How to Change Your Google Ad Keywords

Running Google Ads without regularly tweaking your keywords is like setting sail and then never touching the rudder. You won't end up where you want to go. Changing your keywords is a fundamental part of optimizing your campaigns to stop wasting money and start getting better results. This guide will walk you through exactly how, when, and why to change your keywords in Google Ads.

When and Why You Should Change Your Google Ads Keywords

Changing keywords isn't something you do randomly. It's a strategic move based on performance data and business goals. If you're seeing any of these signs, it’s probably time to make some adjustments.

1. Poor Performance

This is the most common reason to make a change. Keep an eye on these key metrics:

• Low Click-Through Rate (CTR): If lots of people see your ad but nobody clicks, your keyword might be irrelevant to your ad copy or the searcher's intent. A low CTR can also hurt your Quality Score, leading to higher costs.
• Low Conversion Rate: Getting clicks is great, but they're useless if those visitors don't convert (e.g., make a purchase, fill out a form). If a keyword drives a lot of clicks but few or no conversions, it's attracting the wrong audience.
• Low Impressions: If a keyword isn't getting seen, it could be because the bid is too low, the search volume is niche, or it's disapproved.

2. High Costs

Even a keyword that converts can be problematic if it costs too much. Watch out for:

• High Cost-Per-Click (CPC): Some keywords are naturally more expensive due to competition. If the CPC is so high that it makes a profitable conversion impossible, you may need to pause it or find a less competitive long-tail alternative.
• High Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA): This is your bottom line. If you spend $100 in clicks on a keyword to sell a $50 product, that keyword is a dud. You need to pause these money-losers and reallocate your budget to keywords with a healthy CPA.

3. Business and Market Shifts

Your business isn't static, and neither is the market. You'll need to update keywords to reflect:

• New Products or Services: When you launch a new product, you need to add new keywords to target people searching for it.
• Changes in Business Strategy: If you pivot from targeting SMBs to enterprise clients, your keyword strategy needs to change entirely, moving away from "cheap bookkeeping software" to "enterprise accounting solutions."
• Evolving Search Trends: Search behavior changes. Keep an eye on Google Trends and your own data to see if new terminology or phrases are gaining popularity in your industry.

Your Options for Changing Keywords

"Changing" a keyword in Google Ads can mean several different things. It’s not as simple as editing text in a document. Here’s a breakdown of the actual actions you can take.

Editing a Keyword's Text? Not Exactly.

Here’s a common point of confusion: you cannot directly edit the text of an existing keyword. When you try to change "mens running shoes" to "mens trail running shoes," Google treats this as you removing the first keyword and adding a new one. The performance data (clicks, impressions, conversions) for the original keyword is archived with that keyword and your new keyword starts fresh with zero data. This is important to remember so you don't lose historical context.

The Four Ways to Actually Change Keywords

1. Pause or Remove a Keyword

This is the simplest move, reserved for keywords that just aren't working.

• Pausing: Temporarily stops the keyword from triggering ads. It's preserved in your account along with its historical data, and you can re-enable it later. This is great for seasonal keywords or if you want to temporarily test performance without it.
• Removing: Permanently deletes the keyword from the ad group. While you can still see its past performance in your reports, you can't re-enable it. You'd have to add it back as a new keyword. Only remove keywords you are positive you never want to use again.

2. Change the Match Type

This is one of the most powerful changes you can make. The match type controls how closely a user's search query must match your keyword for your ad to show. Your options are:

• Broad Match: Reaches the widest audience by showing your ad on searches with similar meaning. Use with caution, as it can bring in a lot of irrelevant traffic. (Example: keyword women's hats could trigger ads for "winter hats for girls").
• Phrase Match: Shows your ad on searches that include the meaning of your keyword. It's more focused than Broad Match. Represented by quotation marks. (Example: "women's hats" could trigger ads for "buy hats for women").
• Exact Match: The most restrictive type. Shows your ad on searches that are the same meaning as the keyword. Represented by brackets. (Example: [women's hats] would only trigger ads for "hats for women" or "women's hats.")

