Search for new keywords that are relevant to your Google Search campaign. You can provide keyword and URL seeds to generate ideas. Set targeting parameters such as locations, language, and network settings to narrow down your search. Historical statistics such as search volume data for these keywords are returned, so you can determine if you want to use the keyword for your campaign. For users familiar with the Google Ads UI, this is similar to Keyword Planner.
Generating ideas
Generate keyword ideas for a campaign with
KeywordPlanIdeaService.GenerateKeywordIdeas
.
There are several ways you can create seeds for generating new keywords:
- For words or phrases that describe what you're advertising,
use
KeywordSeed
. This could be a general type of business you are targeting such as plumbers, or it could be a product or service you offer such as drain cleaning. - For the URL of a webpage or entire website related to your business, use
UrlSeed
. The URL seed targets only a specific URL. If there are no hits, the search automatically expands up to the pages from the same domain. - For both keyword seeds and a URL seeds, use
KeywordAndUrlSeed
. - For an entire site, use
SiteSeed
. Given a top-level domain name, such aswww.example.com
, the site seed generates up to 250,000 keyword ideas from publicly available information.
To narrow down your targeting, you can set the language, location, network, and
whether to include adult keywords in the
GenerateKeywordIdeasRequest
.
This function supports pagination.
Ideas are returned with historical metrics which can be used to filter a list down to use with forecasts. For example, you might only want to target high search volumes to maximize the reach of your campaign, or you might want to target only higher competition scores to boost your awareness.
Java
private void runExample( GoogleAdsClient googleAdsClient, long customerId, long languageId, List<Long> locationIds, List<String> keywords, @Nullable String pageUrl) { try (KeywordPlanIdeaServiceClient keywordPlanServiceClient = googleAdsClient.getLatestVersion().createKeywordPlanIdeaServiceClient()) { GenerateKeywordIdeasRequest.Builder requestBuilder = GenerateKeywordIdeasRequest.newBuilder() .setCustomerId(Long.toString(customerId)) // Sets the language resource using the provided language ID. .setLanguage(ResourceNames.languageConstant(languageId)) // Sets the network. To restrict to only Google Search, change the parameter below to // KeywordPlanNetwork.GOOGLE_SEARCH. .setKeywordPlanNetwork(KeywordPlanNetwork.GOOGLE_SEARCH_AND_PARTNERS); // Adds the resource name of each location ID to the request. for (Long locationId : locationIds) { requestBuilder.addGeoTargetConstants(ResourceNames.geoTargetConstant(locationId)); } // Makes sure that keywords and/or page URL were specified. The request must have exactly one // of urlSeed, keywordSeed, or keywordAndUrlSeed set. if (keywords.isEmpty() && pageUrl == null) { throw new IllegalArgumentException( "At least one of keywords or page URL is required, but neither was specified."); } if (keywords.isEmpty()) { // Only page URL was specified, so use a UrlSeed. requestBuilder.getUrlSeedBuilder().setUrl(pageUrl); } else if (pageUrl == null) { // Only keywords were specified, so use a KeywordSeed. requestBuilder.getKeywordSeedBuilder().addAllKeywords(keywords); } else { // Both page URL and keywords were specified, so use a KeywordAndUrlSeed. requestBuilder.getKeywordAndUrlSeedBuilder().setUrl(pageUrl).addAllKeywords(keywords); } // Sends the keyword ideas request. GenerateKeywordIdeasPagedResponse response = keywordPlanServiceClient.generateKeywordIdeas(requestBuilder.build()); // Prints each result in the response. for (GenerateKeywordIdeaResult result : response.iterateAll()) { System.out.printf( "Keyword idea text '%s' has %d average monthly searches and '%s' competition.%n", result.getText(), result.getKeywordIdeaMetrics().getAvgMonthlySearches(), result.getKeywordIdeaMetrics().getCompetition()); } } }
C#
