How to Conduct Keyword Research for Google Ads?

Set the Foundation: What “Good Keyword Research” Actually Means in Google Ads

Start with the business goal, not the tool

Effective keyword research for Google Ads isn’t about finding the biggest list of terms. It’s about finding the smallest set of search intents that can reliably produce your desired outcome at an acceptable cost. Before you open any tool, clarify what a “win” is for this campaign: a lead, a sale, a booked call, a store visit, or a specific revenue target. That decision affects which keywords you prioritize, how you structure ad groups, and how aggressively you can broaden targeting later.

From a practical standpoint, I recommend you define three things up front: what you’re selling (offer + differentiators), where you can sell it (locations/service areas), and what counts as a qualified action (conversion). This matters because Keyword Planner forecasts can be viewed around clicks or conversions, and your ability to forecast conversions depends on having conversion measurement in place.

Translate intent into keyword “buckets” (so you don’t drown in ideas)

The fastest way to keep keyword research focused is to classify queries by intent. Most accounts I’ve managed profitably end up with a mix of “high-intent” keywords (people ready to buy), “comparison” keywords (people evaluating options), and “problem/solution” keywords (people seeking help who may convert with the right landing page). Keyword research becomes much easier when you already know which bucket you’re building for, because you’ll judge every keyword idea against the same question: “Would a person who searches this be a good fit for this specific landing page and offer?”

This also helps you avoid a common ROI-killer: trying to make one ad group and one landing page serve every possible meaning of a word. Relevance is not a nice-to-have in Google Ads; it impacts performance through the Quality Score components (expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience). When your keywords, ad messaging, and landing page are tightly aligned, you give the system—and the searcher—far fewer reasons to say “no.”

Critical pre-check: Know what match types can (and can’t) control today

Many advertisers still expect “exact match” to mean “only this exact wording.” In reality, all match types can match to close variants, and you can’t opt out of that behavior. That’s not a problem if you plan for it. The goal isn’t to create a perfect list of every spelling and word order; the goal is to build a focused set of intents, then use search term data and negatives to refine over time.

Use Keyword Planner Like a Pro: Discover, Filter, Forecast, and Organize

Access and mindset: What Keyword Planner is best at

Keyword Planner is designed to help you discover new keywords related to your business and estimate search activity and costs. It’s also built to help you create a keyword plan that can be turned into campaign structure. Two “good to know” operational details that impact planning: forecasts refresh daily and are based on recent data (with seasonality adjustments), and access to basic Keyword Planner features requires completing account setup with billing information.

In day-to-day management, I use Keyword Planner for two main jobs: generating structured ideas (so I don’t miss entire subcategories of demand) and pressure-testing feasibility (so I know whether an idea is likely to be too expensive, too small, or too competitive to hit goals).

Step 1: Discover new keywords the right way (keywords vs. website)

In Keyword Planner, “Discover new keywords” gives you two strong starting points. “Start with keywords” is best when you already know your services/products and want expansion around them. “Start with a website” is useful when you want Keyword Planner to read a site’s content and generate ideas aligned to what that site is about. One important nuance: it doesn’t use the contents of hyperlinks on the page to generate ideas, so you want the site you enter to have clear on-page text about the offer.

When I want volume and variety fast, I often use both a seed keyword set and a URL together. You typically get a broader set of ideas when you provide both inputs, because the system can combine the theme implied by the keyword with the theme implied by the page content. Also, if you enter your own domain, you can request the system try to exclude ideas that aren’t related to what you offer, which can save time on cleanup.

If Keyword Planner warns you that certain keywords can’t be discovered or forecasted, don’t ignore it. Some terms have very low search volume, and some are considered sensitive—either way, you’ll need to adjust your approach (often by moving one layer up to a less specific term, or by shifting to a different phrasing that represents the same intent).

Step 2: Filter and refine (where most people leave money on the table)

Raw keyword ideas are rarely launch-ready. The “win” is in refining. Use filters to narrow based on what your business can realistically afford and convert. In particular, filtering around competitiveness signals and bid ranges helps you quickly separate “nice idea” keywords from “buildable” keywords. A simple example is filtering to surface ideas where a relatively low bid could still compete for top-of-page visibility—useful when you’re trying to build a cost-efficient long-tail foundation.

Then move to category refinement. Categories let you see keyword groupings by themes, brands, or attributes (for example, product colors, styles, or service types). This is one of the cleanest ways to prevent campaigns from drifting into irrelevant subcategories. Instead of manually deleting hundreds of ideas, you can exclude entire category branches that don’t match your offer.

Step 3: Get search volume and forecasts (validate before you launch)

Once you have a shortlist, “Get search volume and forecasts” is where you sanity-check potential outcomes. You can paste a list or upload a file, then view forecasted clicks, impressions, and (when you have conversion measurement available) conversions. Forecasting is never perfect, but it’s a strong directional signal for planning budgets and setting expectations with stakeholders.

Two pro tips here: first, forecast your shortlist in “themes,” not just as one giant set—because a few expensive keywords can distort your expectations. Second, if your business is seasonal or demand shifts week to week, revisit forecasts regularly rather than treating them as a one-time exercise.

Step 4: Organize keywords into ad groups (and keep it honest)

Keyword Planner also includes an option to organize keywords into ad groups (with availability depending on language). This can be a helpful accelerator, especially for newer accounts or when you’re building out coverage quickly. Treat it like a draft, not a finished structure. Your job is to confirm that each suggested ad group can share the same core messaging and land on the same page without compromising relevance.

