Google Ads Keyword Research: A Step by Step Guide for 2026

The keywords in your Google Ads account determine almost everything else. The right keywords mean qualified clicks at a reasonable cost. The wrong keywords mean you burn through budget on people who were never going to buy.

This is the keyword research process we run for every new account. It takes about 4 hours for a typical small business and the output is a structured keyword list with intent, volume, and cost estimates.

Start With Intent, Not Volume

The classic keyword research mistake is to chase volume first. "Marketing" has 200,000 UK searches a month. None of them are buyers. "Marketing agency Nottingham" has 90 searches. Most of them are buyers.

Group every keyword you consider into one of four intent buckets:

Step 1: Brainstorm the Core Terms

Start with 5 to 10 seed keywords. The terms a customer would actually type if they were trying to find your service. Not industry jargon. Use the words your customers use, not your internal language.

Example seed list for a Nottingham plumber:

• plumber Nottingham
• boiler repair Nottingham
• emergency plumber Nottingham
• boiler installation Nottingham
• gas safe engineer Nottingham
• blocked drain Nottingham

Step 2: Expand With Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner is free inside Google Ads. Paste your seed list. It returns related keywords with estimated monthly searches and competition levels.

Set the location to your service area. Set the date range to the last 12 months. Export everything that has at least 10 searches a month.

Step 3: Layer In Tools Beyond Google's Data

Google Keyword Planner is a starting point, not the full picture. Add data from at least one of these:

• Ahrefs or SEMrush: Paid tools that show search volume, competition, and what competitors are bidding on. Worth the subscription for serious accounts.
• Answer The Public: Surfaces question style keywords your seed terms generate.
• Google Search: Type a seed keyword and look at the autocomplete suggestions, the "People also ask" box, and the related searches at the bottom of the page.
• Your own search terms report: If you have any prior Google Ads data, the search terms report shows what people actually typed to find your ads.

Step 4: Sort by Intent and Cost

You now have a long list. Filter ruthlessly. For each keyword, ask:

1. Is the intent commercial or comparative? If neither, park it for SEO content, not paid ads.
2. What is the suggested CPC? If it is more than 25 percent of your target cost per lead, skip it.
3. Does the keyword exclude the wrong audience? "Free [service]" and "DIY [service]" should not be in your list.

Step 5: Group Into Tight Ad Groups

This is where most accounts go wrong. Throwing 200 keywords into one ad group means the ad shown will be irrelevant for most of them. Quality Score crashes, cost per click rises.

The rule: every ad group should have between 5 and 20 closely related keywords, all of which can be served by the same ad. If keywords would need different ad copy, they should be in different ad groups.

Ad Group	Example Keywords
Emergency Plumber	emergency plumber, 24 hour plumber, plumber out of hours
Boiler Repair	boiler repair, boiler not working, boiler breakdown, boiler engineer
Boiler Installation	new boiler, boiler installation, replace boiler, boiler fitting
Drain Clearance	blocked drain, drain unblocking, drain cleaning, blocked sink

Step 6: Match Types in 2026

Google has been quietly merging match type behaviour over the last 3 years. The practical rules now:

• Exact match: Still the tightest option but expanded by Google to include "close variants" and synonyms. Use as the foundation.
• Phrase match: Wider than exact, with the same order of words. Use for variations you might not have predicted.
• Broad match: Almost any related search. High risk, high noise. Useful only with strong negative keyword lists and tight conversion tracking.

For most small business accounts, start with exact and phrase only. Add broad once you have data and negatives in place.

Step 7: Negative Keyword Foundation

Build your negative keyword list at the same time as your positive keyword list. Day one negatives every account should have:

• Information words: "what is", "how to", "definition", "explained"
• Free seekers: "free", "freebie", "no cost"
• DIY seekers: "DIY", "do it yourself"
• Job hunters: "jobs", "vacancy", "salary", "apprenticeship"
• Cheap or discount: "cheap", "discount", "voucher"
• Competitor names you do not want to bid against

Step 8: Map Keywords to Landing Pages

Every ad group should send to a landing page that matches the search. Sending all paid traffic to the homepage tanks Quality Score and conversion rate. Build one landing page per major ad group, or at minimum, one per service.

What to Avoid

1. Too many keywords too soon. Start with 50 to 100 well chosen keywords across 5 to 10 ad groups. Expand once you have data.
2. Bidding on competitor brand names without strategy. Legal in the UK, but expensive and often low converting.
3. Ignoring search volume entirely. A keyword with 10 searches a month will not drive meaningful volume even with 100 percent share.
4. Ignoring cost. "Personal injury lawyer" has £80 CPCs in the UK. If your average order value is £200, that maths does not work.