public void Run(GoogleAdsClient client, long customerId, long[] locationIds, long languageId, string[] keywordTexts, string pageUrl) { KeywordPlanIdeaServiceClient keywordPlanIdeaService = client.GetService(Services.V6.KeywordPlanIdeaService); // Make sure that keywords and/or page URL were specified. The request must have // exactly one of urlSeed, keywordSeed, or keywordAndUrlSeed set. if (keywordTexts.Length == 0 && string.IsNullOrEmpty(pageUrl)) { throw new ArgumentException("At least one of keywords or page URL is required, " + "but neither was specified."); } // Specify the optional arguments of the request as a keywordSeed, UrlSeed, // or KeywordAndUrlSeed. GenerateKeywordIdeasRequest request = new GenerateKeywordIdeasRequest() { CustomerId = customerId.ToString(), }; if (keywordTexts.Length == 0) { // Only page URL was specified, so use a UrlSeed. request.UrlSeed = new UrlSeed() { Url = pageUrl }; } else if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(pageUrl)) { // Only keywords were specified, so use a KeywordSeed. request.KeywordSeed = new KeywordSeed(); request.KeywordSeed.Keywords.AddRange(keywordTexts); } else { // Both page URL and keywords were specified, so use a KeywordAndUrlSeed. request.KeywordAndUrlSeed = new KeywordAndUrlSeed(); request.KeywordAndUrlSeed.Url = pageUrl; request.KeywordAndUrlSeed.Keywords.AddRange(keywordTexts); } // Create a list of geo target constants based on the resource name of specified // location IDs. foreach (long locationId in locationIds) { request.GeoTargetConstants.Add(ResourceNames.GeoTargetConstant(locationId)); } request.Language = ResourceNames.LanguageConstant(languageId); // Set the network. To restrict to only Google Search, change the parameter below to // KeywordPlanNetwork.GoogleSearch. request.KeywordPlanNetwork = KeywordPlanNetwork.GoogleSearchAndPartners; try { // Generate keyword ideas based on the specified parameters. var response = keywordPlanIdeaService.GenerateKeywordIdeas(request); // Iterate over the results and print its detail. foreach (GenerateKeywordIdeaResult result in response) { KeywordPlanHistoricalMetrics metrics = result.KeywordIdeaMetrics; Console.WriteLine($"Keyword idea text '{result.Text}' has " + $"{metrics.AvgMonthlySearches} average monthly searches and competition " + $"is {metrics.Competition}."); } } catch (GoogleAdsException e) { Console.WriteLine("Failure:"); Console.WriteLine($"Message: {e.Message}"); Console.WriteLine($"Failure: {e.Failure}"); Console.WriteLine($"Request ID: {e.RequestId}"); throw; } }
PHP
public static function runExample( GoogleAdsClient $googleAdsClient, int $customerId, array $locationIds, int $languageId, array $keywords, ?string $pageUrl ) { $keywordPlanIdeaServiceClient = $googleAdsClient->getKeywordPlanIdeaServiceClient(); // Make sure that keywords and/or page URL were specified. The request must have exactly one // of urlSeed, keywordSeed, or keywordAndUrlSeed set. if (empty($keywords) && is_null($pageUrl)) { throw new \InvalidArgumentException( 'At least one of keywords or page URL is required, but neither was specified.' ); } // Specify the optional arguments of the request as a keywordSeed, urlSeed, // or keywordAndUrlSeed. $requestOptionalArgs = []; if (empty($keywords)) { // Only page URL was specified, so use a UrlSeed. $requestOptionalArgs['urlSeed'] = new UrlSeed(['url' => $pageUrl]); } elseif (is_null($pageUrl)) { // Only keywords were specified, so use a KeywordSeed. $requestOptionalArgs['keywordSeed'] = new KeywordSeed(['keywords' => $keywords]); } else { // Both page URL and keywords were specified, so use a KeywordAndUrlSeed. $requestOptionalArgs['keywordAndUrlSeed'] = new KeywordAndUrlSeed(['url' => $pageUrl, 'keywords' => $keywords]); } // Create a list of geo target constants based on the resource name of specified location // IDs. $geoTargetConstants = array_map(function ($locationId) { return ResourceNames::forGeoTargetConstant($locationId); }, $locationIds); // Generate keyword ideas based on the specified parameters. $response = $keywordPlanIdeaServiceClient->generateKeywordIdeas( [ // Set the language resource using the provided language ID. 'language' => ResourceNames::forLanguageConstant($languageId), 'customerId' => $customerId, // Add the resource name of each location ID to the request. 'geoTargetConstants' => $geoTargetConstants, // Set the network. To restrict to only Google Search, change the parameter below to // KeywordPlanNetwork::GOOGLE_SEARCH. 'keywordPlanNetwork' => KeywordPlanNetwork::GOOGLE_SEARCH_AND_PARTNERS ] + $requestOptionalArgs ); // Iterate over the results and print its detail. foreach ($response->iterateAllElements() as $result) { /** @var GenerateKeywordIdeaResult $result */ // Note that the competition printed below is enum value. // For example, a value of 2 will be returned when the competition is 'LOW'. // A mapping of enum names to values can be found at KeywordPlanCompetitionLevel.php. printf( "Keyword idea text '%s' has %d average monthly searches and competition as %d.%s", $result->getText(), is_null($result->getKeywordIdeaMetrics()) ? 0 : $result->getKeywordIdeaMetrics()->getAvgMonthlySearches(), is_null($result->getKeywordIdeaMetrics()) ? 0 : $result->getKeywordIdeaMetrics()->getCompetition(), PHP_EOL ); } }
