How to Add Keywords to Google Ads?

Know what you’re adding (and where keywords actually live)

In Google Ads, you don’t add keywords “to an ad.” You add keywords to an ad group, and your ads in that ad group become eligible to show when someone searches in ways that match those keywords. Getting this right upfront matters because the keyword list you build influences everything downstream: which auctions you enter, how relevant your ads feel, how much you pay per click, and ultimately your ROI.

The first checkpoint is campaign type. Search campaigns use keywords as the primary targeting method. Display and video campaigns can also use keyword targeting, but it works differently (more contextual and/or audience-oriented, not as “query-direct” as Search). Some campaign types are intentionally more automated and won’t give you a traditional “positive keywords” workflow.

Also note a practical constraint: each keyword you add can contain up to 10 words. If you try to paste longer phrases, you’ll run into errors or unintended truncation.

When you won’t see a normal “add keywords” option

If you’re expecting to add keywords and the interface seems to “hide” them, it’s usually because you’re in a campaign type that doesn’t rely on keyword lists in the same way. For example, Smart campaigns use keyword themes (a smaller set of themes that represent multiple related searches), and Performance Max uses automation with controls like search themes and exclusions rather than a classic keyword list. Dynamic Search Ads also have specific ad group setups where you won’t be able to add or edit positive keywords inside certain dynamic ad groups.

Step-by-step: How to add keywords in Google Ads

Add keywords to a Search campaign (desktop)

This is the most common workflow and the one most advertisers mean when they ask how to add keywords.

1. Open your Google Ads account and go to the Campaigns area.
2. Navigate to Keywords (this is where Search keywords are managed).
3. Click the plus button to add new keywords.
4. In the Select an ad group window, search for your campaign by name or ID, then choose the ad group where you want the keywords to live.
5. Expand the Keywords section in the side panel. Add keywords by typing or pasting them one per line. If you want help building the list, use the built-in keyword ideas area to generate suggestions.
6. Click Save.

Two pro tips that save budget fast: keep each ad group tightly themed (so your ads stay highly relevant), and don’t paste huge “everything we sell” lists into one ad group just because it’s faster. That approach almost always dilutes performance and makes optimization harder.

Add keywords to Display and video campaigns (desktop)

For Display and video, the interface is typically managed through content targeting controls rather than the Search keyword screen.

1. Go to Content within the Campaigns area.
2. In the Content card, choose Edit content.
3. Select the campaign/ad group you want to edit.
4. Expand the Keywords section and add keywords one per line (or generate ideas).
5. Choose whether the keyword setting is Audience or Content, then Save.

In plain English, think of Content keywords as “place my ads around content related to these topics,” and Audience keywords as “reach people who are signaling interest in these topics.” If you’re chasing ROI, start with the option that best matches your intent: contextual reach for awareness, or audience intent when you want more qualified users.

Add keywords using the Google Ads mobile app

If you’re working from your phone, you can still manage keywords cleanly (especially useful for quick additions after you spot something in performance data).

1. Tap More, then Keywords.
2. Tap the plus button.
3. Select a campaign, then an ad group.
4. Tap Add a keyword, enter your keyword, and choose the match type.
5. Tap Save (or keep adding more keywords to the same ad group).

Choose match types correctly (this is where ROI is won or lost)

Adding keywords is the easy part. Adding the right keywords, in the right match types, with the right structure is what keeps your spend efficient.

Match type formats you’ll use when entering Search keywords

When you enter keywords for Search, you control match type by how you format the keyword text:

• Broad match: no formatting (example: womens hats)
• Phrase match: use quotation marks (example: "womens hats")
• Exact match: use brackets (example: [womens hats])

Broad match is the default when you don’t specify a match type. It can reach more queries—including related queries that may not contain the exact words you typed—so it’s powerful, but it needs discipline.

How broad, phrase, and exact really behave today

Broad match is designed to expand reach using a variety of signals, including the user’s recent search activity, the content of your landing pages and assets, and the other keywords in the ad group to understand intent. This is why broad match can be a growth lever when it’s paired with a conversion-focused bidding strategy, but it can also waste money if you’re bidding aggressively without strong conversion measurement.

