The Basics

Any search marketing professional worth their salt knows that the best place to start on a SEM campaign is with keyword research. As self-identified data NERDS, we loathe moving forward on a project without real-world keyword data to back up our decisions; without this foundational step, your marketing efforts rely solely on your (probably wrong) assumptions about which search queries are being used to find the product or service you've been tasked with marketing. Keyword research helps find the actual search queries that are most popular among search users, and this is invaluable knowledge to get you started on a quality (and nerd-approved) content marketing campaign.

Because keyword research is such an important initial step, having confidence in your keyword data is very important. It may have a few flaws, but we have always used the Google AdWords Keyword Tool as a primary research tool, and the source for most of our search volume numbers. It has arguably always been the best tool out there for culling rough search volume data (despite aggregation), and it has been our preferred keyword research tool if for no other reason than it is pulling its data directly from the databases of the most dominant search engine on the scene. Our dependence on Keyword Tool data might seem silly at times, but there really aren't any better alternatives.

Getting our data directly from Google gives us more (and presumably more accurate/normalized) numbers than anywhere else. No other tool has provided data as granular and useful as the Keyword Tool has: more long tail keywords actually show search volumes and therefore have actionable data, and we're able to glean insights from the search volumes of more than just the most popular and high-volume terms. There is obviously a huge advantage to having a nearly 70% search engine market share, and that advantage is data. Unfortunately for us, over the past few years it's become clear that Google doesn't really want to share its plethora of data with its customers: us search marketers.

R.I.P. Keyword Tool

If you didn't already know (brace yourself!), the tried and true AdWords Keyword Tool is quietly being retired in favor of a shiny new tool, the "Keyword Planner." While most people seem to be distracted by the new features that the Keyword Planner is offering (and a few of them are great), no one seems to care about the INCREDIBLY HUGE HOLE that will be left after the old Keyword Tool is gone: broad and phrase match search volume data will no longer be available. It's not immediately obvious when using the new Keyword Planner's "historical data" feature, but accessing "historical" broad and phrase match keyword data will no longer be an option. Additionally, it will no longer be possible to pull desktop/laptop and mobile search volume data separately - everything is being thrown together into one catch-all number. Both of these changes make the Keyword Planner a severely stunted research tool when compared to the old Keyword Tool, and as a result, make valuable and actionable keyword data a lot harder to find.

The Importance of Phrase Match Data

Some people may blow off this change and the missing search volume data as minor, but in the keyword research process, phrase match search volume data is very important and often more enlightening than exact match data. Phrase match usually proves to be overwhelmingly more useful than broad or exact match search volume data. Let me illustrate with an example; if I am building a hypothetical campaign for a client that sells iPhone cases using the old keyword tool, I have access to both phrase and exact match search volumes for the terms "iphone case" (singular) and "iphone cases" (plural):

With this data I am able to directly compare the phrase and exact match search volume numbers for these keywords and I immediately know that when used in combination with other words (phrase match), the singular term "iphone case" is the higher volume keyword between the two. When searched without modifying words (exact match), the plural term "iphone cases" is the higher volume keyword. I am also able to see that a huge majority of "iphone case" queries are accompanied by additional clarifying words, which is an important observation. Using the new tool, I lose my insight into how popular the general topics of "iphone case" or "iphone cases" are in search. Instead I am left with only the less actionable and less informative number of queries that matched exactly the phrase in question.

In my example, phrase match and exact match search volume numbers contradict each other, and are only really valuable when compared to each other - if we no longer have the phrase match data to compare, we lose buckets full of insight. Extrapolating the problems illustrated by this minor example throughout the entire keyword research process, one has to wonder, exactly how much will we be inadvertently overlooking if we no longer have access to phrase match keyword data?

Using the exact-match-only data from the new Keyword Planner tool in my example, I may end up picking "iphone cases" as my most important target keyword, and I might not explore the possibilities in targeting the singular "iphone case" keyword, which has a higher volume in phrase match searches, and might be a more valuable keyword. Having to decide on target keywords and whether to bid in AdWords on phrase and broad match keywords without the data to back up that decision is extremely difficult.

As you can see, when we're given phrase match search volume data we are able to complete the very valuable action of comparing phrase and exact match search volumes, giving us deeper insights, and potentially letting us know that we should spend more time than one might otherwise spend researching a specific keyword. A number of clarifying questions become important when we see a large difference in search volume between phrase and exact match keywords:

• What are the most popular modifying words or phrases that make search volume so much higher in phrase match?
• Should we focus on and bid on a promising phrase match keyword?
• What can we find as potential negative keywords for this phrase?
• How many overlapping search intents are there?

Of course these are questions you might normally ask already about each keyword, but if you're like me, you use phrase match vs. exact match comparisons to identify when these questions are most important.

The Fallout

Hopefully I've illustrated for you the importance of phrase match search volume data, and why it's a tragedy that Google will no longer offer this data in its new Keyword Planner tool. Bing's keyword tool still offers their equivalent of phrase match data, but their search market share is low enough that their data is not as useful for long tail and low volume niche market keyword research. In truth, the old AdWords Keyword Tool will be leaving a mighty large hole in my search-friendly heart after it's gone.

Thankfully, the incredibly smart people in my office, as well as the awesome people in our industry are relentlessly resourceful and determined (example), so I am sure that together we will cobble together a semi-decent substitute process over the coming weeks; there are alternate tools and ideas to explore still.

Please share your thoughts on this change, how your keyword research process will evolve (or devolve) without access to Google's phrase match data, and how you might be changing your process because of the new Keyword Planner tool! Additionally, I'd love to hear your thoughts on Google's closed-door behavior, and what you think their motivation is in crippling the new keyword planner.