Understanding your Keyword Planner statistics and traffic estimates
Understanding your Keyword Planner statistics and traffic estimates
Learn about the various statistics and traffic estimates for ad groups and keywords from Keyword Planner.Note
Keyword Planner is now available to all customers, and more capabilities are coming soon!
Keyword Planner is a valuable tool for new advertisers and PPC veterans alike. Use it when you're just starting a campaign or anytime to expand and improve your ads' performance and reach. You can use Keyword Planner to organize your keywords into meaningful ad groups and campaigns. Not only that, Keyword Planner provides you with various statistics and traffic estimates for ad groups and keywords. Sign in to your Microsoft Advertising account to use Keyword Planner to improve your campaign's performance.
To get data on keyword searches, select Get search volume data and trends from the Keyword Planner. For performance and cost estimates on keywords, select Get performance and cost estimates.
When you view search volume for specific keywords, a table containing historical statistics will display. This data is based on the Targeting, Search options, and Date range you select. Here’s what the data in the table below the graph means:
| Average monthly searches | |
|---|---|
|
What it is:
The number of times this keyword was used as a search term based on the location and network targeting settings you’ve selected. By default, we average the number of searches for the term over a 12-month period. |
What you need to know:
Date range and targeting settings are used when calculating this number, but the language setting is not. If we don’t have enough data for this keyword, you will see a dash (-). This number does not take into account keyword match types. |
| Competition | |
|
What it is:
The number of advertisers bidding on this keyword, relative to all other keywords across Microsoft Advertising. Possible values are "Low," "Medium," and "High." |
What you need to know:
This information is based on the location and other targeting criteria you have specified. If we don't have enough data, the value will display as a dash (-). |
| Suggested bid | |
|
What it is:
The suggested minimum bid for this keyword. |
What you need to know:
We create this suggestion using the location and network target settings you selected, along with the average cost per click (CPC) advertisers are paying for this keyword. This amount is only an estimate and your actual CPC may vary. |
| Ad impression share | |
|
What it is:
The number of impressions you've received divided by the total number of searches for the location and network you're targeting that matched the keyword exactly in the last calendar month. |
What you need to know:
The ad impression share column in the Keyword Planner is different than the impression share in auction insights, which is based on the number of impressions you were eligible to receive for a keyword. Ad impression share is based on the search volume for that exact keyword. When you see a dash (-) in the ad impression share column, that means we don't have enough data to calculate this number. |
Notes
- The search volume statistics are rounded. As a result, the search volume for keyword suggestions for multiple locations may not add up as you might expect.
- Internet traffic varies by many factors, such as seasons or current events. Keep in mind that the number of searches on your keywords will constantly vary because of this.
- Choose keywords based on quality over quantity. The more relevant a keyword is, the better results you’ll get. Selecting keywords with higher search traffic or more competition doesn’t mean that it’s the right keyword for your advertising goals
You can also use Keyword Planner to get traffic estimates for your keywords. You can see an overview on the graph and more details in the table below it.
| Clicks | |
|---|---|
|
What it is:
The number of clicks your ad might receive on a weekly basis if the keyword is added to your account to trigger the ad. They typically include a customer clicking an ad on a search results page or on a website on the Microsoft Audience Network. Clicks can also come from other sources (for examples, spiders, robots, test servers). |
What you need to know:
You pay for clicks on standard-quality clicks, not on low-quality or invalid clicks. Get more info: Monitoring clicks: Telling the good from the bad |
| Impressions | |
|
What it is:
The number of times your ad might display on a weekly basis on search results pages or other sites on the Microsoft Audience Network. |
What you need to know:
Regardless of whether you are driving customers to your website, tracking conversions, or just trying to get your message out, you want to track the number of times your ad is shown. |
| Spend | |
|
What it is:
The total amount that you might spend on each ad or the keyword on weekly basis. |
What you need to know:
Spend helps you keep track of your budget. Get more info: What if I reach my daily budget limit? |
| Click-through rate (CTR) | |
|
What it is:
The number of clicks that your ad might receive divided by the number of times your ad might be shown. For example, if your ads have 50 clicks out of 2,348 impressions, your CTR is 2.13%. |
What you need to know:
CTR is a good way to quickly judge the effectiveness of your ad copy. |
| Average cost per click (CPC) | |
|
What it is:
The average amount you might pay for a click. For example, if you pay a total of $48.35 for 300 clicks, your average CPC is $0.16. |
What you need to know:
Average CPC is not the same as current bid (max CPC). Current bid is the maximum cost per click that you are willing to pay (not including your bid adjustments). Get more info: How do I improve my ad campaign performance? |
| Average position | |
|
What it is:
The average position on the web page for ads that might be delivered. Although it varies, positions 1-4 appear at the top of the search results page and positions 5-10 appear in other locations (for example, at the bottom). |
What you need to know:
Ads that are on the first search results page tend to receive more clicks. |
You can break down your search volume and traffic estimates even further by device and location.
