How to Do Keyword Research for Google Ads: A Step-by-Step Guide

If you've ever launched a Google Ads campaign only to watch your budget evaporate on clicks that go nowhere, you already know the problem: most keyword research is done backward. Advertisers start by dumping every remotely related term into their campaigns, hoping something sticks. What actually happens? You pay for traffic from people who aren't ready to buy, can't afford your solution, or were looking for something completely different.

Here's the reality: keyword research for Google Ads isn't about casting the widest net—it's about finding the exact phrases your ideal customers type when they're ready to take action. The difference between a profitable campaign and a budget-draining mess often comes down to whether you took the time to match keywords to actual customer intent.

This guide walks you through the complete process PPC managers use daily: defining goals before touching keywords, mining multiple sources for seed terms, validating intent with real data, analyzing what competitors miss, organizing keywords for relevance, applying match types strategically, and building negative keyword lists that protect your budget from day one.

Whether you're launching your first campaign or optimizing an existing account that's underperforming, you'll learn the tactical steps that separate campaigns that scale profitably from those that burn through budgets without results. Let's skip the theory and get into the practical workflow.

Step 1: Define Your Campaign Goals and Audience First

Most advertisers make the same mistake: they open Google Keyword Planner before they've figured out what they're actually trying to accomplish. This is why you end up with keyword lists full of high-volume terms that attract the wrong people.

Start here instead: What specific action do you want someone to take after clicking your ad? Are you trying to generate leads, drive product purchases, get demo requests, or increase phone calls? Your keyword strategy changes dramatically based on this answer.

Let's say you sell project management software. If your goal is demo requests from mid-market companies, you're not targeting the same keywords as someone trying to sell a $9/month tool to freelancers. The freelancer searches "free project management tool" while your ideal customer searches "project management software for remote teams 50+ employees."

Map Your Offer to Customer Awareness Stages: People at different stages of awareness use different search terms. Someone just realizing they have a problem searches "how to keep track of team tasks" (problem-aware). Someone evaluating solutions searches "best project management tools for agencies" (solution-aware). Someone ready to buy searches "Asana vs Monday pricing comparison" (product-aware).

Your keyword list should reflect where your offer sits in this journey. If you're targeting bottom-of-funnel conversions, focus on solution-aware and product-aware keywords. If you're building awareness for a new category, you'll include more problem-aware terms—but expect longer conversion cycles and higher costs per acquisition.

Create a Simple Customer Persona for Intent Matching: You don't need a 50-page persona document. You need to answer: What's their job title? What problem keeps them up at night? What language do they actually use when describing their pain points? What objections prevent them from buying?

In most accounts I audit, the disconnect happens here. The advertiser uses industry jargon in their keywords while customers search using completely different language. A SaaS company might target "enterprise resource planning software" when their customers actually search "better way to manage inventory and orders."

How to verify success: Before moving to Step 2, write down your conversion goal and your target customer description in one sentence each. Then ask: "If I only attracted people searching these exact terms, would they convert?" If the answer isn't a clear yes, you're not ready to start building keyword lists yet.

Step 2: Build Your Seed Keyword List Using Multiple Sources

Seed keywords are the foundation—the core terms you'll expand into hundreds of variations. The mistake most advertisers make is relying on a single source (usually just guessing or using Keyword Planner alone). The best keyword lists come from combining multiple sources to capture how real customers actually talk about your solution.

Mine Your Own Website First: Your existing content already contains keyword gold. Look at your product pages, blog posts, FAQ sections, and landing page copy. What phrases appear repeatedly? What questions do you answer? These terms are already aligned with what you offer, making them natural starting points.

Pay special attention to your navigation menu and category pages. If you've organized your site around specific solutions or use cases, those categories often reveal high-intent keyword themes. A marketing agency might have service pages for "PPC management," "SEO audits," and "conversion rate optimization"—all seed keywords worth expanding.

Study Competitor Language and Positioning: Visit 3-5 competitor websites and note how they describe their solutions. What terms appear in their headlines? What benefits do they emphasize? What use cases do they highlight? You're not copying their keywords—you're understanding the language landscape in your market.

The twist? Sometimes competitors miss obvious terms because they're too close to their own product. That's where you find opportunities to own keywords they've overlooked.

