Inside Google Ads podcast: Episode 123 - Keyword Research

Most advertisers have it backwards. They think that using AI means giving up control. 

But today, the most successful Google Ads campaigns are not the ones that just let Google do everything. They're the ones where you, the human, give the machine the foundational data it needs so that it can learn how to give you what you need.

Today, I'm showing you my easy to follow 10 step process for effective keyword research as this is still your steering wheel for Google's most powerful AI. Whether you're a paid search practitioner or an SEO, keyword research is still one of your key foundational tasks, which is why I'm dedicating a whole episode to this really underrated and unfortunately misunderstood topic. 

I'm your host, Jyll Saskin Gales. I spent six years working for big brands at Google, and now I work for you. 

This is Inside Google Ads: Episode 123, Keyword Research. 

While keywordless targeting options in Google Ads like AI Max or Performance Max are becoming more prevalent, keyword research is still vital for several reasons. 

1. In standard Search campaigns, keywords are still the primary way you communicate to Google the kinds of user searches you want to advertise on. It's one of the main signals for Smart bidding regardless of what match type you use.

2. Researching keywords is how you discover negative keywords to proactively protect your budget from irrelevant traffic. 

3. I will often recommend starting your new Search campaigns with Exact Match keywords together with clean, high-quality data before expanding. So you need keyword research to identify these initial high-intent terms before you can scale up with AI tools like Broad match or AI Max. 

4. Keyword research helps you uncover the actual language and terminology that your target customers use when they're looking for your products or services. And this is critical not just for keyword research, but for things like writing effective ad copy and effective landing pages. 

5. And then you can use keyword research beyond Search campaigns. For example, you can take these high intent keywords and create custom segments based on search terms, which you then add to your Demand Gen campaigns. So you can proactively show ads to people who are searching for the most important keywords to your business even if they're not actively searching right now.

Now that we understand how important keyword research still is and all the different ways you can use keyword research, I'm going to share with you my exact 10 step process for effective Google Ads keyword research.

1. Start with real customer data and not AI. 

I see quite a few people these days who will show me their campaigns and I say “where did those keywords come from? “

“Oh, ChatGPT gave them to me.” 

Please don't do this. Okay, ChatGPT and other tools do not actually do keyword research. They are a good starting point, but you're going to want to actually use Keyword Planner to see what people really search for on Google. Other real sources of information could be reviewing call transcripts if you have them to see the kinds of terms people are using or just sending out a survey and asking your customers if you were looking for us on Google, what would you search for? 

2. Use Keyword Planner.

Keyword Planner is a free tool in the Google Ads interface, you do not need to spend money to use it. So while there are a lot of third-party keyword research tools out there, Keyword Planner is the only one that's actually connected to real Google Search data. Once you have your seed ideas, bring them into Keyword Planner, use the discover new keywords mode, and you can enter up to 10 seed keywords to see related Search data. Alternatively, you can start with a website and plug your URL in to see which keywords Google already associates with your website.

By the way, if you want to see me actually do this inside the Google Ads platform and show you Keyword Planner step by step, you can join my signature course Inside Google Ads. That's where I show you rather than just tell you how to set up, optimize, and manage your Google Ads campaigns, how to troubleshoot common challenges, and how to use all of the tools in Google Ads including Keyword Planner. 

You can learn more and join now at learn.jyll.ca. That's learn dot J-Y-L-L dot C-A.

3. Adjusting your location settings. 

A common mistake I see people make when they're using Keyword Planner is they'll leave it at the default location like the entire United States. But if you're a local business or even if you're not a local business but you're just serving a certain area, you definitely want to change the location in Keyword Planner to your specific city or region as search volumes and costs can vary really wildly at national versus local level. 

4. Use Keyword Planner to try my non-brand conquesting strategy.

This is something where you type in a website, but instead of typing in your own website to Keyword Planner, you type in your competitor's website. This then reveals the searches that Google associates with your competitor. And by bidding on them as your own non-brand keywords, you can ensure that your ads are showing up above their organic results, and potentially alongside their paid ads. 

Once you actually get the results and get all this information in Keyword Planner, then what do you do?

