Google Keyword Planner: What It Is, How to Use It & Practical Tips

Google Keyword Planner is a free Google tool for researching keywords, checking search volume estimates, and discovering new terms related to a market, product, or service.

Also known simply as Keyword Planner, it was built mainly for ad campaigns, but its data can support SEO strategies, content marketing, and even validating digital product ideas.

With Google Keyword Planner, you can better understand what people are searching for and find terms related to your audience’s interests. That said, it’s important to know how to read the data: the volume shown can be an estimate or a range of searches, while the tool’s competition metric is mainly tied to Google Ads advertisers, not directly to organic ranking difficulty.

Below, see how Google Keyword Planner works and how to use its data to make more strategic decisions about content, traffic, and digital products.

What is Google Keyword Planner?

Google Keyword Planner is a free Google tool, located inside Google Ads, for researching and planning keywords. You type in a term or a website address, and it returns a list of related words, along with average search volume, competition level, and estimated cost per click.

In practice, it answers a simple question: what people type into Google when they’re looking for something similar to what you offer. That answer is useful both for building a paid campaign and for choosing topics for your blog, channel, or product.

What it’s for: SEO, content, and paid campaigns

Google Keyword Planner is used to find keywords, check search volume estimates, analyze ad-related data, and discover new terms associated with a product, service, or market. Because of that, the tool can support both paid media campaigns and SEO research and content production.

Among the main uses of Google Keyword Planner:

• Finding new keywords: discovering terms related to your market.
• Analyzing search volume: identifying which topics have demand on Google.
• Planning campaigns: checking estimates related to ad cost and performance.
• Researching content opportunities: finding questions and topics your audience searches for.
• Comparing keywords: evaluating different terms before setting priorities.

Even though Google Keyword Planner is part of Google Ads, its data can also serve as a starting point for an SEO strategy. The difference lies mainly in how that information gets interpreted, as we’ll see next.

For SEO and organic traffic

For SEO, Google Keyword Planner helps you discover keywords and topics people search for on Google. The tool can be used to find terms related to your market, compare search volume estimates, and identify variations that could turn into topics for blog posts, videos, pages, and other content.

That said, don’t pick a keyword just because it shows a lot of searches. For an SEO strategy, it’s also important to consider search intent, relevance to your business, specificity (long-tail terms can point to clearer needs), organic competition, and business potential.

So Google Keyword Planner works as a data source for keyword research, but it should be combined with SERP analysis, search intent, and the goals of your SEO strategy.

For paid campaigns (CPC)

In paid traffic campaigns on Google Ads, Google Keyword Planner helps you research terms that can be used to reach people interested in a given product or service. The tool shows data and forecasts that help you choose keywords and plan your spend.

You can analyze information like estimated search volume, competition among advertisers, and bid estimates. With that data, advertisers can compare keywords and evaluate which ones make the most sense for their goals and budget.

Even so, these indicators don’t guarantee an ad’s performance. Results also depend on factors like targeting, ad quality, the offer, the landing page, and the strategy used.

How do you access Google Keyword Planner?

To use the Planner, you need a Google Ads account, and the path to get there has changed in recent years. Today, per Google Ads’ own Help Center, you need to finish setting up your account, which includes entering billing information, to unlock basic features like “Discover new keywords.”

1. A Google Ads account and billing details

Go to Google Ads and click “Start now.” You’ll go through creating a campaign and setting up a payment method. That doesn’t mean you’ll be charged anything: many people fill out the campaign as a simulation and choose a manual payment option at the end, without ever publishing the ad or getting charged.

2. Switch from Smart Mode to Expert Mode

If your account opens in Smart Mode, switch to Expert Mode. That’s where the full tools menu becomes available. After that, anyone with a Google Ads account can open the planner.

3. Open the planner

With your account set up, click the “Tools” icon, go to the “Planning” column, and select “Keyword Planner.” Two work options will show up, which we cover in the next section.

How do you use Google Keyword Planner to research keywords?

Inside the planner, you choose between two entry points. The table below sums up when to use each one.

Discover new keywords

Click this option and enter products, services, or a topic related to your business. If you’d rather, paste in your site’s URL or a competitor’s for Google to read the page and suggest terms from it. Click “Get results” and use the filters to refine by location, language, or words you want to exclude.

A tip that saves time: filter by questions. Terms with “how,” “what,” “why,” and “how much” reveal real questions your audience has and tend to make for good content titles.

Get search volume and forecasts

After selecting your keywords, use this option to see the volume for each one, along with estimated clicks, impressions, cost, and average CPC. Keep in mind these numbers are a forecast, adjustable based on budget and time period. You can paste your list directly or upload a CSV.

How to read volume, difficulty, and long tail

To pick keywords in Google Keyword Planner, it’s not enough to look for the term with the highest search volume. It’s important to interpret different indicators and connect them to your strategy’s goal.

