---
title: "How do I find keywords for Google Ads, and how do I add them?"
description: "How to find keywords for Google Ads in the searches you already pay for, add them as exact match, and where Keyword Planner and long-tail keywords fit."
canonical: https://goldbeater.ai/guides/find-keywords-for-google-ads
last-updated: 2026-10-04
---

Guide

# How do I find keywords for Google Ads, and how do I add them?

How to find keywords for Google Ads in the searches you already pay for, add them as exact match, and where Keyword Planner and long-tail keywords fit.

In short

- Start with your search terms report. It lists the searches your ads already showed on, with what each cost and converted, and Google says to use it to find successful phrases to add to your keyword list.
- Turn on its Keyword column and set the date range to a year. Look for a search that converted at least twice, for no more a conversion than the campaign pays, where the keyword that matched it isn't the search itself.
- Add it in square brackets, as an exact match keyword, in the ad group whose ad and landing page answer it. Google puts an exact match keyword identical to a search ahead of your broad and phrase match keywords, and says your keywords don't compete with each other in the auction.
- Keyword Planner is for searches you don't show on yet. It suggests keywords from a word or a website, with estimates of the searches each receives and the cost to target it.
- Goldbeater reads every Search campaign's converting searches every day, and raises one that converted twice in a year, for no more a conversion than the campaign's search terms pay, that none of your keywords is, with the exact match keyword drafted in the ad group it belongs in.

Goldbeater checks this every 24 hours

- A search that converts but isn't a keyword
- Searches that convert at far worse cost than the rest of the campaign

Each week Goldbeater's AI agent follows up on the findings. A free first look shows how many problems these and 161 other checks find on one of your accounts, and what they cost. No card.

[Get a free first look](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=look) [or start the 7-day trial](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=trial)

1. [01 How to do keyword research for Google Ads: three places to look](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/find-keywords-for-google-ads#where-to-look)
2. [02 How to find keywords in the searches you already pay for](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/find-keywords-for-google-ads#search-terms-report)
3. [03 A worked example: five searches one campaign converted last year](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/find-keywords-for-google-ads#by-hand)
4. [04 How to add keywords in Google Ads](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/find-keywords-for-google-ads#how-to-add)
5. [05 Phrase match vs exact match: which to add a search as](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/find-keywords-for-google-ads#match-type)
6. [06 When a converting search still costs too much](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/find-keywords-for-google-ads#costs-too-much)
7. [07 Where Keyword Planner fits: new ideas, search volume and forecasts](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/find-keywords-for-google-ads#keyword-planner)
8. [08 How to choose keywords for Google Ads: Google's own advice](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/find-keywords-for-google-ads#how-to-choose)
9. [09 Long-tail keywords in Google Ads: specific, until nobody searches them](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/find-keywords-for-google-ads#long-tail)
10. [10 What it looks like when Goldbeater finds it](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/find-keywords-for-google-ads#in-goldbeater)
11. [11 Questions](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/find-keywords-for-google-ads#questions)

Contents

1. [01 How to do keyword research for Google Ads: three places to look](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/find-keywords-for-google-ads#where-to-look)
2. [02 How to find keywords in the searches you already pay for](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/find-keywords-for-google-ads#search-terms-report)
3. [03 A worked example: five searches one campaign converted last year](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/find-keywords-for-google-ads#by-hand)
4. [04 How to add keywords in Google Ads](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/find-keywords-for-google-ads#how-to-add)
5. [05 Phrase match vs exact match: which to add a search as](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/find-keywords-for-google-ads#match-type)
6. [06 When a converting search still costs too much](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/find-keywords-for-google-ads#costs-too-much)
7. [07 Where Keyword Planner fits: new ideas, search volume and forecasts](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/find-keywords-for-google-ads#keyword-planner)
8. [08 How to choose keywords for Google Ads: Google's own advice](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/find-keywords-for-google-ads#how-to-choose)
9. [09 Long-tail keywords in Google Ads: specific, until nobody searches them](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/find-keywords-for-google-ads#long-tail)
10. [10 What it looks like when Goldbeater finds it](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/find-keywords-for-google-ads#in-goldbeater)
11. [11 Questions](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/find-keywords-for-google-ads#questions)

The manual way comes first, in Google Ads itself. Then the same problem as Goldbeater finds it, every day, without anyone asking.