5. Focus on relevance. 

When you're reviewing this initial data dump, you may have more than 1,000 keyword options. Don't obsess over the average monthly searches or the competitiveness or the year over year change. Just focus on selecting the keywords here that are specific and relevant to your business. You might find it easier to export this data into a spreadsheet and work through it there rather than trying to do it all in the Google Ads interface.

6. Estimate your costs. 

Keyword Planner doesn't give you a specific CPC number. Instead, it'll give you top of page bid low range and top of page bid high range. I like to take the average of these two columns and use that as my estimate for starting CPC. Again, exporting to a spreadsheet makes that calculation really easy. 

7. Identify negative keywords proactively. 

As you're sifting through these keyword ideas, make sure you're looking for the terms that are really not relevant to what you offer as well as the ones that are super relevant. Keep a running negative keyword list going before you even launch your campaign so you can avoid wasting budget on searches you would never want to advertise on.

8. Ad group grouping (STAG, not SKAG)

Take your selected keywords and group them by theme or intent. This is called single theme ad groups as opposed to the old fashioned single keyword ad groups. We don't want those. You should aim for about 5 to 15  keywords per ad group. This will help ensure good ad relevance, higher quality, more efficient costs, etc.. Assuming you're starting with Exact Match keywords, once your campaign is active and performing well, and you're ready to scale up, you can ensure you're using target based bidding, Target CPA or Target ROAS, and then add your top search term in Broad Match to your existing ad group. This is my “safe to scale” way to move from Exact to Broad, and perhaps eventually to AI Max. 

Let me know if you want a deeper dive on that strategy in a future episode. 

9. Collaborate with SEO, if applicable. 

If you work with an organic search team, or maybe you're a business owner, so you are the organic search team as well, you want to combine your Keyword Planner research with anything else you can pull from your SEO tools like Google Search Console. Combining these insights ensures that your paid and organic strategies are aligned and focused. 

For example, maybe you want to start with your top organic keywords as paid keywords because they're likely to perform well. Or maybe you want to do the opposite. Maybe you want to look at those keywords that you're not ranking well for organically and supplement that with the paid strategy on those keywords.

Neither one is right nor wrong. It really just depends on your goals. So ensure that SEO and SEM are working towards a common marketing goal together. 

10. Transition to the Search Terms Report.

Once your campaign is live and running, your ongoing keyword research will likely switch from Keyword Planner to your own Search Terms Report. Because this report shows you what users are actually typing into Google right now that's causing your ads to show, so you can constantly harvest new keyword ideas or negative keyword ideas based on real world data.

For example, one of my clients saw a lot of competitor searches popping up in her brand campaign, but it was for searches like competitor name versus brand name. We saw that happening a lot in the Search Terms Report even though we hadn't really paid attention to it in Keyword Planner. So my client was able to launch a new landing page and therefore a new ad group with those keywords and customized ad text to better take advantage of those searches. And now they're actually converting well. 

Nothing beats your own proprietary search term data in your own Google Ads account. So you should review that regularly and keep an eye out for any changes you're seeing, new kinds of terms, impression share swings, CPC adjustments, auction insights, etc..

Again, if you want me to show you in the Google Ads platform how to actually optimize your keywords, optimize your Search campaigns, these are some of the more than 100 lessons included in my Inside Google Ads course.

You can learn more and join now at learn.jyll.ca. 

You'll also get access to Jyllbot, a custom trained AI chatbot so you can get your Google Ads questions answered 24/7, 365. That's learn dot J-Y-L-L dot C-A.

At a time where it seems like everyone is connecting a stranger's Claude skill to their Google Ads account and essentially handing the keys to the kingdom over to AI, your human insight is your biggest competitive advantage.

Anyone can ask AI to generate a list of keywords, but only you can deeply understand your customers intent based on real search data, and then take that and turn it into a strategy that actually converts. By following my 10 step keyword research process you're not just picking words. You're setting a strong foundation, putting together the steering wheel that tells Google exactly where you want your business to go. Please don't let AI drive your Google Ads into a ditch! Take the wheel, guide the machine, and optimize your way to success.

Be sure to tune in next episode. We're diving into Demand Gen Creative, how to stop ad fatigue and optimize your image assets. 

I'm Jyll Saskin Gales, and I'll see you next time inside Google Ads.