they think in. Use the same words:
- On your website pages (so you show up for free over time)
- In your blog posts and videos
- In your Facebook ads
- In your text follow-ups to leads
If the planner shows people search "affordable braces for adults," don't write a web page called "Orthodontic Solutions." Call it "Affordable Braces for Adults." Speak the customer's language everywhere, not just in the ad.
Add Keywords to Your Campaign and Pick a Match Type
You've picked your keywords and seen the forecast. Time to put them to work.
- Tick the box next to each keyword you want.
- Click the dropdown "Add to plan" and choose "Add to existing campaign."
- Click the dropdown "Adding to [name of ad group]" and pick the right folder.
- Pick a match type from the dropdown (it defaults to Broad match).
- Click "Add keywords." Done!
Match Types in Plain Words
A match type tells Google how closely a search has to match your keyword before your ad shows.
- Broad match: "Show my ad for anything kind of related." Your keyword "dentist" could show for "tooth pain," "dental hygienist jobs," or "dentist jokes." Lots of traffic, lots of junk.
- Phrase match: "Show my ad when the search means the same thing as my phrase." Keyword "dentist near me" shows for "find a dentist near me" and "good dentist close by." A nice middle ground.
- Exact match: "Only show my ad for this exact idea." Keyword "emergency dentist" shows for "emergency dentist" and very close versions. Least traffic, highest quality.
Google defaults to Broad match. For a local business on a small budget, broad match can burn money fast on searches you never wanted. Start with phrase and exact match. Add broad later, carefully, once you know what works.
Match types are like how tight your fishing net is. Broad is a huge net that catches old boots and seaweed. Exact is a small net that catches only the fish you want. Start small.
Block the Keywords That Waste Money
The planner shows you what to add. It also quietly shows you what to block. As you scroll through ideas, you'll see words that have nothing to do with buying from you. Write them down. These become your negative keywords, words that stop your ad from showing.
Common Negatives for Local Businesses
- Jobs: salary, jobs, hiring, career, how to become
- Learning: school, course, degree, training (unless you sell training)
- Free: free, DIY, at home, yourself
- Wrong place: other cities or states nearby that you don't serve
- Wrong thing: words for products or services you don't offer
Add these before your campaign launches. Then check your Search Terms report every week and add more.
A med spa found their ad was showing for "botox training course" and "how to become an aesthetician." Those clicks cost them about $140 in the first week. Two negative keywords ("training" and "become") fixed it forever.
⚡ The Keyword Doesn't Matter If You're Slow
Here's the thing nobody tells you about Google Ads. You can pick perfect keywords, set the perfect bid, and block all the junk. Then someone searches "emergency plumber," clicks your ad, fills out your form, and you call them back in three hours. They already hired someone else. Buyer keywords bring people who want to buy now. "Now" means minutes, not hours.
The 5-Minute Rule
Every form fill should get an automatic text within 5 minutes. Something like: "Hi Chris, this is Dana from Oakwood Plumbing. Got your request about the leak. Can we call you right now, or is there a better time?" It keeps following up if they don't reply. You don't have to remember anything.
When you measure results, track leads all the way to the sale, and count the sale on the day the customer paid. Then you'll know which keywords bring paying customers, not just clicks. Put your budget there.
📊 From Keyword to Customer
Good keywords bring the right people. Fast follow-up turns them into customers.
📝 Quick Summary
Picking Keywords, In One Place
- Discover ideas — type a few words or your website, set your location, read the list
- Build a plan — tick keywords, "Add to plan," sort into tight ad groups
- Read the forecast — clicks, impressions, cost, CTR, and average CPC per keyword
- Adjust your max CPC — find the bid where more money stops adding clicks
- Download and share — save the spreadsheet, share with your team, reuse the words everywhere
- Add to campaign — pick your ad group, start with phrase and exact match, not broad
- Block junk — jobs, schools, free, DIY, wrong cities
- Text leads in 5 minutes — buyer keywords bring people who want help now
Remember: The best keyword isn't the one with the most searches. It's the one typed by someone who's ready to pay you.
🎓 Your Action Plan
Week 1 — Research
- Open the Keyword Planner and run "Discover new keywords" with 3 to 5 words that describe your business, set to your service area
- Pick 15 to 30 buyer keywords and add them to a plan
- Write down every junk word you see for your negative list
- Set up automatic text follow-up so you're ready for leads
Week 2 — Plan and launch
- Read the forecast. Adjust your max CPC until you find the sweet spot
- Sort keywords into 2 to 4 tight ad groups, each with its own ad
- Add them to your campaign using phrase and exact match
- Add your negative keywords and launch at $10 to $20 a day
Week 3 — Watch the real words
- Open the Search Terms report and see what people actually typed
- Add good surprises as new keywords; block bad ones as negatives
- Check that every lead got a text within 5 minutes
Week 4 — Compare and adjust
- Compare your real clicks and costs to the forecast you downloaded
- Write down: spent, clicks, leads, booked, paid (counted on the day they paid)
- Move budget to the keywords that produced paying customers
Run the Keyword Planner again every few months. People change how they search. New phrases show up, old ones fade. Fifteen minutes in the planner each quarter keeps your ads pointed at the people who are actually looking for you.
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