## How to do keyword research for Google Ads: three places to look

A keyword is a word or set of words you add to an ad group. A search term is what a person typed into Google. Keyword research for Google Ads is finding the searches worth a keyword of their own, and there are three places to look.

- Your search terms report. The searches your ads already showed on, with what each cost and whether it converted. Google’s definition of the report says to use it to find successful phrases you can add to your keyword list. Of the three, it is the one that holds your own results.
- Keyword Planner. Google’s tool for keywords you don’t have yet. It suggests them from a word or a website, with estimates of the searches each receives and the cost to target it.
- What you know about your customers. Google’s tips for a keyword list start here: think about how your customers search, and draft the terms they’d use for each category of what you sell.

An account that has run for a few months starts with the first. Phrase match shows your ads on searches that include the meaning of your keyword, and broad match on searches related to it, so the searches you pay for run wider than the keywords you wrote. Some of them sell. The ones that cost money and never convert are the [wasted search terms guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/wasted-search-terms)’s. This guide is about the ones that do.

## How to find keywords in the searches you already pay for

1. Go to Campaigns › Insights and reports › Search terms and choose one Search campaign.
2. Set the date range to the last 12 months. A search with a few clicks a month needs a long stretch before it has enough conversions to judge.
3. Select the columns icon, then Attributes, and tick Keyword. The column isn’t shown by default, and it says which of your keywords matched each search.
4. Click the filter button above the table and add Conversions of 2 or more. Then click the Cost column header to sort by it, highest first.
5. Read down the Keyword column. Where it shows the search itself, the search is a keyword already. Where it shows other words, a looser keyword matched it, and the search is a candidate.
6. Divide each candidate’s Cost by its Conversions, and set that against what the campaign pays for a conversion: with the date range on the last 30 days, the Cost at the foot of the same report over the Conversions beside it.
7. Set the date range to the last 90 days and check that the search still converts. One that sold only in a season now past can wait for the next.

Three things to know before you trust the list. The report shows the searches made by what Google calls a significant number of people. It omits those without enough query activity, to keep with Google’s standards on data privacy, and the help pages read for this guide don’t say how much of your spend that is. The Match type column describes the search, not your keyword: a broad match keyword that matched a search word for word shows there as an exact match. And a search matched by a Dynamic Search Ad or a Shopping target shows no keyword at all.

Google also keeps a status for each search term, which its API reference lists: added, where the search is one of your keywords; excluded, where it matches a negative keyword; both; or none. The Keyword column tells you more, because it names the keyword that did the matching. A long report is easier to read in a spreadsheet, and the report’s download button exports it.

## A worked example: five searches one campaign converted last year

Beds — Phrase, a year

Sample data

| Search term                | Keyword                   | Conv. | Cost / conv. | By hand             |
| -------------------------- | ------------------------- | ----- | ------------ | ------------------- |
| oak bed frame              | "oak bed frame"           | 71    | $46.27       | A keyword already   |
| king size wooden bed frame | "wooden bed frame"        | 46    | $43.13       | Add to Bed frames   |
| solid wood bed frame queen | "bed frame"               | 19    | $74.00       | Leave: costs more   |
| storage bed frame          | "storage bed" "bed frame" | 17    | $51.20       | Add to Storage beds |
| super king bed frame       | "bed frame"               | 1     | $134.40      | Wait: one sale      |

Five of the searches Beds — Phrase converted in the last 12 months, with the Keyword column on. In the last 30 days the campaign’s search terms paid $57.28 for a conversion ($744.70 ÷ 13), and that is the line each search’s cost per conversion is set against.

