There’s No Single “Ideal” Keyword Count (and That’s a Good Thing)
The right number of keywords in Google Ads isn’t a platform secret—it’s a byproduct of how well your campaign structure mirrors real search intent. If your keywords are tightly grouped by what the searcher actually wants (price shopping, emergency service, brand comparison, specific model, etc.), you can run very lean keyword lists and still capture meaningful volume. If your keywords are a messy mix of intents, you can have thousands of keywords and still struggle to drive conversions.
In modern Search campaigns, keyword count matters far less than keyword coverage and control. Coverage is whether you’re eligible for the valuable searches you want. Control is whether you can reliably avoid the searches you don’t want and route traffic to the right ad + landing page combination. The best-performing accounts balance those two—without trying to “collect” every possible keyword variation.
Two platform behaviors reinforce this: you don’t need to add every close variant of a keyword, and if multiple keywords could match the same query, only one will enter the auction—your keywords don’t compete against each other internally.
Why “more keywords” often makes performance worse
Overstuffed keyword lists typically dilute your data. Instead of building enough clicks and conversions per theme to let bidding, ads, and landing pages optimize, you spread activity across hundreds of nearly identical keywords. That slows learning, makes reporting noisier, and encourages constant micro-edits that rarely move results.
It also increases the odds that the wrong keyword theme triggers the wrong ad. Even though only one keyword is selected for a given search, having too many overlapping ad groups can still make it harder to keep messaging and landing pages perfectly aligned.
Practical Keyword Ranges That Work (Search, Display, and Smart Campaigns)
Search campaigns: focus on themes, not volume
For Search, I generally see the best results when an ad group is built around a single intent theme and a small set of keyword patterns that represent that intent. In practice, that often lands in the range of roughly 10–30 keywords per ad group to start, then expanding only when you can clearly justify a new intent theme (and ideally a new ad group) with distinct ad copy and a distinct landing experience.
If you’re using broad match thoughtfully, you can usually run fewer total keywords because broader match types can cover the queries captured by narrower match types (and more). This is exactly why blindly duplicating the same keyword across match types is usually unnecessary.
Display campaigns using keyword targeting: keep it tight
For Display keyword targeting specifically, a tight set works best. A common, practical guideline is to build ad groups with about 5 to 20 closely related keywords. This range helps keep targeting coherent so your creative and landing page match the context where ads appear.
Smart campaigns: treat keyword themes like “macro keywords”
Smart campaigns don’t use traditional keyword lists the same way Search does. Because a single keyword theme can represent multiple related searches, you don’t want an exhaustive list. A strong operating guideline is to aim for a maximum of 7–10 keyword themes, and split into separate campaigns if you need to cover very different services or product lines.
Know the difference between “best practice” and “hard limits”
Even though you’ll almost never hit them in real life, it’s helpful to know the system constraints so you don’t design a structure that can’t scale. For example, there’s a limit of 20,000 ad group targeting items per ad group (keywords are part of this), and a limit of 5 million ad group targeting items per account.
On the negative side, there are also caps you should plan around, such as the maximum number of shared negative keyword lists and the number of negatives allowed per list and per campaign.
A Simple System to Find Your “Ideal” Keyword Count (Without Guessing)
Step 1: Build around conversion intent first
Start by separating keywords by what someone is trying to do, not by what words look similar. For lead gen, “service + near me,” “service + pricing,” and “service + emergency” are often different intents that deserve different ads and landing pages. For ecommerce, “brand + model,” “category + best,” and “category + cheap” often behave very differently in conversion rate and average order value.
Once you organize by intent, the “ideal number” of keywords becomes much easier to see: it’s simply the minimum set needed to represent the intent variations you actually want to pay for.
Step 2: Choose match types to reduce keyword bloat
Match types are not just about reach—they’re about how much you want to curate queries manually versus letting the system match more broadly and then controlling with negatives and conversion-based bidding. Broader match types capture the queries of narrower match types (and more), which is a key reason you often don’t need the same keyword duplicated across exact, phrase, and broad.
If you’re leaning into broad match, it’s important to pair it with conversion-focused automated bidding so bids can adjust to the context of each auction.
Step 3: Launch with a “starter set,” then let search behavior tell you what to add
I’d rather see you launch with a clean, intentional keyword set than a bloated spreadsheet dump. After launch, use query data to expand in the directions the market proves are valuable.
