Google Ads Keyword Planner: How To Access And Use It For PPC

Google Ads Keyword Planner: How To Access And Use It For PPC

Google Ads Keyword Planner is a free tool inside every Google Ads account that shows you search volume, competition level, and cost-per-click estimates for the keywords you're considering targeting. You can access it at ads.google.com, no active ad spend required, though Google restricts exact volume ranges until you run a campaign.

For law firms spending $2K to $100K+ per month on paid search, choosing the wrong keywords burns budget fast. A single click on a broad personal injury term can cost north of $150, so the difference between a well-researched keyword list and a guessed one compounds into thousands of wasted dollars every month. Keyword Planner gives you the data to make those decisions before you commit spend, showing you what potential clients actually search for, how often they search it, and roughly what you'll pay per click.

This guide walks through how to set up access, pull keyword ideas for legal campaigns, interpret the data columns that actually matter, and use the forecasting tool to build realistic budgets. If you're running campaigns through GavelGrow's platform or managing Google Ads in-house, this is the foundational research step that feeds everything downstream, from ad copy to bid strategy to the cost-per-signed-case numbers you track in your dashboard.

Key Takeaways

Before you spend a dollar on paid search, Google Ads Keyword Planner gives you the data to make informed decisions about which search terms to target, what budget to set, and how competitive your market is. This section summarizes the most important points from the guide so you can orient yourself before going step by step.

The short answers to the questions you came here with

Here are the core answers this guide covers in full detail:

• Keyword Planner is free inside any Google Ads account, active spend or not.
• Google shows exact search volume only after you launch a live campaign; before that, you get ranges.
• You access Keyword Planner through Tools in your Google Ads dashboard, not as a standalone site.
• The forecast tool estimates clicks, impressions, and cost so you can plan a realistic monthly budget.
• For competitive legal keywords, cost-per-click estimates from Keyword Planner often run $50 to $200+ depending on practice area and location.

Running keyword research before setting bids is the single step that separates campaigns that break even from campaigns that generate a positive return on ad spend.

Why this process matters more for law firms than for most industries

Legal advertising is one of the most competitive paid search categories in the United States. Unlike e-commerce or SaaS, a law firm running Google Ads is bidding against firms with similar budgets, similar practice areas, and often overlapping geographic targets. Choosing the wrong match type or targeting too broad a term can drain a weekly budget in a single afternoon with nothing to show for it.

Keyword Planner gives you a concrete way to compare monthly search volume against estimated CPC before committing budget. A term like "personal injury lawyer" might show 40,000 monthly searches, but the estimated CPC can exceed $150 per click in major metros. Knowing that before you launch lets you decide whether to focus on lower-volume, lower-cost long-tail terms like "car accident attorney free consultation" or test both approaches with controlled spending.

What you will be able to do after reading this guide

By the time you finish this guide, you will know how to open Keyword Planner, pull a relevant keyword list for your practice area, filter it down to high-intent terms, and run a forecast that shows projected spend and clicks at your target bids. That forecast becomes the foundation for setting your monthly Google Ads budget and feeding your attribution tracking so your cost-per-signed-case numbers stay accurate.

What Keyword Planner is and what it costs

Google Ads Keyword Planner is a research tool built directly into the Google Ads interface. It pulls data from Google's own search index, so the search volumes, competition levels, and CPC estimates you see reflect real advertiser behavior, not third-party estimates. For law firms, that distinction matters because generic SEO tools often undercount or misrepresent legal keyword costs.

What the tool actually does

Keyword Planner has two core functions. First, it generates keyword ideas based on a seed term, a URL, or both. You enter something like "personal injury lawyer Chicago" and it returns related terms along with monthly search volume and competition data. Second, it lets you build a keyword list and run a forecast that estimates clicks, impressions, and spend at any bid level you choose. That forecast is what you use to set a realistic monthly budget before your campaign goes live.

The forecasting function is the most underused feature in Keyword Planner; most advertisers pull keyword ideas and stop, missing the budgeting step entirely.

The tool also shows bid range estimates (low, high, and page-one estimates) for each keyword, so you can spot immediately when a term is outside your budget ceiling.

How much it costs

Using Google Ads Keyword Planner costs nothing. You need a Google Ads account, but you do not need to run active ads or enter a payment method to access it. The trade-off is that Google restricts exact monthly search volumes to accounts with recent ad spend. Without an active campaign, you see ranges like "1K-10K" instead of a precise number. For planning purposes those ranges are still useful, but running even a small campaign unlocks exact figures and makes your research significantly more precise.