Breakdown by device
In the Get performance and cost estimates section, enter keywords in the Product or service box and select Get suggestions. You can see how your keywords have performed by average monthly searches and view the statistics by mobile trends or device.
- Mobile trends: Select Mobile trends from the dropdown menu. You can view the number of times your keywords were used as a search term, along with the number of advertisers bidding on the same keyword, and the suggested minimum bid.
- Breakdown by device: Select Breakdown by device from the dropdown menu. You can view your average monthly searches broken down by computer, mobile, and tablet in the graph.
In the Get performance and cost estimates section, enter keywords or upload a file, and then select Get estimates. You can see how your keywords might have performed on a weekly basis by device.
- Device: For detailed estimates, enter a Bid and Daily budget (optional) above the graph and select Get estimates. To see traffic estimates broken down by device, select Breakdown by device from the dropdown menu.
Breakdown by location
View your search volume and traffic estimates by locations you targeted. Using this data can help you adjust your location targeting settings so you can target customers searching for your products or services. Keep in mind that you can only select geographic segments that exist in all your targeted locations.
In the Search for new keywords using a phrase, website, or category section, enter keywords in the Product or service box and then select Get suggestions.
- Breakdown by location: Select Breakdown by location from the dropdown menu, and then specify by State/province, DMA/metro area, City, or Targeted locations to see a graph on how many searches your keywords got.
In the Get performance and cost estimates section, enter keywords or upload file, then select Get estimates. You can see how your keywords might perform on a weekly basis.
- By Location: After getting your traffic estimates, select the Location tab. You can then select if you want to view your estimates by State/province, DMA/metro area, City, or Targeted locations from the Targeted location dropdown menu.
- Limited by budget: You may sometimes see a shaded area in the graph. This means that our system estimates that your budget is too low to accommodate all the clicks and impressions available for your keywords for the shaded bids. You may also see the line in the graph curving down. This means that the estimated number of clicks your keywords might get are decreasing as your bid increases.
To get more clicks and impressions, try increasing your daily budget. By increasing your budget, your ads may get more clicks and impressions. You can also try to lower bid, as it might reduce the average amount you pay when your ad gets clicked and help your budget go further to get more clicks.
- Estimates are not available in the tables: If you haven’t entered a bid and daily budget (optional), you will see dashes “-“ in the table. Enter Bid amount and Daily budget (optional) and select Get estimates to view the weekly estimates.
If you see a dash “-“ instead of a number in the Avg. Position column, our system determined that your ad will likely not get any impressions. Historical ad performance for your ad and other ads using similar keywords are used to calculate the average position. Usually, you’ll see a dash when different factors like your bid or click-through rates aren’t sufficient to earn an ad position. Try to increase your bid amount to get an average position estimate.
- Compared to competitor domains: This report can help you identify missed opportunities with existing products, so you can focus on the keywords where your ad impression share is low compared to advertisers like you. Note: You might not see the “Compared to competitor domains” option in the dropdown menu due to your campaign/market settings.
- Compared to market leader domains: The market leader domains graph compares your ad impression share to the average ad impression share of the top five market leader domains for your keyword suggestions.
Note
The competitor domains and market leader domains reports will not reveal the actual keywords, quality, bids, or settings from your campaigns to other advertisers, nor will they show that information for your competitor domains and market leader domains.