Python
def main( client, customer_id, location_ids, language_id, keyword_texts, page_url ): keyword_plan_idea_service = client.get_service( "KeywordPlanIdeaService", version="v6" ) keyword_competition_level_enum = client.get_type( "KeywordPlanCompetitionLevelEnum", version="v6" ).KeywordPlanCompetitionLevel keyword_plan_network = client.get_type( "KeywordPlanNetworkEnum", version="v6" ).GOOGLE_SEARCH_AND_PARTNERS gtc_service = client.get_service("GeoTargetConstantService", version="v6") locations = [ gtc_service.geo_target_constant_path(location_id) for location_id in location_ids ] language = client.get_service( "LanguageConstantService", version="v6" ).language_constant_path(language_id) # Only one of these values will be passed to the KeywordPlanIdeaService # depending on whether keywords, a page_url or both were given. url_seed = None keyword_seed = None keyword_url_seed = None # Either keywords or a page_url are required to generate keyword ideas # so this raises an error if neither are provided. if not (keyword_texts or page_url): raise ValueError( "At least one of keywords or page URL is required, " "but neither was specified." ) # To generate keyword ideas with only a page_url and no keywords we need # to initialize a UrlSeed object with the page_url as the "url" field. if not keyword_texts and page_url: url_seed = client.get_type("UrlSeed", version="v6") url_seed.url = page_url # To generate keyword ideas with only a list of keywords and no page_url # we need to initialize a KeywordSeed object and set the "keywords" field # to be a list of strings. if keyword_texts and not page_url: keyword_seed = client.get_type("KeywordSeed", version="v6") keyword_seed.keywords.extend(keyword_texts) # To generate keyword ideas using both a list of keywords and a page_url we # need to initialize a KeywordAndUrlSeed object, setting both the "url" and # "keywords" fields. if keyword_texts and page_url: keyword_url_seed = client.get_type("KeywordAndUrlSeed", version="v6") keyword_url_seed.url = page_url keyword_url_seed.keywords.extend(keyword_texts) try: keyword_ideas = keyword_plan_idea_service.generate_keyword_ideas( customer_id=customer_id, geo_target_constants=locations, include_adult_keywords=False, keyword_plan_network=keyword_plan_network, language=language, url_seed=url_seed, keyword_seed=keyword_seed, keyword_and_url_seed=keyword_url_seed, ) for idea in keyword_ideas: competition_value = keyword_competition_level_enum.Name( idea.keyword_idea_metrics.competition ) print( f'Keyword idea text "{idea.text}" has ' f'"{idea.keyword_idea_metrics.avg_monthly_searches}" ' f'average monthly searches and "{competition_value}" ' "competition.\n" ) except GoogleAdsException as ex: print( f'Request with ID "{ex.request_id}" failed with status ' f'"{ex.error.code().name}" and includes the following errors:' ) for error in ex.failure.errors: print(f'\tError with message "{error.message}".') if error.location: for field_path_element in error.location.field_path_elements: print(f"\t\tOn field: {field_path_element.field_name}") sys.exit(1)
Ruby
def generate_keyword_ideas(customer_id, location_ids, language_id, keywords, page_url) # GoogleAdsClient will read a config file from # ENV['HOME']/google_ads_config.rb when called without parameters client = Google::Ads::GoogleAds::GoogleAdsClient.new # Make sure that keywords and/or page URL were specified. The request must # have exactly one of urlSeed, keywordSeed, or keywordAndUrlSeed set. if keywords.reject {|k| k.nil?