- Review your search term data routinely to identify irrelevant queries to exclude and profitable queries to add as new keywords or new ad groups.
- Use search-category style insights to spot emerging themes and demand patterns without manually scanning endless rows of individual queries.
- When you add new keywords, add them to the ad group that best matches the intent and landing page—don’t just “park” them in a generic ad group.
Step 4: Use Keyword Planner for expansion, but don’t confuse “ideas” with “needed keywords”
Keyword research tools are designed to generate options, not to dictate how many keywords you must run. It’s normal to start with a bigger idea set and then narrow down to the few themes you can execute well with strong ads and relevant landing pages. One workflow that can help early on is collecting a meaningful pool of ideas before organizing them into ad groups.
Step 5: Keep your account controllable with negatives (and negative lists)
If there’s one place where “more is more,” it’s negatives—because they protect budget and keep conversion data clean. Use shared negative keyword lists to enforce global rules (employment searches, DIY, free, definitions, competitor support queries—whatever doesn’t convert for your business). Just make sure you build within the platform’s negative keyword limits so you don’t design a process that breaks at scale.
What I’d Do If You Told Me “Just Give Me a Number”
If you’re running Search campaigns and want a practical starting point, I’d aim for a small, tightly themed set per ad group (often around 10–30 keywords), prioritizing high-intent queries and only expanding when you can clearly justify a new intent theme. If you’re using Display keyword targeting, I’d keep ad groups in the 5–20 keyword range. If you’re using Smart campaigns, I’d stay around 7–10 keyword themes and split campaigns when themes diverge.
The “ideal” keyword count is the smallest list that still captures the demand you want—while preserving clean intent segmentation, strong ad relevance, and enough conversion volume per theme to optimize confidently.
Let AI handle
the Google Ads grunt work
Let AI handle
the Google Ads grunt work
If you’re trying to figure out how many keywords are “ideal” for Google Ads, it helps to think less about hitting a magic number and more about keeping a lean set that clearly maps to real user intent, with enough volume per theme to learn and optimize—then expanding based on actual search term data (and pruning overlap with negatives). If you want a practical way to manage that without constantly living in spreadsheets, Blobr plugs into your Google Ads account and runs specialized AI agents that can surface new, relevant keyword opportunities (via its Keyword Ideas Finder) while also protecting performance with suggested exclusions (via its Negative Keywords Brainstormer), so your keyword list stays intentionally sized and aligned to what converts.
There’s No Single “Ideal” Keyword Count (and That’s a Good Thing)
The right number of keywords in Google Ads isn’t a platform secret—it’s a byproduct of how well your campaign structure mirrors real search intent. If your keywords are tightly grouped by what the searcher actually wants (price shopping, emergency service, brand comparison, specific model, etc.), you can run very lean keyword lists and still capture meaningful volume. If your keywords are a messy mix of intents, you can have thousands of keywords and still struggle to drive conversions.
In modern Search campaigns, keyword count matters far less than keyword coverage and control. Coverage is whether you’re eligible for the valuable searches you want. Control is whether you can reliably avoid the searches you don’t want and route traffic to the right ad + landing page combination. The best-performing accounts balance those two—without trying to “collect” every possible keyword variation.
Two platform behaviors reinforce this: you don’t need to add every close variant of a keyword, and if multiple keywords could match the same query, only one will enter the auction—your keywords don’t compete against each other internally.
Why “more keywords” often makes performance worse
Overstuffed keyword lists typically dilute your data. Instead of building enough clicks and conversions per theme to let bidding, ads, and landing pages optimize, you spread activity across hundreds of nearly identical keywords. That slows learning, makes reporting noisier, and encourages constant micro-edits that rarely move results.
It also increases the odds that the wrong keyword theme triggers the wrong ad. Even though only one keyword is selected for a given search, having too many overlapping ad groups can still make it harder to keep messaging and landing pages perfectly aligned.
Practical Keyword Ranges That Work (Search, Display, and Smart Campaigns)
Search campaigns: focus on themes, not volume
For Search, I generally see the best results when an ad group is built around a single intent theme and a small set of keyword patterns that represent that intent. In practice, that often lands in the range of roughly 10–30 keywords per ad group to start, then expanding only when you can clearly justify a new intent theme (and ideally a new ad group) with distinct ad copy and a distinct landing experience.
