Free Keyword Research Tools

AdWords supports advertisers with a variety of free tools to optimize their accounts and help them to display relevant and targeted ads to users. If you have already read previous posts on optimization, you know how important it is to include very relevant keywords in your AdWords campaign. Sometimes, it can be difficult to anticipate user behavior and confirm which keywords are relevant to user searches. In today’s post, we’ll look at how you can use Google’s free tools to build an effective keyword list in no time.

Keyword Tool
The Keyword Tool helps you generate keyword ideas related to the product you are offering. You give the tool hints about what your products and services are like and it generates synonyms, related terms and other searches. You can select and add these terms to your keyword list and also decide on the match type before adding them to your account. With the advanced options, it’s easy to streamline keywords based on location, language and devices (Mobile search). While generating keyword ideas, the tool also gives competitive analysis on each keyword, local and global monthly searches for the keyword, and local search trends. And even without entering any words or phrases, you can look at potential keywords by category.

Traffic Estimator
If you struggle to decide what an ideal cost-per-click (CPC) bid could be for your keywords, the AdWords Traffic Estimator can give you estimates in a matter of seconds. If you click “check estimates” in the Keyword Tool, you go directly to the Traffic Estimator, where you can check several metrics such as estimated average CPC, estimated ad position, estimated daily clicks and estimated daily cost. Since Google Grants accounts have a max CPC bid of $1, you can define that bid before generating estimates.

Search-based Keyword Tool
As you might already know, the Quality Score of your keyword is often higher if the search query matches the keyword exactly. In order to make sure your keywords are the actual terms users enter while searching on Google, you can use the Search-based Keyword Tool to pull up the exact search queries users enter pertaining to a particular product or service. Apart from helping you get more keyword ideas, this tool gives you ideas about negative keywords if you see any irrelevant search queries triggering your ads. Learn how to optimize your account with negative keywords. In addition to showing users’ search queries, the tool shows top keywords across all categories. Read about a case study with the Search-based Keyword Tool.

Google Trends & Insights for Search
If your campaign is about a seasonal product or event and you want to make the most of a specific period by using very relevant seasonal terms, then Google Trends is the place for you. This tool can give you suggestions about keywords rising in popularity, search trends from specific target locations, and the time period during which you might run a campaign. Read a case study on using Google Trends. And see what the world is searching for with a video on Google Insights for Search.

Posted by Rasika Saikia, Learning & Development Strategist, Hyderabad