If you are looking for quick and easy ways to expand your keyword list, look no further. For all intents and purposes, treat this article as a guideline to expanding your already existing keyword lists and campaigns. Organization of said keywords will be covered in my next blog post, so stay tuned.

Look Through Your Search Query Report

The most straightforward method to expanding an existing keyword list is to navigate to your search query report. If you’re looking at your campaigns page, navigate to the toolbar on the left-hand side, and click on “Keywords.” Select “Search terms” on the drop-down menu that appears. This will pull up your Search Query Report, which is essentially a list of searches people made that triggered your ad. Be sure to filter for “none” under Added/Excluded. To save time, you can also filter out any search terms that are an exact match to your keywords. Download this list to Excel, and use metrics like click-through rate, Conversion Rate, and Cost per Conversion to decide if you want to add these keywords to your account.

Check Out Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner provides another simple method of finding new keywords. The Keyword Planner is currently located on the top navigation bar, Under “Tools” and then “Planning.” All you need to do is enter a couple relevant keywords into the search bar, and Google will come up with a list of new, semi-related ones. For example, you could type “law firms in Kalamazoo” or “personal injury lawyers” into the search bar. An added benefit of Google Keyword planner is the volume forecasts attached to each keyword. If you can, find keywords with high volume and low competition. Make sure not to bid on any branded keywords, such as competing law firms, or keywords you already have in your account.

Use Your Firm’s Website

If you prefer a more abstract method of researching keywords, you can start by combing through your firm’s website text. This is also a useful thing to do periodically to make sure you are sending people to the right landing pages. Even if you don’t find any new keywords that jump out at you, keep a running list of the important themes and services emphasized on your website. This is one of the many ways SEO and PPC can work together. There are easily accessible websites that can help you determine synonyms and word associations that you might find useful for your copy.

Hopefully you are now equipped to start adding new keywords to your firm’s account. This guide is meant to help you expand a pre-existing campaign, but if you want to learn more about how to group the keywords you’ve found into different campaigns or ad groups, stay tuned for my next article.