- oak bed frame is one of the campaign’s keywords, word for word. There is nothing to add.
- king size wooden bed frame is the find. It converted 46 times for $1,984, $43.13 each against the campaign’s $57.28, and 11 of those were in the last 90 days. No keyword is that search: it reached the campaign through the phrase match keyword "wooden bed frame". It goes in Bed frames, the ad group that keyword is in.
- solid wood bed frame queen converts too, 19 times, at $74.00 each. That is more than the campaign pays for a conversion, so it isn’t one to give a keyword of its own.
- storage bed frame was matched in two ad groups: Storage beds through "storage bed", for 13 conversions, and Bed frames through "bed frame", for 4. Together that is $870.40 for 17, or $51.20 each, with 4 of them in the last 90 days. Each ad group holds a keyword that is two of the search’s three words, so neither is the closer match, and the one that converted it most keeps it: Storage beds, whose ad and page are about storage beds.
- super king bed frame converted once in the year. One sale says little about a search, so it waits.

## How to add keywords in Google Ads

1. Go to Keywords, within the Audiences, keywords and content menu.
2. Select the plus button.
3. In the Select an ad group window, search for your campaign by name or campaign ID, then choose the ad group the keyword is for.
4. Expand the Keywords section, and type or paste your keywords, one per line.
5. Put each in the symbols of its match type: square brackets for exact match, as in \[king size wooden bed frame], quotation marks for phrase match, and nothing for broad match.
6. Select Save.

Mind the symbols. A keyword typed with none is broad match, Google’s default, so a search pasted in bare becomes a broad match keyword that reaches far more than the search you meant to add. A keyword can hold up to 10 words and 80 characters.

From the report. Google Ads Editor’s search terms window, behind its Search terms button, has an Add as keyword button beside Add as negative keyword. For Google Ads itself, Google’s page on the report says only where it can’t be done: the copy of the report in the Report editor doesn’t add keywords or negative keywords directly. So work from the Search terms page, not from that copy.

Which ad group. The one whose ad and landing page answer the search. Google’s advice is to group keywords and ads into ad groups by product, service or other category, and to structure ad groups by theme so it’s clear which one should match a given search. The Keyword column shows which ad group’s keyword has matched the search so far. Where two have, pick one, and the [ad group guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-ad-groups#same-search) covers how Google chooses between them until you do.

## Phrase match vs exact match: which to add a search as

Google describes the two like this. An exact match keyword shows your ads on searches with the same meaning or the same intent as the keyword. Of the three match types it gives you the most steering over who sees your ad, and reaches the fewest searches. A phrase match keyword shows your ads on searches that include the meaning of the keyword, and matches every search the same keyword would in exact match.

For a search from your own report, exact match vs phrase match has a plain answer: exact. The search already reaches you through a looser keyword, so reach isn’t what’s missing. What the exact match keyword adds is a place for it:

- It decides which ad group answers. Google’s order of priority puts an exact match keyword identical to the search first, ahead of any broad or phrase match keyword and of a Performance Max campaign. A spell-corrected search counts as identical. A plural or a synonym doesn’t.
- Under manual bidding, it can have its own bid. A keyword’s own maximum CPC is used instead of the ad group’s default bid. Under automated bidding Google sets the bids, and there is no keyword bid to edit.
- It doesn’t bid against the keyword that found it. Google says that where several of your keywords could match one search, they don’t compete with each other in the auction.

Leave the looser keyword as it is. Changing a keyword’s match type removes the original keyword and creates a new one, and the phrase match keyword is what finds the next search like this. Add the exact match keyword beside it. Google’s own sequence runs the same way: start with exact match keywords, for the most control over who sees your ad, then add phrase and broad match for the keywords that perform. The [broad match guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-broad-match) sets the three side by side.

The exact match keyword takes the search only when it can serve. Google lists the reasons another keyword may answer instead, among them a keyword marked low search volume and a campaign whose budget is too low to take all its traffic.

## When a converting search still costs too much

A search that converts isn’t always one to hold on to. solid wood bed frame queen paid $74.00 a conversion over the year, where the campaign pays $57.28. That rules out a keyword of its own. Whether it needs anything more done is a second sum:

1. Set the date range to the last 30 days, and take the search’s Cost and Conversions away from the campaign’s totals. What’s left is the campaign’s other searches.
2. Divide their cost by their conversions. That is what the rest of the campaign pays for a conversion.
3. Divide the search’s cost by that figure. That is how many conversions its spend would have bought elsewhere in the campaign.