Three points deserve attention: search volume is an estimate of how many searches a term gets (a higher volume can mean more demand, but doesn’t necessarily mean a better opportunity); competition, in Google Keyword Planner, relates to competition among advertisers for keywords, so it shouldn’t be read as a direct measure of SEO difficulty; and long-tail keywords are more specific searches that usually make the user’s need or intent clearer.

Imagine you’re choosing between a very broad word and a more specific one. The first might show a higher volume, but also attract people with very different goals. The second might get fewer searches while being more aligned with the audience you want to reach.

That’s why good keyword research combines volume, search intent, business relevance, and analysis of the results already ranking on Google. Keyword Planner data helps with that decision, but it shouldn’t be analyzed in isolation.

According to a recent study on search click-through rates, the top three organic Google results capture the majority of clicks, with the first position alone taking a substantial share.

How do you use the Planner to validate a digital product niche?

Google Keyword Planner can help validate a digital product niche by showing whether there are searches related to the topic and what needs show up in your audience’s searches. This data helps identify signs of demand before you invest time and resources into creating an online course, an ebook, a mentorship, or another product.

That said, search volume alone shouldn’t be used to decide whether a niche is viable. A good validation process also considers factors like audience profile, competition, buying intent, monetization potential, and genuine interest in the solution.

To use Google Keyword Planner for this kind of analysis: start from topics you know well, analyze volume and variations, look for long-tail keywords, check search intent, and cross-reference the data with other sources, like talking to potential customers or building a waitlist.

Imagine, for example, that you know how to play guitar and are thinking about creating a course. Instead of analyzing just “guitar,” research variations tied to specific audiences and needs, like “guitar for beginners” or “learn guitar chords.”

Those terms might reveal opportunities, but the next step is confirming there’s an audience willing to consume and pay for the solution. A waitlist, a free class, a survey of your audience, or an early offer are all ways to complement Keyword Planner data and validate the idea further.

From keyword to topic: intent research for content and AI

Keywords found in Google Keyword Planner can turn into content topics by revealing subjects, questions, and needs your audience is searching for. From there, you can organize content that answers search intent clearly, thoroughly, and in a way that’s easy to understand.

This has become even more important with AI-powered search features. Beyond traditional organic results, published web content can now compete for visibility in AI-generated answers and other formats shown on the results page.

In practice, after finding a keyword in Google Keyword Planner: identify the search intent, map related questions that could become H2s, H3s, and FAQs, answer directly from the start of each section, go deeper with examples and comparisons, cover related terms, and organize information using lists, tables, and subheadings.

For example, if the main keyword is “how to make an ebook,” the content can also answer questions about planning, format, tools, pricing, publishing, and selling. That way, keyword research stops being just about picking a term and starts guiding a more complete coverage of the topic.

The landscape has shifted. AI summaries now show up in a meaningful share of searches and cut click-through significantly. A recent analysis estimated a drop of around 58% in clicks on the top result when an AI summary appears above it. Another study measured a similar effect: clicks on a traditional result drop noticeably when a summary shows up.

What this means for anyone just starting out: it’s not a reason to give up, it’s a reason to write better content.

Planner limitations and free complementary tools

The planner is free and powerful, but it has limits worth knowing. Without an active spending campaign, volume shows up in wide ranges, and the competition shown is ad competition, not SEO competition. That’s why combining free sources gives you a fuller picture.

The ideal, then, is not to treat Google Keyword Planner as your only source for keyword research. The Planner can show demand and related terms, while Google Trends helps you watch trends and seasonality, and Search Console reveals which queries are already bringing users to your site.

When this information is analyzed together, it’s easier to tell an apparently interesting keyword apart from a genuinely relevant opportunity for your content strategy or your business.

How do you make the most of Google Keyword Planner in your strategy?

Google Keyword Planner can be a solid starting point for understanding what people search for, finding new keywords, and making more informed decisions about campaigns, content, and even digital product ideas.

As we’ve seen, the tool lets you research related terms, analyze search volume estimates, look at ad data, and find long-tail keywords. At the same time, it’s important to remember that Google Keyword Planner shouldn’t be used on its own to measure SEO difficulty or validate a product’s commercial demand.

The best approach is to combine the planner’s data with search intent, competitor analysis, trends, and real information about your audience. That way, keyword research stops being just a list of terms and starts guiding decisions about what to create, who to create it for, and how to present that content or product.

If your research reveals an opportunity to turn your knowledge into a digital product, Hotmart can support the next steps of that journey. On the platform, creators find the resources to create, sell, process payments, and deliver digital products all in one ecosystem.

🧡 Want to turn your knowledge into a digital product? On Hotmart, you can start structuring your business and bring different parts of the operation together on a single platform.

Frequently asked questions

Here are answers to the most common questions about Google Keyword Planner.