Keyword Research for Google Ads: How to Find the Right Search Terms

Why Keyword Research Is the Foundation

Every successful Google Ads campaign starts with keyword research. The keywords you choose determine who sees your ads, how much you pay per click, and whether those clicks turn into customers. Get it wrong, and you burn budget on irrelevant traffic. Get it right, and you build a profitable acquisition channel.

Keyword research for Google Ads is different from SEO keyword research. In SEO, you optimize for organic rankings over months. In Google Ads, you pay for every click — so the focus shifts from volume to intent, profitability, and cost efficiency.

Understanding Search Intent

Not all searches are created equal. Before looking at keyword tools, you need to understand the four types of search intent:

Transactional Intent

The user wants to buy or take action. These are your highest-value keywords.

Examples: "buy running shoes online", "plumber near me now", "hire web developer"

Commercial Investigation

The user is comparing options before buying. Still valuable, but requires a different ad approach.

Examples: "best CRM software 2025", "iPhone vs Samsung", "top marketing agencies London"

Informational Intent

The user wants to learn something. Low purchase intent, but can work for awareness campaigns.

Examples: "how to fix a leaky faucet", "what is CRM", "SEO vs SEM difference"

Navigational Intent

The user is looking for a specific brand or website. Only relevant if they are searching for your brand.

Examples: "Nike store", "Amazon login", "WonderAds pricing"

Keyword Research Tools

Google Keyword Planner

Google's own tool, free with a Google Ads account. It shows search volume estimates, competition levels, and suggested bid ranges. Best for getting a broad overview of keyword opportunities.

Limitations: Volume ranges are broad (e.g., "1K–10K"), and suggestions tend to favor high-volume, high-competition keywords. It does not help you find niche long-tail opportunities.

Keywordtool.io

Generates keyword suggestions from Google Autocomplete data. Excellent for discovering long-tail keywords that Google Keyword Planner misses. The free version shows keywords; the paid version adds volume and CPC data.

AnswerThePublic

Visualizes questions and prepositions people use around a keyword. Great for understanding how users think about a topic and finding question-based keywords ("how to hire a plumber", "what does a plumber charge").

Google Search Console

If you already have a website, Search Console shows you the actual searches that bring organic traffic. Many of these searches are also worth targeting with paid ads — especially high-converting queries where you want guaranteed visibility.

Evaluating Keywords: What to Look For

Not every keyword is worth bidding on. Evaluate each keyword against four criteria:

Search Volume

How many people search for this term each month. Higher volume means more potential traffic, but also more competition and higher CPCs.

Competition

How many advertisers bid on this keyword. High competition drives up costs. Look for keywords with reasonable volume but moderate competition.

Cost Per Click (CPC)

The estimated price you will pay per click. Calculate whether the CPC is sustainable given your conversion rate and customer value.

Formula: Maximum CPC = Target CPA × (Conversion Rate / 100)

If your Target CPA is €50 and your conversion rate is 5%, your maximum sustainable CPC is €2.50.

Intent Match

Does this keyword match what your business offers? A keyword with high volume and low CPC is worthless if the people searching for it are not your potential customers.

The Long-Tail Keyword Advantage

Keywords with three or more words are called long-tail keywords. They individually have lower search volume, but they offer three major advantages:

Lower CPC

Fewer advertisers compete for specific, multi-word keywords. A broad keyword like "plumber" might cost €5.00 per click. A long-tail keyword like "emergency plumber Hackney 24h" might cost only €0.80.

Higher Conversion Rate

Long-tail keywords signal clearer intent. Someone searching "emergency plumber Hackney 24h" knows exactly what they want and is ready to act. Someone searching "plumber" could be doing research, looking for a job, or just curious.

Broader Coverage

While each long-tail keyword has low volume, thousands of them together cover your entire market. A few dozen high-volume keywords might bring you 1,000 clicks per month. Thousands of long-tail keywords bring you 10,000 clicks — at a fraction of the cost.

Organizing Keywords Into Lists

Raw keyword research produces an unstructured dump of hundreds or thousands of terms. The next step is organizing them into themed lists — the building blocks of your campaign structure.

The key insight is that most search queries are combinations of multiple concepts:

• "emergency plumber London" = urgency ("emergency") + service ("plumber") + location ("London")
• "affordable 24h electrician Manchester" = price ("affordable") + availability ("24h") + service ("electrician") + location ("Manchester")

Instead of treating each search query as a standalone keyword, decompose them into their atomic components:

• Services list: plumber, electrician, carpenter, roofer
• Locations list: London, Manchester, Birmingham
• Modifiers list: best, affordable, emergency, 24h, near me

Now you can combine these lists systematically. 4 services × 3 locations × 5 modifiers = 60 unique keyword combinations — generated from just 12 list entries.

From Research to Structured Campaign

The final step is turning your organized keyword lists into a structured Google Ads account. For each keyword combination, you need:

1. A campaign (with budget and bid strategy)
2. An ad group (with the specific keyword)
3. Keywords in the right match types (Exact, Phrase, Broad)
4. Responsive Search Ads tailored to the keyword
5. The correct landing page URL
6. Negative keywords for match type protection

Doing this manually for 60 keyword combinations is tedious. For 6,000 combinations, it is impossible. This is where automation becomes essential — you define the building blocks and let the tool generate the complete structure.