In the last 30 days solid wood bed frame queen cost $118.90 and converted 2 times. The campaign’s other searches paid $56.89 a conversion ($625.80 ÷ 11), so its spend would have bought 2.1. It brought 2, which is no gap worth acting on. A search that brings under half what its spend would have bought, on enough clicks that luck doesn’t explain it, is one that costs too much.

The fix isn’t a negative keyword. The search converts, and a negative gives those sales up. What brings its price down depends on how the campaign bids:

- Manual bidding. Lower the maximum CPC of the keyword that matched it, or add the search as an exact match keyword with a lower bid of its own.
- Automated bidding. There is no keyword bid to lower. Narrow the match type of the keyword that reaches it, which decides whether searches like it are bought at all, or lower the campaign’s target: under Target CPA you set the average cost per conversion you want, and Google bids to it. The [Target CPA guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-target-cpa) covers a target a campaign can reach.

## Where Keyword Planner fits: new ideas, search volume and forecasts

Keyword Planner answers a question the search terms report can’t: what people search for that your ads don’t show on yet. Google says you must complete your account setup by entering your billing information before you can use it.

1. Go to Keyword planner, within the Tools menu.
2. Select Discover new keywords. Start with keywords, the words for what you sell, or with a website. Google says a keyword and a URL together can bring more ideas than a URL alone.
3. Select Get results, and filter the list. One filter excludes the keywords already in your account.
4. To check keywords you already have in mind, select Get search volume and forecasts and enter or paste the list.
5. To add ideas to a campaign, tick them, select the three-dot icon, then Add to account. Select an ad group and a match type, then Add.

- Avg. monthly searches. The average number of times people searched for the keyword and its close variants, averaged over 12 months by default. Google shows it for the exact match only, whichever match type you pick.
- Competition. Low, medium or high, from the number of advertisers that showed on the keyword.
- Top of page bid. A low and a high range, about the 20th and the 80th percentile of what advertisers have paid for a top of page bid.
- A forecast. How many conversions, clicks or impressions the keywords are likely to get for your spend. Google refreshes it daily from the last 7 to 10 days.

All of it is estimate. Google says campaign performance depends on a variety of factors, and that keywords with very low search volumes aren’t discoverable or forecastable. For what to type in, its advice is to describe how your customers think of your product category, such as hiking boots, not to guess a whole search such as what are the best hiking boots, and to use adjectives sparingly.

The two tools work together. Paste a search from your report into Get search volume and forecasts to see how often it’s searched before you give it a keyword.

## How to choose keywords for Google Ads: Google's own advice

- Think like a customer. Work out the main categories of your business, then draft the terms or phrases that fall under each. Add your brand and product names.
- Specific or general. A specific keyword, such as Google’s men’s basketball shoes, shows your ad only on terms that apply to your business, and too specific a keyword might not reach as many people as you’d like. A general keyword reaches more people, on searches that aren’t always related to your business, and may need higher bids where it’s competitive.
- Two or three words. Google says keywords of 2 to 3 words tend to work most effectively, and that each should relate directly to the theme of your ad and the page you send people to.
- Not every variant. Google says you don’t have to add every variant of a keyword, because all match types capture closely related variations.
- No count for Search. The pages on Search keywords read for this guide give no number of keywords for an ad group. The 5 to 20 often quoted is on Google’s page for Display Network keywords, which the [keywords per ad group guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/keywords-per-ad-group) covers.

## Long-tail keywords in Google Ads: specific, until nobody searches them

Google’s keyword tips page tells you to focus on high-intent keywords and long-tail keywords that are specific and relevant to what you offer, and doesn’t define the term. In a search terms report, a long-tail keyword is a longer, more specific search: king size wooden bed frame, where the short one is bed frame.

Google’s case for them is that specific keywords often tend to have a better conversion rate than general ones. Its example runs from Acme to Acme printers to Acme 710c: someone searching for a model has typically done their research and wants to buy. The cost is volume, since more specific keywords can lead to fewer impressions.