Use Google's Free Tools for Expansion Ideas: Open an incognito browser window and start typing your core terms into Google. The autocomplete suggestions show you what real people are searching. Type "project management" and Google suggests "project management software," "project management tools," "project management certification," "project management courses." Some are relevant to your campaign, others aren't—but you're seeing actual search behavior.

Scroll to the bottom of the search results page for "People also ask" questions and "Related searches." These sections reveal the questions and variations people explore after their initial search. They're especially useful for finding long tail keywords with clear intent.

If you have Google Search Console access for your website, check the Performance report to see what queries already bring you organic traffic. These terms prove people are actively searching for topics you cover—making them strong candidates for paid campaigns too.

The Customer Conversation Method: This is where most agencies miss out. Your best keyword insights come from actual customer language—not what you think they should be searching.

Review customer support tickets, sales call transcripts, and product reviews (yours and competitors'). What words do customers use to describe their problems? What phrases appear when they talk about why they bought or why they're frustrated? These exact phrases often become your highest-converting keywords because they match real pain points.

What usually happens here is you discover customers use completely different terminology than your marketing team. They don't say "optimize workflow efficiency"—they say "stop wasting time on status update meetings." That second phrase is your keyword.

How to verify success: You should have 20-50 seed keywords organized into 3-5 thematic buckets. For example: product category terms, solution-based terms, problem-based terms, competitor comparison terms, and feature-specific terms. If your list is just variations of the same root keyword, go back and mine more sources.

Step 3: Expand and Validate Keywords with Search Volume and Intent Data

You've got your seed keywords—now it's time to expand them into a full list and validate which ones are actually worth bidding on. This is where most advertisers either go too broad (adding every variation regardless of intent) or too narrow (only targeting exact matches with high volume).

Using Google Keyword Planner for Volume and Competition Data: Log into your Google Ads account and navigate to Tools > Keyword Planner > Discover new keywords. Enter your seed keywords and let Google generate related terms. You'll see monthly search volume ranges, competition levels (Low, Medium, High), and suggested bid ranges.

Here's what to actually look for: Search volume tells you if anyone's searching for this term, but don't obsess over huge numbers. A keyword with 10 monthly searches but perfect intent can outperform a keyword with 1,000 searches and vague intent. Competition level indicates how many other advertisers bid on this term—high competition usually means higher costs, but it can also signal commercial value.

The suggested bid range gives you a reality check on costs. If you're a small business with a $500 monthly budget and your target keywords show $15-30 suggested bids, you need to either increase budget, find lower-cost alternatives, or reconsider your strategy. Understanding what is a good CPC for Google Ads helps you set realistic expectations.

Understanding the Four Types of Search Intent: Every keyword falls into one of four intent categories, and this determines whether it's worth your budget.

Navigational Intent: The searcher wants to find a specific website or brand. Example: "Salesforce login" or "HubSpot pricing page." These keywords only work if you're that brand or if you're running competitive campaigns (which is a whole different strategy).

Informational Intent: The searcher wants to learn something or answer a question. Example: "what is project management" or "how to organize team tasks." These keywords typically have low conversion rates for direct-response campaigns because the person isn't ready to buy. They can work for awareness campaigns or if you have a strong content strategy that nurtures leads over time.

Commercial Intent: The searcher is researching solutions and comparing options. Example: "best project management software for small teams" or "Asana vs Monday comparison." These keywords indicate buying intent but the person hasn't decided yet. They're evaluating, which means your ad copy and landing page need to help them compare and choose.

Transactional Intent: The searcher is ready to take action. Example: "buy project management software," "project management tool free trial," or "hire PPC agency." These are your highest-converting keywords because the person has decided to act—they're just choosing where to act.

In most accounts I audit, the problem isn't that advertisers don't understand intent—it's that they include too many informational keywords hoping they'll convert anyway. They won't. If you're running direct-response campaigns focused on leads or sales, prioritize commercial and transactional intent keywords.

Filtering Out Low-Intent Keywords: As you expand your list, you'll see hundreds of variations. Many won't be relevant. Filter out keywords that include terms like "free," "DIY," "how to," "what is," "definition," "jobs," "salary," "course," "certification," or "template" unless those specifically match your offer.

If you sell a paid tool, "free project management template" is a waste of budget. If you offer training, "project management certification" might be perfect. Context matters.

How to verify success: Each keyword on your list should have a clear intent classification (commercial or transactional for most direct-response campaigns), realistic search volume (even if it's low), and a logical connection to your offer. If you can't explain why someone searching that term would want your solution, cut it from the list.