Phrase match has been modernized over the last few years to focus on meaning, not just word order. It’s more expansive than the old “strict phrase match” many advertisers remember, and it effectively absorbed the old broad match modifier behavior. If you still have legacy “+keyword” style entries in older accounts, they behave like phrase match now, and you can’t create new ones with plus signs.

Exact match provides the most control, but “exact” doesn’t mean “identical characters only.” Exact match can include searches with the same meaning or intent as your keyword. That’s good for reach, but it also means you shouldn’t expect exact match to behave like a hard firewall.

Close variants: don’t overbuild keyword lists

All match types can match to close variants (like misspellings, singular/plural, reordered words with the same meaning, and function words that don’t change intent). There’s no opt-out. Practically, this means you should stop trying to add every tiny variation of the same keyword. Put that effort into better ad group structure, better landing pages, and smarter exclusions instead.

After you add keywords: refine targeting with search terms and negatives

The highest-ROI accounts treat keywords as a living system. Your “first draft” keyword list is rarely perfect. The best way to tighten relevance (and protect ROI) is to review the actual searches that triggered your ads and then take action.

Use the search terms report to find what’s working (and what’s wasting spend)

The search terms report shows the real queries that triggered your ads (within privacy thresholds), and it’s one of the fastest ways to spot both opportunity and waste. If you see valuable queries that you’re matching only loosely, consider adding them as new keywords in the most relevant ad group so you can write more aligned ads and route traffic to the best landing page.

If you see irrelevant queries that keep spending, add them as negative keywords. When you add negative keywords directly from the search terms report in a Search campaign, they’re typically added as negative exact by default—so be intentional about whether you actually need broader negative coverage.

Negative keyword best practices (without over-restricting performance)

Negative keywords are essential for ROI, but they’re also one of the easiest ways to accidentally choke a campaign. Two rules I’ve followed for 15+ years: exclude what you’re sure you don’t sell, and be conservative when excluding anything that could still convert.

Also remember that negative keywords behave differently than positive keywords: negatives don’t expand to close variants in the same way, so if you need to block both singular and plural (or common misspellings), you may need to add more than one negative keyword.

If you’re running highly automated campaigns, be extra careful. In Performance Max, for example, negative keywords are considered a restrictive control and can reduce the system’s ability to find converting demand. For brand protection in those campaigns, exclusions designed specifically for brand coverage are often more complete than negatives.

When keywords don’t run: the fastest troubleshooting checklist

If you added keywords and nothing is happening, don’t guess—diagnose. These are the most common root causes I see in real accounts.

• Campaign/ad group/keyword is paused, removed, pending, or ended. Check the keyword Status column and the campaign dates.
• Keyword is “Low search volume” or too niche. Replace with a more commonly searched variant or validate demand in keyword research tools before forcing spend.
• Keyword is eligible but not competitive. “Below first page bid estimate” signals you may need stronger bids, better Quality Score drivers (ad relevance, landing page experience), or a more targeted keyword set.
• Keyword is disapproved. Hover the status details and resolve the underlying policy/destination issue.
• You’re in a campaign type that doesn’t use positive keywords the way you expect. Confirm the campaign type first; if it’s Smart, Performance Max, Shopping, or Dynamic Search Ads, the right lever may be themes, feeds, targets, or exclusions—not a Search keyword list.

Once your keywords are serving, your ongoing edge comes from tightening alignment: keywords grouped by intent, ads written to match that intent, and landing pages that deliver exactly what the searcher expected. Do that, and “adding keywords” stops being a setup task and becomes a repeatable system for profitable growth.

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Once you’ve added keywords to the right place in Google Ads (at the ad group level, with the match types and structure that fit your campaign type) and you’re iterating using search terms and negative keywords, the day-to-day work becomes less about “adding more” and more about continually refining what you already have. If you want a lighter way to keep that loop running, Blobr connects to your Google Ads account and uses specialized AI agents to help with keyword-related tasks like uncovering new keyword ideas and brainstorming negatives to reduce wasted spend, then turns those findings into clear, prioritized actions you can review and apply on your own terms.