There is a floor. Google gives a keyword with very little to no search history the status Low search volume, judged on its searches worldwide over the past twelve months, and the keyword is inactive until its traffic increases. Google’s example is red and blue bicycles for sale: your ad can still show on that search, because a more general keyword such as blue bicycles could match it. Google says such keywords have no negative impact. They also do nothing while they’re inactive.

That is why your own report is the place to find long-tail keywords. Every search in it is one enough people make for Google to list, and you can see which of them sold. Add those, and leave the rest to the keyword that already matches them.

## What it looks like when Goldbeater finds it

Every day Goldbeater reads the searches each of your enabled Search campaigns converted in the last year, and which ad group’s keyword matched each. It raises a search one of the campaign’s keywords matched, where all of these hold:

- It converts. Twice or more in the year, on $20 of spend or more, or the same in your account’s currency.
- For no more than the campaign pays. Its cost per conversion over the year is no more than the campaign’s search terms paid for a conversion in the last 30 days.
- No keyword is the search. No enabled keyword of the campaign is those words, in any match type, respaced or reordered included. Nor is one in another Search campaign that serves every location and language this one does.
- Nothing blocks it. No negative keyword in force keeps the campaign off the search, and Goldbeater hasn’t drafted one there because another of your campaigns converts the same search better.

It drafts the search as an exact match keyword in the ad group whose keyword is the longest part of the search, or else in the one that converted it most. The change is recommended where that ad group is plain, because a keyword there is part of the search or no other ad group converted it, and the search converted twice or more in the last 90 days. Otherwise it’s offered and yours to place: a search whose season may have passed, or one several ad groups converted with no keyword of theirs inside it. The finding reads low, and medium where the search’s last 90 days cost $200 a month or more, a mark that rises on a larger account. Goldbeater puts no price on it. Where other ad groups converted the search too, the finding shows what they spent on it over the year, which is the spend the keyword moves.

Finding

Sample data

Low Low severity Keyword coverage

"king size wooden bed frame" converted 46 times in the last year and isn't one of the campaign's keywords

Beds — Phrase › Bed frames

What Goldbeater saw

In the last year it brought 46 conversions, $43 each, 11 of them in the last 90 days, where the campaign's search terms pay $57 a conversion, and Bed frames bought it through "wooden bed frame".

- Clicks

  1,240

- Cost

  $1,984

- Conv.

  46

- Conv., last 90 days

  11

- Cost / conv.

  $43.13

- Cost / conv. of the campaign's search terms, last 30 days

  $57.28

Each ad group, the last year

|            |                    |       |        |    |
| ---------- | ------------------ | ----- | ------ | -- |
| Bed frames | "wooden bed frame" | 1,240 | $1,984 | 46 |

Why it matters

A search that has converted at least twice in the last year, for no more than its campaign pays for a conversion, and reaches the campaign only through a broader keyword's matching, so a change to that keyword can lose it. Google puts an exact keyword identical to a search ahead of the looser ones, so Goldbeater drafts the search as an exact keyword in the ad group that converted it, recommended where it converted twice in the last 90 days, so one whose season has passed is offered, not pressed. The figure is what other ad groups spent on it over the year, which the keyword moves.

What to do

Add "king size wooden bed frame" to Bed frames as an exact-match keyword. It converted 46 times in the last year at $43 each, 11 of them in the last 90 days, against the $57 the campaign's search terms pay, and it reaches Bed frames only through "wooden bed frame", so a change to that keyword could lose it. Google puts an exact keyword identical to a search ahead of the looser ones matching it. It's the change below.

What would change

- Add an exact-match keyword \[king size wooden bed frame] Ad group Beds — Phrase › Bed frames

It reaches your account when you approve it in the change set and press Apply. An applied change can be undone.

This is “A search that converts but isn't a keyword” on a sample account. Goldbeater runs it on yours every 24 hours, and your AI analyst answers what you ask about any finding.

[Get a free first look](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=look)

Sample data. Cedar & Pine Interiors is an invented account, and its figures are made up.