Step 4: Analyze Competitor Keywords and Identify Gaps

Your competitors are already running campaigns, which means they've done keyword research too. Some of their keywords will overlap with yours, but the real opportunity lies in finding gaps—terms they're missing or not targeting effectively that you can own.

Running Competitor Domain Analysis: Use tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or SpyFu to see what keywords competitors are bidding on. Enter a competitor's domain and look at their paid search keywords report. You'll see estimated monthly ad spend, top keywords they bid on, and sample ad copy.

What you're looking for: keywords that appear in multiple competitors' campaigns (indicating proven value), keywords with high search volume that only one competitor targets (potential opportunity), and keywords that align with your unique positioning that competitors ignore.

The mistake most agencies make is just copying competitor keywords wholesale. That turns into a bidding war where the advertiser with the biggest budget wins. Instead, look for patterns and gaps.

Finding Keyword Gaps Competitors Miss: Here's where it gets interesting. Many competitors focus on obvious product category keywords but miss specific use case, problem-focused, or long-tail variations that have clear buying intent.

For example, if you sell accounting software and all your competitors bid on "accounting software for small business," look for gaps like "accounting software for Shopify stores," "accounting tool for freelance consultants," or "simple bookkeeping software for non-accountants." These niche variations often have lower competition and higher conversion rates because they match specific customer situations.

Another gap opportunity: branded comparison keywords. If competitors aren't bidding on "[Your Brand] vs [Competitor]" terms, you should be. When someone searches your brand against a competitor, they're deep in the buying process—showing up in that moment is critical.

Evaluating Auction Insights for Competitive Landscape: Once your campaigns are running (or if you're optimizing existing campaigns), use Google Ads' Auction Insights report to see who else is bidding on your keywords. You'll see impression share, overlap rate, position above rate, and top of page rate for each competitor.

This tells you how saturated the auction is and whether you're competing with established players who dominate the space. If you're entering a market where one competitor has 80% impression share, you'll need a differentiated strategy—either targeting different keywords, using different ad messaging, or accepting that you'll pay premium prices to compete head-to-head.

How to verify success: You've identified 5-10 opportunity keywords where competitors are either absent or weak, and you've validated that these keywords have search volume and align with your offer. You should also have a realistic understanding of competitive intensity for your core keywords—which helps you set budget expectations and bid strategies.

Step 5: Organize Keywords into Tightly Themed Ad Groups

You've got a validated keyword list—now comes the part that determines whether your campaigns actually perform well: organization. How you structure keywords into ad groups directly impacts your Quality Score, ad relevance, and ultimately your cost per click and conversion rate.

Why Single Keyword Ad Groups Aren't Always the Answer Anymore: For years, PPC pros preached SKAGs (Single Keyword Ad Groups) as the gold standard. The logic was sound: one keyword per ad group means perfectly matched ad copy, which boosts Quality Score and lowers costs.

Here's what usually happens in practice: you end up with 200+ ad groups that become impossible to manage. You're constantly writing new ads, adjusting bids, and trying to get enough data on each keyword to make optimization decisions. For small accounts or limited budgets, SKAGs create more problems than they solve.

In 2026, with Google's improved machine learning and responsive search ads, tightly themed ad groups (5-15 closely related keywords) often perform just as well with far less complexity. The key is keeping the theme tight enough that one set of ads can relevantly match all keywords in the group.

Creating Theme-Based Ad Groups with Clear Focus: Group keywords by the specific solution, use case, or product feature they relate to. Each ad group should answer one specific search intent.

For example, if you sell project management software, you might create ad groups like:

Ad Group: Remote Team Collaboration - Keywords: "project management software for remote teams," "remote team collaboration tools," "virtual team project tracking," "distributed team management software"

Ad Group: Agency Project Management - Keywords: "project management for agencies," "client project tracking software," "agency workflow management," "creative agency project tools"

Ad Group: Construction Project Management - Keywords: "construction project management software," "contractor project tracking," "building project management tool," "construction scheduling software"

Notice how each group has a clear theme that allows you to write specific ad copy addressing that audience's needs. Someone searching for construction project management has different pain points than someone managing a remote marketing team—your ads should reflect that.

Matching Keyword Themes to Specific Landing Pages: Here's where most campaigns leak conversions. Your ad promises one thing, but the landing page talks about something else. Each ad group should send traffic to a landing page that directly addresses the theme.