Step 1. Get access to Keyword Planner in Google Ads

Google Ads Keyword Planner lives inside the Google Ads interface, not as a standalone tool. You reach it through the same account you use to run campaigns, which means your first step is confirming you have a Google Ads account set up and ready to use. If you already run campaigns, you can skip straight to the navigation steps below.

How to navigate to Keyword Planner inside Google Ads

Once you're logged into your Google Ads account at ads.google.com, follow these steps to reach Keyword Planner:

1. Click the Tools icon (the wrench symbol) in the top navigation bar.
2. Under the "Planning" column, click Keyword Planner.
3. Choose either "Discover new keywords" or "Get search volume and forecasts" depending on your goal.

"Discover new keywords" is the right starting point for most law firms building a keyword list from scratch; "Get search volume and forecasts" works best once you already have a list and want to estimate budget.

That's it. No additional setup, no billing required. The tool loads immediately and you can start entering seed terms like "personal injury attorney" or "DUI lawyer free consultation" right away.

What to do if you don't have a Google Ads account yet

Creating a new Google Ads account takes about five minutes. Go to ads.google.com, click "Start now," and sign in with any Google account. Google will prompt you to create a campaign during setup. You can click "Switch to Expert Mode" and then choose "Create an account without a campaign" to skip that step entirely and go straight to Keyword Planner without committing any budget.

Step 2. Find and refine keyword ideas for PPC

Once you're inside Google Ads Keyword Planner, select "Discover new keywords" and enter one to three seed terms that describe your practice area and location. For a personal injury firm in Atlanta, you might enter "personal injury lawyer Atlanta," "car accident attorney Georgia," and "slip and fall lawyer." The tool returns a list of related terms with monthly search volume, competition level, and top-of-page bid ranges for each one.

How to read the results table

The results table shows more columns than you need. Focus on four: Average Monthly Searches, Competition (Low/Medium/High), Top of Page Bid (Low Range), and Top of Page Bid (High Range). Competition reflects how many advertisers are bidding, not how hard the keyword is to rank for organically. A "High" competition label paired with a $120+ high-range bid tells you this term is expensive and contested.

High competition with high bids isn't a reason to avoid a keyword; it's a signal to verify your intake and close rate can justify the spend before you commit budget.

How to filter down to high-intent terms

Raw lists from Google Ads Keyword Planner typically return 200+ suggestions, most of which are irrelevant. Use the filter options at the top of the results table to narrow the list fast:

• Exclude branded terms from competitors unless you're intentionally running conquest campaigns
• Set a minimum search volume of 100 searches per month to cut out terms with no real traffic
• Filter by keyword text to keep only terms containing words like "lawyer," "attorney," or "consultation"

After filtering, add your strongest candidates to your keyword plan using the checkbox on the left side of each row, then move to the forecast step.

Step 3. Estimate clicks, cost, and conversions

After you add keywords to your plan, Google Ads Keyword Planner shifts into forecast mode automatically. Click "View forecast" on the right side of the screen to see projected clicks, impressions, cost, and average CPC for your full keyword list at a default bid. This is where research becomes budgeting.

How to run a forecast in Keyword Planner

The forecast screen shows projections based on your current bid setting, which you can adjust using the slider at the top of the page. Drag the bid up or down and the projected clicks, cost, and impressions update in real time. For a personal injury firm targeting Atlanta, setting a max CPC of $80 might project 45 clicks per month at roughly $3,600 in spend. Raising that bid to $120 might return 70 clicks at $8,400.

Use the table below to map forecast outputs to decisions:

If projected cost exceeds your monthly budget ceiling at a competitive bid, shift focus to longer, more specific terms before you launch.

How to connect forecast data to your intake numbers

Once you have projected clicks and cost, divide your projected spend by your firm's historical close rate to estimate cost-per-signed-case before the campaign goes live. If your intake converts 10% of leads to signed cases and your close rate is 30%, you need roughly 33 clicks to sign one case. Multiply that by your average CPC estimate to know exactly what you're paying per client before spending a dollar.

Next Steps You Can Take Today

You now have a complete workflow for using Google Ads Keyword Planner from account setup through budget forecasting. The next move is to open the tool today, enter two or three seed terms for your practice area and city, and pull your first keyword list. Filter out anything under 100 monthly searches, flag the terms with "consultation" or "free case review" in the phrase, and run a forecast at your target bid. That 30-minute exercise tells you more about your market than any generic agency pitch deck will.

Once your keyword list is ready, the next challenge is making sure every click that comes through actually converts. Slow lead response and broken intake forms kill the return on that research. GavelGrow's platform closes that gap with built-in call tracking, intake automation, and full-funnel attribution. See how the platform tracks every lead from first click to signed case and put your keyword research to work.