That is the table’s second row, at its figures: 46 conversions for $1,984, $43.13 each against $57.28. Goldbeater raises storage bed frame too, low, and drafts it into Storage beds, with the $231.20 Bed frames spent on it shown as what moves. It leaves solid wood bed frame queen, which converts for more than the campaign pays, and super king bed frame, which converted once.

A converting search that costs too much is a second check’s. Every day Goldbeater sets each enabled Search campaign’s clicked searches of the last 30 days against each other. It raises a search that converted and cost $20 or more, that isn’t one of the campaign’s keywords and that no negative keyword blocks now, where it brought under half the conversions its spend would have bought at the rate of the campaign’s other searches, and so few is unlikely by chance after allowing for everything tested across the account, at 5% overall. Where your conversions carry real values, its return has to be under half theirs too, and a search naming your brand is set against the campaign’s other brand searches.

It judges words the same way: a run of one to three words that three or more of the campaign’s searches share and none of its keywords holds, which must still be under half with its costliest search left out. Either finding reads low and is advice, never a negative keyword. It names the keyword that matched the search and says what brings the price down: the bid under Manual CPC, or the match type or the campaign’s target under automated bidding. None of Beds — Phrase’s searches is raised by it.

Where two ad groups of one campaign paid for a search that doesn’t meet the test above, the [ad group guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-ad-groups) covers what Goldbeater does with it. A word several wasted searches share is the [negative keywords guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-negative-keywords)’s, and the [audit checklist](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist) has each of these lines with where to find it in Google Ads.

## Questions

- How do I find keywords for Google Ads?

  Start with your search terms report, under Campaigns, Insights and reports, Search terms. It lists the searches your ads already showed on, with what each cost and converted. Turn on the Keyword column and look for a search that converted at least twice where the keyword that matched it isn’t the search itself. For searches you don’t show on yet, Keyword Planner suggests keywords from a word or a website.

- How do I add keywords in Google Ads?

  Go to Keywords, within the Audiences, keywords and content menu. Select the plus button, choose the ad group, and type or paste one keyword per line. Square brackets make a keyword exact match and quotation marks make it phrase match; with no symbols it is broad match. Then select Save.

- Should I add a search term as exact match or phrase match?

  Exact match, for a search you found in your own report. Google puts an exact match keyword identical to a search ahead of your broad and phrase match keywords, so the ad group you add it to answers that search. Phrase match is for reaching the searches around it, and the looser keyword that found this one already does that.

- Does adding a search term as a keyword raise what I pay?

  Not by bidding against yourself. Google says that where several of your keywords could match the same search, they don’t compete with each other in the auction: only one of them can trigger an ad. Under manual bidding the new keyword uses the ad group’s default bid until you give it one of its own.

- What are long-tail keywords in Google Ads?

  Google’s keyword tips page says to focus on high-intent and long-tail keywords that are specific and relevant, without defining the term. It usually means a longer, more specific search, such as king size wooden bed frame where the short one is bed frame. Google says specific keywords tend to convert better and can bring fewer impressions, and a keyword with very little search history is marked Low search volume and stays inactive.

- Who can use Keyword Planner?

  Google says you must complete your account setup by entering your billing information to use Keyword Planner’s basic features, such as getting ideas for new keywords. It’s in the Tools menu of a Google Ads account.

- Does the search terms report show every search I paid for?

  No. Google says it lists the search terms a significant number of people used, and omits terms without enough query activity to keep with its standards on data privacy. The help pages read for this guide don’t say what share of your spend that leaves out.

How Goldbeater checks this

## These checks run every day, and whenever you ask.

Each finding shows its evidence, an estimate of what it costs a month where it costs money, and, where a setting fixes it, a change drafted for you to approve.

A check is code that runs the same way every time, so a new finding means your account changed. Each week Goldbeater's AI agent follows up on what the checks find, and your AI analyst answers any question about your account.

Checks A finding is worth

- A search that converts but isn't a keyword Fixing it raises the Keyword coverage
- Searches that convert at far worse cost than the rest of the campaign Your call

[Get a free first look](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=look) [Start the 7-day trial](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=trial)

No card for the first look. [See every check](https://goldbeater.ai/checks).