If your ad group targets "accounting software for freelancers," don't send traffic to your generic homepage. Send them to a page specifically about accounting for freelancers, with copy that addresses their unique challenges (irregular income, quarterly taxes, simple bookkeeping needs). Understanding landing page optimization for Google Ads is essential for maximizing conversions.

This alignment—keyword theme → ad copy → landing page message—is what Google rewards with higher Quality Scores and what users reward with higher conversion rates.

How to verify success: Each ad group should have a clear theme you can describe in one sentence, contain 5-15 keywords that all relate to that theme, and have an obvious landing page destination. If you're struggling to write ad copy that fits all keywords in the group, your theme is too broad—split it into multiple ad groups.

Step 6: Apply the Right Match Types Strategically

Match types determine how closely a user's search query needs to match your keyword before your ad shows. This is where many advertisers either waste budget on irrelevant traffic (too broad) or miss valuable opportunities (too restrictive). Understanding how keyword match type affects Google Ads performance—and how they've evolved—is critical.

Understanding Match Types in 2026: Google has significantly changed how match types function. They now incorporate machine learning signals including your landing page content, other keywords in your ad group, and recent search activity in the user's session.

Broad Match: Your ad can show for searches that relate to your keyword, including searches that don't contain the keyword terms at all. Google uses context from your landing page and account to determine relevance. This gives you maximum reach but requires careful monitoring and robust negative keyword lists.

Phrase Match: Your ad shows for searches that include the meaning of your keyword. The user's search can include additional words before or after, but the core meaning must be present. This offers a balance between reach and control.

Exact Match: Your ad shows for searches that have the same meaning or intent as your keyword. Google still allows for close variations (plurals, misspellings, abbreviations), but the search intent must closely match.

The shift from strict text matching to intent matching means broad match is more useful than it used to be—but it still requires active management. In most accounts I audit, advertisers either avoid broad match entirely (missing opportunities) or use it without proper negative keyword lists (wasting budget).

When to Use Each Match Type Based on Campaign Maturity: Your match type strategy should evolve as your campaign matures and you gather data.

New Campaigns (Weeks 1-4): Start with phrase match and exact match for your highest-intent keywords. This gives you control while you build conversion data and identify which keywords actually drive results. Add broad match for a few high-performing keywords if you have budget to test.

Established Campaigns (Months 2-3): Introduce broad match for proven converting keywords, but keep close watch on the search terms report. The goal is to discover new keyword variations you didn't think of initially.

Mature Campaigns (Month 4+): Use a layered approach with the same keyword in multiple match types, adjusting bids based on performance. You might bid $5 for exact match, $3 for phrase match, and $2 for broad match on the same keyword—capturing different levels of intent at different price points.

The Layered Approach to Match Types: Advanced advertisers use multiple match types for the same keyword with different bids. This ensures you show up for exact matches (where intent is clearest) while still capturing broader variations at lower costs.

For example, if "project management software for agencies" is a key keyword, you might add it as:

Exact match: [project management software for agencies] - Bid: $8

Phrase match: "project management software for agencies" - Bid: $5

Broad match: project management software for agencies - Bid: $3

Google prioritizes the most restrictive match type that's eligible, so exact match gets first priority. If the search doesn't trigger exact, phrase gets a chance. If neither exact nor phrase applies, broad match can capture it at a lower bid. For a deeper dive into this topic, check out our guide on Google Ads keyword match types.

How to verify success: Your match type strategy should align with your campaign goals and risk tolerance. Conservative approach: mostly phrase and exact match with limited broad match testing. Aggressive approach: broad match on proven converters with strong negative keyword lists. Either way, you should be able to explain why you chose each match type for each keyword.

Step 7: Build Your Negative Keyword List from Day One

Negative keywords might be the most underrated part of keyword research. They tell Google what searches you don't want to show up for—protecting your budget from irrelevant clicks. Most advertisers add negatives reactively after wasting money. Smart advertisers build a starter list before launching.

Common Negative Keyword Categories Every Campaign Needs: Certain terms almost always waste budget across industries. Start with these categories and customize based on your specific offer.

Free/Cheap Seekers: If you don't offer a free product, add negatives like: free, cheap, discount, coupon, deal, promo code, affordable, budget, inexpensive. These searchers aren't your target audience.

Job Seekers: Unless you're hiring, add: jobs, careers, employment, hiring, salary, resume, apply, work from home, job openings.