}.empty? && page_url.nil? raise "At least one of keywords or page URL is required." end kp_idea_service = client.service.keyword_plan_idea options_hash = if keywords.empty? seed = client.resource.url_seed do |seed| seed.url = page_url end {url_seed: seed} elsif page_url.nil? seed = client.resource.keyword_seed do |seed| keywords.each do |keyword| seed.keywords << keyword end end {keyword_seed: seed} else seed = client.resource.keyword_and_url_seed do |seed| seed.url = page_url keywords.each do |keyword| seed.keywords << keyword end end {keyword_and_url_seed: seed} end geo_target_constants = location_ids.map do |location_id| client.path.geo_target_constant(location_id) end include_adult_keywords = true response = kp_idea_service.generate_keyword_ideas( customer_id: customer_id, language: client.path.language_constant(language_id), geo_target_constants: geo_target_constants, include_adult_keywords: include_adult_keywords, # To restrict to only Google Search, change the parameter below to # :GOOGLE_SEARCH keyword_plan_network: :GOOGLE_SEARCH_AND_PARTNERS, **options_hash ) response.each do |result| monthly_searches = if result.keyword_idea_metrics.nil? 0 else result.keyword_idea_metrics.avg_monthly_searches end competition = if result.keyword_idea_metrics.nil? :UNSPECIFIED else result.keyword_idea_metrics.competition end puts "Keyword idea text #{result.text} has #{monthly_searches} average " + "monthly searches and competition as #{competition}." end end
Perl
sub generate_keyword_ideas { my ( $api_client, $customer_id, $location_ids, $language_id, $keyword_texts, $page_url ) = @_; # Make sure that keywords and/or page URL were specified. The request must have # exactly one of urlSeed, keywordSeed, or keywordAndUrlSeed set. if (not scalar @$keyword_texts and not $page_url) { die "At least one of keywords or page URL is required, " . "but neither was specified."; } # Specify the optional arguments of the request as a keywordSeed, urlSeed, # or keywordAndUrlSeed. my $request_option_args = {}; if (!scalar @$keyword_texts) { # Only page URL was specified, so use a UrlSeed. $request_option_args->{urlSeed} = Google::Ads::GoogleAds::V6::Services::KeywordPlanIdeaService::UrlSeed-> new({ url => $page_url }); } elsif (not $page_url) { # Only keywords were specified, so use a KeywordSeed. $request_option_args->{keywordSeed} = Google::Ads::GoogleAds::V6::Services::KeywordPlanIdeaService::KeywordSeed ->new({ keywords => $keyword_texts }); } else { # Both page URL and keywords were specified, so use a KeywordAndUrlSeed. $request_option_args->{keywordAndUrlSeed} = Google::Ads::GoogleAds::V6::Services::KeywordPlanIdeaService::KeywordAndUrlSeed ->new({ url => $page_url, keywords => $keyword_texts }); } # Create a list of geo target constants based on the resource name of specified # location IDs. my $geo_target_constants = [ map ( Google::Ads::GoogleAds::V6::Utils::ResourceNames::geo_target_constant($_), @$location_ids)]; # Generate keyword ideas based on the specified parameters. my $keyword_ideas_response = $api_client->KeywordPlanIdeaService()->generate_keyword_ideas({ customerId => $customer_id, # Set the language resource using the provided language ID. language => Google::Ads::GoogleAds::V6::Utils::ResourceNames::language_constant( $language_id), # Add the resource name of each location ID to the request. geoTargetConstants => $geo_target_constants, # Set the network. To restrict to only Google Search, change the parameter below # to GOOGLE_SEARCH. keywordPlanNetwork => GOOGLE_SEARCH_AND_PARTNERS, %$request_option_args }); # Iterate over the results and print its detail. foreach my $result (@{$keyword_ideas_response->{results}}) { printf "Keyword idea text '%s' has %d average monthly searches " . "and '%s' competition.\n", $result->{text}, $result->{keywordIdeaMetrics}{avgMonthlySearches} ? $result->{keywordIdeaMetrics}{avgMonthlySearches} : 0, $result->{keywordIdeaMetrics}{competition} ? $result->{keywordIdeaMetrics}{competition} : "undef"; } return 1; }
Migrating from the AdWords API
KeywordPlanIdeaService.GenerateKeywordIdeas
replaces AdWords API's TargetingIdeaService.get
with RequestType=IDEAS
. These keywords can be added to your Keyword Plans for
forecasting or obtaining overall historical metrics for your plan. A key
difference is that the API no longer returns the original seed keywords in the
ideas list. This means that if you were using this to get historical metrics
for an existing list of keywords, you'll need to set up a KeywordPlan
.
Mapping to the UI
KeywordPlanIdeaService.GenerateKeywordIdeas
has similar functionality in the UI's Keyword Planner.
Keyword Planner UI | Google Ads API |
---|---|
Enter Keywords and URLs | |
Locations | GenerateKeywordIdeasRequest.geo_target_constants |
Adult Keywords | GenerateKeywordIdeasRequest.include_adult_keywords |
Language | GenerateKeywordIdeasRequest.language |
Search Networks | GenerateKeywordIdeasRequest.keyword_plan_network |
Results: Keyword | GenerateKeywordIdeaResult.text |
Results: Metrics | GenerateKeywordIdeaResult.keyword_idea_metrics |