by Austin LeClear
on September 12, 2025
At Grow My Ads, we get asked these questions constantly:
“How many keywords should I be using in my Google Ads account? How do I use keyword planner effectively? What’s the right approach to keyword research?”
And honestly, the answer is probably not what you’re expecting:
Less is more.
Especially when you’re starting out and you don’t have an infinite PPC budget to burn through.
Starting with fewer, more targeted keywords actually produces better results for your search campaigns. And if you follow proper keyword research methods using tools like Google Keyword Planner to find the correct seed terms and campaigns to start with, you’ll be way better off than what we see most advertisers doing.
We’ll review all of the above in this post, but if you prefer video you can check out How Many Keywords You Actually Need in Google Ads on YouTube here:
Still with us? Good, let’s dive in.
Spray and Pray: The Problem That’s Destroying Your Ad Spend
The “spray and pray” approach may be the biggest problem in Google Ads. People generate keyword ideas, build massive keyword lists with hundreds of terms, then throw them all into their Google Ads campaigns and just let it rip.
That is absolutely not what you want to do. It’s a surefire way to burn through your ad spend with little to no useful data to optimize your Search ads.
All too often, you’ll end up with no idea what to refine because everything gets diluted across too many search terms. Your bid strategy becomes impossible to manage, and you lose control over where your budget is actually going.
Let me give you a real example that perfectly illustrates this problem. A company once came to us wanting to spend very little money — think $50 a day — but they also wanted to advertise every single one of their 500 different services. It was one of those lab testing places with hundreds of different tests they could run.
With a limited PPC budget of $50 daily spread across (at least) 500 keywords, you’re looking at maybe one click per day per keyword — and that won’t even give you full coverage of all those search terms. After 30 days, you’re staring at a bunch of one-click keyword data with zero insight into what’s actually working in your Google Ads account.
No momentum. Nowhere to go. No way to discover new keywords that actually convert. That’s why less is more when it comes to PPC keywords.
Real Campaign Data That’ll Change Your Keyword Strategy (Forever)
Here’s an example from an actual Google Ads account that really drives this point home. This data will completely shift how you think about keyword research and campaign structure.
One ad group in a manager account spent over $80,000 in one month. It had 55 keywords — way more than necessary for effective ad group management. But here’s the problem: out of 3,124 conversions, 2,234 came from one keyword.
Then 325 conversions from the next keyword, 200 from another, and so on. At a certain point, the remaining keywords weren’t doing anything for the business. Total waste of budget.
If keywords are not helping you reach potential customers, there is no reason to keep those underperforming keywords in the ad group. This is exactly why in-depth keyword research should focus on finding core money-making terms rather than building exhaustive keyword lists.
The 90/10 Rule in Google Ads
You’ve heard of the 80/20 rule — 20% of your efforts produce 80% of your results. In Google Ads campaigns, it’s more like 90/10. Sometimes 10% of your keywords produce 90% of your performance, and you’re left trying to figure out what to do with the middle performers.
Eventually, you find your “core terms” — a small group of high-performing keywords that produces the large majority of volume and performance.
When you’re just starting out, you can’t afford to spray and pray because you probably don’t have the budget for it. You’ll allocate clicks across dozens of different search terms and end up with no actionable data to optimize your campaigns from.
This is why smart advertisers focus their keyword research on finding those core terms first, then expand strategically using tools to discover new keywords that complement their winners.
Advanced Keyword Research: Beyond Basic Keyword Planner Usage
At Grow My Ads, we’ve noticed that many people use keyword planner wrong. They generate hundreds of keyword ideas, dump them all into a CSV file, and upload everything to their campaigns without any strategy. That’s not how to use keyword planner effectively.
Here’s the right approach:
Start with seed terms: Use Google Keyword Planner to research keywords around your core business services. Look at average monthly searches, but don’t get obsessed with high search volume if the intent doesn’t match your business.
Analyze search results: Look at what kind of websites rank for your target keywords. Are they competitors? Are the search results showing the type of services you offer? This helps you understand commercial intent.
Consider different categories: Group related keywords into themes before you ever create ad groups. Don’t just add keywords randomly — think about how potential customers search for your services.
Use multiple keyword research tools: While Google Keyword Planner is the obvious free tool to start with, don’t rely on it exclusively. You can cross-reference with other tools to get keyword insights from different angles.
The STAG Method: How to Structure Keywords (Like a Pro)
Instead of dumping everything into one massive ad group, use what’s called the Single Themed Ad Group (STAG) method. This approach gives you more control over your ad copy and landing page matching while making campaign management much more efficient.
Here’s how it works using a plumber example:
General Ad Group:
- Plumbing companies
- Plumbing services near me
- Local plumbers
Emergency Ad Group:
- Emergency plumber
- 24/7 plumber
- Urgent plumbing repair
Affordable Ad Group:
- Cheap plumber
- Affordable plumbing services
- Budget plumbing repair
Here’s the approach: you want to theme your keywords out at the ad group level. You want to segment them because now your ad copy can be laser-focused on emergency and 24/7 plumbers specifically. It makes managing keywords and ad groups way more efficient for long-term account growth.
The landing page experience should be different for someone searching “emergency plumber” versus “plumbing companies” versus “affordable plumber.” By using themed ad groups, you can tailor everything to match the searcher’s intent and increase relevance.
Match Types and Keyword Control
Within each themed ad group, think about match types strategically. Don’t just use broad match for everything and hope Google figures it out.
Here’s a (very brief) overview:
- Exact match gives you maximum control over which search terms trigger your ads. Use this for your proven, high-converting keywords where you want to control costs precisely.
- Phrase match offers a middle ground — your keyword phrase needs to appear in the search, but there can be additional words before or after. Good for capturing variations while maintaining relevance.
- Broad match casts the widest net but requires careful management of negative keywords to prevent irrelevant traffic. Use this when you want to discover new search terms, but monitor your search terms report closely.
The key is using different match types strategically within your ad groups, not defaulting to one approach for everything.
When to Split Ad Groups: The 20-Keyword Rule
At Grow My Ads, this is our general guideline for managing ad groups: when you start approaching 20 keywords in a single ad group, you should ask yourself, “Can I split this in a way that would allow my ad creative and keywords to match better?”
This isn’t a hard rule. We have accounts running more than 20 keywords per ad group that are minting money, and there’s no need to split them. But in most cases, once you get above 20 keywords, you’re at a point where you need to think about contextual targeting and relevance.
Would splitting some keywords into separate ad groups be beneficial to the searcher in terms of:
- The ad copy you’re creating and how it matches search intent
- The landing page you’re sending them to
- Overall relevance and Quality Score improvements
- Better budget control and bid management
If the answer is yes, split them into multiple campaigns or ad groups. If not, leave them alone and focus on optimization elsewhere.
Final Thoughts
Less is more when it comes to Google Ads keyword strategy. Go after the most impactful terms first, expand as you gain momentum, but do it in themed structures that make sense for your business (and customers).
As you approach that 20-keyword mark per ad group, start scrutinizing whether it still makes sense to keep everything together or if you’d benefit from more granular control.
This approach will keep your Google Ads account clean, organized, and profitable. You won’t have a filthy, messy account that’s impossible to optimize, and you’ll have clear data to guide your decisions. Focus on finding your core money-making keywords, structure them properly in themed ad groups, and manage them actively.
Remember: it’s better to dominate with 50 well-chosen, properly managed keywords than to get mediocre results from 500 random ones. Start focused, prove what works, then expand strategically from there.
