Google Ads Keyword Research — Search Volume, CPC & Competition

✨ What you get

Discover related Google Ads keywords from one seed term per run. Export search volume, CPC, competition, bid estimates, monthly trends, and semantic concepts to JSON, CSV, or Excel.

💼 Use cases

• Expanding one seed into a workable keyword list — set seed_keywords and pick up to ~2,100 related suggestions per country, each with search_volume, cpc, competition and low_top_of_page_bid / high_top_of_page_bid, ready to export as JSON, CSV or Excel.
• Comparing the same term across markets — the seed is searched separately for every selected country and every row keeps its location_name, so one run tells you which of the 39 markets actually has demand behind it.
• Reading seasonality before you commit a content calendar — monthly_searches carries a queryable year / month / search_volume series over a date_from–date_to window that defaults to the latest 12 months.
• Clustering keywords into content themes — the concepts array on each row returns the semantic concept values associated with a keyword, which is the raw material for a pillar-and-cluster map instead of a flat keyword dump.

✅ Who this is for

• PPC planners and performance marketers — who need bid ranges and competition scores per keyword before a campaign is built.
• SEO content strategists — building long-tail keyword clusters and topic hubs from a single category seed.
• Market and localization researchers — who need demand compared across the 39 covered countries and 20 language markets rather than one market at a time.
• Agency analysts and data teams — who want queryable JSON rows and a SUMMARY record in the key-value store instead of a spreadsheet someone pasted together by hand.

❌ Who this is NOT for

• You need more than one seed keyword per run — seed_keywords accepts exactly one keyword or phrase, and multiple keywords are rejected before any paid request is sent. Twenty seed terms means twenty runs.
• You need conversion, revenue, or impression-share data — the Dataset carries search volume, CPC, bid estimates, competition and concepts, and nothing else. There is no conversion rate, no impression share and no actual spend in the output, so this cannot tell you which keyword earns money.
• You are treating search_volume as an exact count — it is an average of monthly searches, and monthly_searches is a historical series over the window you set. Use it to rank keywords against each other, not to promise a traffic figure to a stakeholder.
• You are running a non-English market without localising the input yourself — language selects the language market for suggestions and search-volume data; keywords are not translated automatically, so an English seed in a German market tells you about the German data set, not about German queries.
• You want projected clicks or campaign cost for those keywords — this Actor is step ① of the Google Ads toolkit. Forecasting clicks, CPC and cost is the traffic forecast Actor's job, and it is a separate run with separate input.

🚀 Quick start

Use the visual input form:

1. Enter one seed keyword or phrase.
2. Select one or more target countries.
3. Select the target language.
4. Run the Actor and open the Dataset.

Example API input:

{
  "seed_keywords": "best running shoes",
  "locations": ["United States", "United Kingdom"],
  "language": "English",
  "date_from": "2025-07-18",
  "date_to": "2026-07-18"
}

The Actor creates two search tasks: one keyword × two countries.

📥 Input parameters

Seed Keyword

Enter exactly one keyword or phrase per run. Empty automated-test inputs are safely completed with seo tools. Multiple keywords are rejected before any paid request is sent.

Target Locations

Select one or more countries from the multi-select dropdown. The curated list covers 39 major markets:

United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Canada, Australia, Japan, India, China, Brazil, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, South Korea, Mexico, Indonesia, Turkiye, Switzerland, Sweden, Poland, Belgium, Austria, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Singapore, New Zealand, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia.

The default is United States. Empty automated-test inputs use the same default.

Target Language

Select the target language market for keyword suggestions and search-volume data. Keywords are not translated automatically. Choose one language from the dropdown:

English, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Arabic, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Thai, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Turkish, or Hebrew.

The default is English. Users do not need to know or guess language codes.

Date From / Date To

Set the monthly search-history window using YYYY-MM-DD dates. Date From defaults to 12 months ago and Date To defaults to today. If either field is empty in an API or automated-test request, the Actor fills it automatically.

📤 Output

Each Dataset row represents one keyword suggestion and contains only user-relevant fields:

Field	Type	Description
keyword	string	Suggested keyword
seed_keyword	string	Seed keyword that produced the suggestion
location_name	string	Selected target country
language	string	Selected result language
search_volume	integer/null	Average monthly searches
cpc	number/null	Average cost per click in USD
low_top_of_page_bid	number/null	Low top-of-page bid estimate in USD
high_top_of_page_bid	number/null	High top-of-page bid estimate in USD
competition	string/null	LOW, MEDIUM, or HIGH
competition_index	integer/null	Competition score from 0 to 100
monthly_searches	array	Queryable objects containing year, month, and search_volume
concepts	array	Queryable semantic concept values associated with the keyword

Internal location codes, language codes, provider flags, task IDs, response codes, and other system fields are not included in Dataset rows.

The default Key-Value Store also contains a SUMMARY record with task counts, fetched and exported totals, duplicate counts, error totals, and account tier.

💰 Billing

Tier or setting	Limit
Free users	5 runs per day
Paid Apify users	Unlimited runs
Seed keyword	Exactly 1 per run
Target locations	39 selectable major markets
Language	One of 20 selectable languages
Date range	Defaults to the latest 12 months; user-adjustable
Suggestions	Up to approximately 2,100 per search task

The result limit is fixed by the service and is not user-configurable. Usage is billed through the Actor's configured Apify events.

❓ FAQ

How are multiple countries processed?
The single seed keyword is searched separately for every selected country. One keyword and three countries create three tasks.

Do I need country or language codes?
No. Both settings use curated dropdowns, and the Actor resolves the underlying codes automatically.

What happens if an automated test submits empty input?
The Actor uses safe defaults: seo tools, United States, and English.

Can I export arrays to CSV?
Yes. JSON preserves the full array structure. CSV and Excel exports serialize array values while keeping each result in a consistent field.

Where are run-level diagnostics?
Open the default Key-Value Store and inspect the SUMMARY record.

📚 Resources

Open an issue from the Actor page and include the run ID plus the SUMMARY record. Do not include account credentials.

📜 Notes & caveats

Use it together with the other Google Ads Actors

This Actor is one piece of a 3-piece Google Ads toolkit. The three Actors form a complete research workflow: find keywords, then forecast traffic, then discover who's already advertising on them.

Where in the pipeline	Actor	Console	Use it to
step ②	Google Ads Traffic Forecast — Estimate Clicks, CPC & Campaign Cost	2aDJYYBcXSacJda7H	step ② — estimate clicks, CPC, and campaign cost for any keyword list
step ③	Google Ads Advertiser Discovery — Find Advertisers by Keyword & Country	IpvaC2Hj4cjkMHiOQ	step ③ — find competitor advertisers already bidding on these keywords

You are here: Google Ads Keyword Research (step ① — start here) — run this on its own for keyword discovery. The other 2 Actors live in their own Apify listings — click their Console links to open them in a new tab.

Why Use This Actor

• Find up to approximately 2,100 related suggestions per seed and country.
• Compare demand across major global markets.
• Build SEO content clusters and PPC keyword lists.
• Export structured, queryable arrays instead of opaque text.
• Run without configuring external credentials.