DIY/Education Seekers: If you sell a service or product (not education), add: how to, DIY, tutorial, guide, course, training, certification, learn, template, example.

Competitor Brand Terms: Unless you're running a competitive strategy, add competitor brand names as negatives to avoid showing up for their branded searches.

Irrelevant Modifiers: Terms that indicate wrong fit: used, secondhand, rent, rental, wholesale, bulk, download, app (if you don't have an app).

The mistake most agencies make is being too conservative with negatives, worried they'll block potential customers. What actually happens is you waste budget on clicks that never convert. It's better to be aggressive with negatives and add back terms if you discover you blocked something valuable. We've compiled a comprehensive negative keywords list for Google Ads to help you get started.

Mining Search Terms Reports Before Launch: If you're optimizing an existing campaign, your search terms report is gold. Go to Keywords > Search Terms in Google Ads and filter by conversions. Look at what searches generated clicks but zero conversions—those are negative keyword candidates.

Pay special attention to patterns. If you see multiple variations around "free," "how to," or specific irrelevant topics, add those as negative keywords. One search term might be a fluke, but a pattern indicates a problem worth fixing.

For new campaigns, you can preview potential search terms by running your keywords through Google search and seeing what autocomplete suggests. If irrelevant variations pop up, add those as negatives preemptively.

Creating Shared Negative Keyword Lists for Efficiency: Google Ads lets you create shared negative keyword lists that apply across multiple campaigns. This is especially useful if you manage multiple campaigns or accounts.

Create a "Universal Negatives" list with terms that never apply to your business (jobs, free, DIY, etc.) and apply it to all campaigns. Then create campaign-specific negative lists for terms that are irrelevant to specific products or services but might be relevant elsewhere. Learn how to add negative keywords in Google Ads efficiently to streamline this process.

For example, if you run separate campaigns for B2B and B2C products, your B2B campaign might have negatives like "for personal use," "home," "individual," while your B2C campaign might have negatives like "enterprise," "corporate," "business to business."

How to verify success: Before launching, you should have a starter negative keyword list of at least 50 terms covering common irrelevant categories. After launch, set a calendar reminder to review your search terms report weekly for the first month. Add new negatives as you discover irrelevant queries. A healthy campaign typically adds 10-20 new negatives in the first month, then fewer as the list matures.

Your Keyword Research Checklist and What Comes Next

Before you launch your Google Ads campaign, run through this final checklist to confirm your keyword research is complete:

Goals and Audience Defined: You've clearly documented your conversion goal and target customer persona. Your keyword list connects directly to specific actions you want people to take.

Seed Keywords Gathered from Multiple Sources: You've mined your website, competitors, customer conversations, and Google's free tools to build a foundation of 20-50 seed keywords organized by theme.

Keywords Validated with Volume and Intent Data: You've used Google Keyword Planner to check search volume and competition. Each keyword has a clear intent classification (commercial or transactional for direct-response campaigns).

Competitor Analysis Complete: You've identified 5-10 opportunity keywords where competitors are weak or absent. You understand the competitive landscape and have realistic expectations about costs.

Ad Groups Organized by Tight Themes: Your keywords are grouped into ad groups with 5-15 related keywords each. Each ad group has a clear theme and an obvious landing page destination.

Match Types Applied Strategically: You've chosen appropriate match types based on campaign maturity and budget. You understand why you selected each match type for each keyword.

Negative Keyword List Ready: You have a starter negative list of 50+ terms covering common irrelevant categories. You've set a calendar reminder to review search terms weekly after launch.

Here's what most advertisers miss: keyword research for Google Ads isn't a one-time task you complete before launching. It's an ongoing process of refinement based on actual search terms data. The keywords you think will perform often surprise you—sometimes underperforming, sometimes overperforming.

Set a calendar reminder to review your search terms report weekly for the first month after launch. Look for three things: new keyword opportunities you didn't think of initially, irrelevant search terms that need to be added as negatives, and patterns in what's actually converting versus what you expected to convert.

After the first month, you can shift to bi-weekly reviews as your campaigns mature and your negative keyword list becomes more comprehensive. The advertisers who win aren't the ones with the biggest budgets—they're the ones who obsess over relevance and continuously optimize their Google Ads campaigns based on real performance data.

The difference between a campaign that scales profitably and one that burns through budget often comes down to this discipline: treating keyword research as an ongoing conversation with your market rather than a one-time setup task.

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