The best structures I’ve managed are “tightly themed,” not “microscopically segmented.” If your structure is too fragmented, you end up starving each segment of data, which slows learning and makes optimization harder—especially if you’re using automated bidding.

Turn Research Into Performance: Match Types, Search Terms, Negatives, and Structure

Choose match types based on data maturity (not fear)

Match types are not a hierarchy of “good vs. bad.” They’re dials for balancing control and reach. Exact and phrase can be useful when you need tighter control early, or when certain queries are consistently high-cost and require precision. Broad match can be extremely effective when paired with conversion-focused automated bidding, because it can use more signals to interpret intent and expand into additional relevant auctions—often faster than a manually-built long-tail list can.

If you’re using automated bidding strategies focused on conversions or conversion value, broad match tends to pair particularly well because the bidding system can evaluate each auction and adjust bids based on predicted performance. In those scenarios, duplicating the same keyword across multiple match types often just splits your data and can reduce efficiency. A cleaner approach is to keep ad groups themed, consolidate unnecessary duplicates, and let the system learn with sufficient volume—while you keep control through search term reviews and negatives.

Use the Search Terms report as your “truth serum”

Keyword research is hypothesis; the Search Terms report is evidence. It shows what people actually typed when your ads were triggered. Reviewing this report is how you find profitable expansions you never would have brainstormed, and it’s also how you catch waste before it becomes a budget leak.

When you analyze search terms, pay attention to intent mismatches more than wording mismatches. Also understand that the report’s “match type” labeling can reflect how the triggered search term relates to your keyword, and broader match types can still trigger search terms that appear “exact” in the report. In other words, don’t assume you have tight control just because the report says “exact” on a row—always read the actual query and judge intent.

Negative keywords: the fastest ROI lever—when used carefully

Negatives are where experienced advertisers quietly outperform everyone else. They don’t just reduce wasted spend; they protect conversion rate by preventing irrelevant traffic from polluting your learning and your lead quality.

Here’s the key nuance many miss: negative match types behave differently than positive match types and don’t match to variants the same way. So you should be deliberate. Overly aggressive negatives can block valuable variations and shrink reach more than intended.

• Immediate action checklist for negatives: Review search terms at least weekly in the first month, add negatives for clearly irrelevant intents, and build shared negative keyword lists for “always wrong” themes (jobs, free, definitions, DIY, used, etc.—as applicable to your business).
• Operational tip: When you add negative keywords from the Search Terms report in a Search campaign, they’re added as negative exact match by default. Change match type only when you’re confident you want broader blocking.

You can also apply negatives at the account level (with a defined limit on how many can be excluded), which is particularly useful for brand suitability and for eliminating universal irrelevancies across multiple campaigns.

Account structure: theme your ad groups, avoid needless segmentation

If you want keyword research to translate into real performance, your structure must support it. The strongest modern Search accounts typically use a simpler structure with consolidated, tightly themed ad groups. This makes it easier for the system to understand which keyword is most relevant, choose the best creative, and learn from conversion signals without being split across duplicates.

A practical rule I’ve used for years is: if a set of keywords should share the same landing page and the same primary promise in the ad, they can usually live together. If they require a different promise, a different price point, a different audience, or a different page, they usually deserve separation.

Advanced Tips: Research That Holds Up in 2026 Google Ads

Don’t “research keywords” in a vacuum—research landing page alignment

Some of the most expensive keywords are expensive because they’re valuable—and competitive. You don’t win those auctions just by bidding harder; you win by being more relevant. Make a habit of checking landing page performance and mobile readiness alongside keyword performance. If you see strong search demand but weak conversion rate, the fix is often the page (message match, clarity, speed, mobile usability), not the keyword list.

Performance Max keyword research: think in search themes and exclusions

If you’re running Performance Max, keyword research doesn’t disappear—it changes form. Instead of building a classic keyword list, you’re typically feeding the system with signals (like search themes) and then controlling quality through reporting visibility and carefully chosen exclusions. Recent platform updates have expanded visibility and control in Performance Max, including stronger reporting and more scalable exclusion management through negative keyword list capabilities, plus increased limits for search themes per asset group.

The biggest strategic takeaway is this: use exclusions to protect brand safety and eliminate clearly irrelevant intent, but avoid “over-controlling” with negatives in a way that prevents the system from finding valuable converting traffic. If your goal is to separate brand and non-brand traffic, use brand-specific exclusion controls designed for that purpose rather than trying to solve it purely with negatives.

A simple operating rhythm that keeps keyword research profitable

Keyword research is not a one-and-done task. The highest-ROI accounts follow a cadence: build a focused initial set, launch with clean structure, monitor search terms, add negatives, promote winning queries into targeted ad groups, and regularly refresh planning forecasts as the market changes. When you treat keyword research as a living system instead of a spreadsheet project, your campaigns get more efficient every month—because every search term is either teaching you what to scale or what to block.

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Keyword research for Google Ads works best when it starts with your business goal and the intent behind each search, then narrows ideas through Keyword Planner, realistic forecasts, and ongoing refinement using the Search Terms report and smart negative keywords—because match types now rely heavily on close variants and real performance data. If you want help turning that workflow into something repeatable, Blobr connects to your Google Ads account and runs specialized AI agents like the Keyword Ideas Finder (to surface new, relevant keyword opportunities using your account history, landing pages, and Planner data) and the Negative Keywords Brainstormer (to spot likely off-target queries before they waste spend), so you can spend more time on strategy while staying in control of what gets applied.