Keyword Planner has replaced Keyword Tool

With Keyword Planner, we've combined the functionality of Keyword Tool and Traffic Estimator to make it easier to plan search campaigns. That's why Keyword Tool is no longer available. You can use Keyword Planner to find new keyword and ad group ideas, get performance estimates for them to find the bid and budget that are right for you, and then add them to your campaigns.

Note

The external Keyword Tool is also no longer available. If you want to get keyword ideas using Keyword Planner, make sure to sign in to your AdWords account.

We've also added several new features with Keyword Planner. As you start to use Keyword Planner, you'll likely notice some differences between Keyword Planner and Keyword Tool. Read on to learn more about what has changed.

No match type data for search volume

With Keyword Tool, we showed you broad match statistics by default with the ability to get data for other match types, like phrase and exact match. But with Keyword Planner, you'll get historical statistics only for exact match. To decide what match type to use, add the keyword idea to your plan and review the traffic estimates for each match type. This change will help you get an accurate estimate of how much traffic you can expect to get with different match types. There’s quite a bit of overlap between broad and phrase match keywords, and the search volume statistic in Keyword Tool didn't take that overlap into account. Traffic estimates like click and cost do take this overlap into account, so checking those can help you decide which match type to use.

For example, let's say your keyword is dark chocolate. If you want to check that keyword's average monthly searches, we'll show you the same stats whether you use a broad, phrase, or exact match type with dark chocolate. Traffic estimates like clicks and cost, on the other hand, do take into account keyword match types. For example, if you get estimates for a list of broad match keywords, we'll take into account any overlap between those keywords.

No device targeting

Keyword Planner doesn’t let you specifically target mobile devices, like tablets and mobile phones. By default, it targets all devices, which is in line with recent changes made to AdWords campaigns. We’re working on a feature that’ll allow you to get traffic estimates by device type and set bid adjustments for mobile devices.

Note

In general, you'll notice that the average search volume data is higher in Keyword Planner as compared to the exact match search volume data you got with Keyword Tool. That's because we'll show you the average number of searches for a keyword idea on all devices (desktop and laptop computers, tablets, and mobile phones). With Keyword Tool, we showed you average search volume for desktop and laptop computers by default.

Other changes in the data columns

In Keyword Planner, you'll notice several different data columns than those that you were used to seeing in Keyword Tool. Here are the differences:

Local monthly searches and global monthly searches: These two columns have been replaced by the "Average monthly searches" column, simplifying the search volume data you can get. The average monthly search volume is specific to your targeting settings, and you can get data for an entire country or individual cities and regions within a country. Note that you can still get global monthly search data by targeting all locations.

Ad share: This column is being replaced with a new column called ad impression share to help you look for potential impressions.

Google Search Network: This column has been replaced by the network option within the targeting settings. To get data for the entire Search Network, select the "Google and search partners" targeting option.

Search share: This column has been retired.

Approx. CPC (Search): This column has been replaced by the "Avg. CPC" column. You'll get more accurate data in the average cost-per-click column than you did in the approximate cost-per-click column...

 

Local search trends: This column doesn't appear in the Keyword Planner interface. However, you can still get search volume trends by hovering over the icon in the "Avg. monthly searches" column. You can also see these trends segmented by month when you download your historical statistics from Keyword Planner.

Extracted from webpage: This column has been removed from the Keyword Planner interface. However, you can still get the webpage the keyword idea came from when you download your historical statistics from Keyword Planner. Note that you'll only get this data when you search for keyword and ad group ideas based on a URL, like a webpage on your website.

Next steps

Learn how to use Keyword Planner.

Get more details about the historical statistics and performance estimates you can get with Keyword Planner.

Keywords

Using Keyword Planner to get keyword ideas and traffic estimates

Understanding your Keyword Planner statistics and traffic estimates

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