If you’re using broad match thoughtfully, you can usually run fewer total keywords because broader match types can cover the queries captured by narrower match types (and more). This is exactly why blindly duplicating the same keyword across match types is usually unnecessary.
Display campaigns using keyword targeting: keep it tight
For Display keyword targeting specifically, a tight set works best. A common, practical guideline is to build ad groups with about 5 to 20 closely related keywords. This range helps keep targeting coherent so your creative and landing page match the context where ads appear.
Smart campaigns: treat keyword themes like “macro keywords”
Smart campaigns don’t use traditional keyword lists the same way Search does. Because a single keyword theme can represent multiple related searches, you don’t want an exhaustive list. A strong operating guideline is to aim for a maximum of 7–10 keyword themes, and split into separate campaigns if you need to cover very different services or product lines.
Know the difference between “best practice” and “hard limits”
Even though you’ll almost never hit them in real life, it’s helpful to know the system constraints so you don’t design a structure that can’t scale. For example, there’s a limit of 20,000 ad group targeting items per ad group (keywords are part of this), and a limit of 5 million ad group targeting items per account.
On the negative side, there are also caps you should plan around, such as the maximum number of shared negative keyword lists and the number of negatives allowed per list and per campaign.
A Simple System to Find Your “Ideal” Keyword Count (Without Guessing)
Step 1: Build around conversion intent first
Start by separating keywords by what someone is trying to do, not by what words look similar. For lead gen, “service + near me,” “service + pricing,” and “service + emergency” are often different intents that deserve different ads and landing pages. For ecommerce, “brand + model,” “category + best,” and “category + cheap” often behave very differently in conversion rate and average order value.
Once you organize by intent, the “ideal number” of keywords becomes much easier to see: it’s simply the minimum set needed to represent the intent variations you actually want to pay for.
Step 2: Choose match types to reduce keyword bloat
Match types are not just about reach—they’re about how much you want to curate queries manually versus letting the system match more broadly and then controlling with negatives and conversion-based bidding. Broader match types capture the queries of narrower match types (and more), which is a key reason you often don’t need the same keyword duplicated across exact, phrase, and broad.
If you’re leaning into broad match, it’s important to pair it with conversion-focused automated bidding so bids can adjust to the context of each auction.
Step 3: Launch with a “starter set,” then let search behavior tell you what to add
I’d rather see you launch with a clean, intentional keyword set than a bloated spreadsheet dump. After launch, use query data to expand in the directions the market proves are valuable.
- Review your search term data routinely to identify irrelevant queries to exclude and profitable queries to add as new keywords or new ad groups.
- Use search-category style insights to spot emerging themes and demand patterns without manually scanning endless rows of individual queries.
- When you add new keywords, add them to the ad group that best matches the intent and landing page—don’t just “park” them in a generic ad group.
Step 4: Use Keyword Planner for expansion, but don’t confuse “ideas” with “needed keywords”
Keyword research tools are designed to generate options, not to dictate how many keywords you must run. It’s normal to start with a bigger idea set and then narrow down to the few themes you can execute well with strong ads and relevant landing pages. One workflow that can help early on is collecting a meaningful pool of ideas before organizing them into ad groups.
Step 5: Keep your account controllable with negatives (and negative lists)
If there’s one place where “more is more,” it’s negatives—because they protect budget and keep conversion data clean. Use shared negative keyword lists to enforce global rules (employment searches, DIY, free, definitions, competitor support queries—whatever doesn’t convert for your business). Just make sure you build within the platform’s negative keyword limits so you don’t design a process that breaks at scale.
What I’d Do If You Told Me “Just Give Me a Number”
If you’re running Search campaigns and want a practical starting point, I’d aim for a small, tightly themed set per ad group (often around 10–30 keywords), prioritizing high-intent queries and only expanding when you can clearly justify a new intent theme. If you’re using Display keyword targeting, I’d keep ad groups in the 5–20 keyword range. If you’re using Smart campaigns, I’d stay around 7–10 keyword themes and split campaigns when themes diverge.
The “ideal” keyword count is the smallest list that still captures the demand you want—while preserving clean intent segmentation, strong ad relevance, and enough conversion volume per theme to optimize confidently.