Google's own pages

## Where the manual method comes from.

1. [About the search terms report (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2472708?hl=en)
2. [Search terms report: Definition (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2684537?hl=en)
3. [Improve your conversion rate (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2404198?hl=en)
4. [SearchTermTargetingStatus (Google Ads API reference) (opens in a new tab)](https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/reference/rpc/v25/SearchTermTargetingStatusEnum.SearchTermTargetingStatus)
5. [Filter your view of performance data (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2454069?hl=en)
6. [Add keywords (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7476658?hl=en)
7. [Download a search terms report (Google Ads Editor Help) (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/editor/answer/9003338?hl=en)
8. [About keyword matching options (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7478529?hl=en)
9. [Build effective keyword lists (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10039665?hl=en)
10. [About ad group and asset group prioritization within a Google Ads account (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2756257?hl=en)
11. [Basic tips for building a keyword list (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2453981?hl=en)
12. [About keywords in Search Network campaigns (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1704371?hl=en)
13. [Choose keywords for Display Network campaigns (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2453986?hl=en)
14. [Low search volume: Definition (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2616014?hl=en)
15. [Use Keyword Planner (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7337243?hl=en)
16. [About Keyword Planner forecasts (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/3022575?hl=en)
17. [Best practices for finding new keywords (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9247190?hl=en)
18. [Refine your new keywords in Keyword Planner (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6325025?hl=en)
19. [Edit your bids (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2470113?hl=en)
20. [Edit keywords (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7477082?hl=en)
21. [About Target CPA bidding (opens in a new tab)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6268632?hl=en)

More guides

## Other things worth checking by hand.

- [How do I audit a Google Ads account? Work through 163 checks, area by area, conversions first.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist)
- [What are Google Dynamic Search Ads, and is AI Max replacing them? Steer them by page, and upgrade to AI Max yourself.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/dynamic-search-ads)
- [How do I check that my Google Ads conversion tracking is right? Find actions that stopped recording and sales counted twice.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/conversion-tracking-check)
- [Why are my Google Ads getting clicks but not converting? Tell a tracking fault from clicks that don't convert.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-not-converting)

[All 58 guides](https://goldbeater.ai/guides)

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Product

- [How it works](https://goldbeater.ai/#how)
- [What we find](https://goldbeater.ai/checks)
- [The dashboard](https://goldbeater.ai/#dashboard)
- [PPC monitoring](https://goldbeater.ai/ppc-monitoring)
- [Budget pacing](https://goldbeater.ai/budget-pacing)
- [Google Ads automation](https://goldbeater.ai/google-ads-automation)
- [AI analyst](https://goldbeater.ai/ai-analyst)
- [MCP server](https://goldbeater.ai/mcp)
- [Pricing](https://goldbeater.ai/pricing)
- [Sign in](https://goldbeater.ai/app)

Guides

- [Google Ads audit checklist](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist)
- [Google Ads wasted spend](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/wasted-search-terms)
- [Google Ads MCP server](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-mcp)
- [Broad match keywords](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-broad-match)
- [Google search partners](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-search-partners)
- [Common Google Ads mistakes](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-mistakes)
- [All guides](https://goldbeater.ai/guides)

Goldbeater vs

- [Opteo](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-opteo)
- [Optmyzr](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-optmyzr)
- [Google's recommendations](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-google-recommendations)
- [Ryze AI and groas](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-ryze-ai)
- [A PPC agency](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-ppc-agency)
- [Adalysis](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-adalysis)
- [TrueClicks](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/goldbeater-vs-trueclicks)
- [AI tools for Google Ads](https://goldbeater.ai/compare/ai-tools-for-google-ads)
- [All comparisons](https://goldbeater.ai/compare)

Company

- [About Goldbeater](https://goldbeater.ai/company)
- [Security](https://goldbeater.ai/security)
- [Press](https://goldbeater.ai/press)
- [Contact us](mailto:support@goldbeater.ai)

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