A common optimization strategy is to start with Phrase Match to discover new search terms, then add high-performing terms as Exact Match keywords to bid more aggressively on them.

3. Change the Max CPC Bid

Your bid tells Google the maximum amount you're willing to pay for a single click on an ad triggered by that keyword. Increasing the bid can help your ad show more often or in a higher position, while decreasing the bid can help control costs on an expensive keyword.

4. Move a Keyword to a New Ad Group

As you gather data, you may find that a keyword in a general ad group is getting a ton of relevant traffic. To improve your ad relevance and Quality Score, you can pause that keyword in its current ad group and create a new, highly specific ad group just for it, complete with ad copy that uses the keyword directly.

Step-by-Step: How to Make Keyword Changes

Ready to get your hands dirty? Here’s precisely how to implement these changes within the Google Ads interface.

How to Pause or Remove Keywords

1. Log in to your Google Ads account.
2. From the left navigation menu, click Campaigns.
3. Select the campaign and then the ad group containing the keyword you want to change.
4. Click on Keywords in the sub-menu. You'll see a list of your keywords.
5. Check the box next to the keyword (or keywords) you want to modify.
6. A blue bar will appear at the top. Click the Edit dropdown.
7. Select Pause to temporarily stop it or Remove to permanently delete it.

How to Change a Keyword's Match Type

1. Navigate to the Keywords section for your chosen campaign and ad group.
2. Find the keyword you want to change.
3. In the "Match type" column, simply click on the current match type (e.g., "Phrase match").
4. A dropdown menu will appear. Select your desired new match type (Broad, Phrase, or Exact).
5. Click Save.

How to Adjust Max CPC Bids

1. Go to the Keywords section.
2. Locate the "Max. CPC" column for your keyword. (Note: a dash "-" here means it's using the ad group's default bid).
3. Click directly on the bid amount (or the dash) for the keyword you wish to change.
4. A small box will appear. Enter your new bid and click Save.

Best Practices for Managing Your Keywords

Making smart changes requires more than just knowing which buttons to click. Use these strategies to make sure your optimizations are effective.

Start with The Search Terms Report

The Search Terms report is your single most valuable tool for keyword optimization. It shows you the actual search queries people typed into Google that triggered your ads. To find it, go to the Keywords section and click on Search terms in the sub-menu.

Use this report to find:

• New Keywords to Add: If you see a relevant search term that's converting well, add it as a new Phrase or Exact Match keyword! This lets you set a specific bid for a query you know works.
• New Negative Keywords to Add: If you see completely irrelevant terms that are wasting your money (e.g., you sell premium software, but your ad shows for "free software reviews"), add them as negative keywords.

Build Out Your Negative Keyword Lists

Negative keywords prevent your ad from showing on irrelevant searches. Adding terms like "free," "jobs," "DIY," or competitor names can save you a significant amount of money. You can add them at the campaign or ad group level, or create shared Negative Keyword Lists to apply across multiple campaigns.

Keep Ad Group Structure Tight and Thematic

Your keywords, ad copy, and landing pages should all be closely related. As you change your keywords, ask yourself: does this keyword still belong in this ad group? If a keyword related to "leather ankle boots" is in your general "women's shoes" ad group, it would perform much better in its own group with ads that scream "Stylish Leather Ankle Boots Are Here!" This boosts relevance, improves Quality Score, and almost always lowers your CPC.

Base Decisions on Enough Data

Don't pause a keyword after one bad day. Give your keywords time to accumulate enough impression and click data to make a statistically significant decision. Look at performance over the last 14 or 30 days, not just the last 24 hours. A good rule of thumb is to wait until a keyword has at least 100 impressions before making a strong call, and even more for conversion data.

Final Thoughts

Adjusting your Google Ads keywords is an ongoing cycle of review, analysis, and refinement. By regularly using the Search Terms report to pause underperformers, add new high-intent keywords, and tighten your match types, you'll steadily improve your account health and see a much better return on your ad spend.

Analyzing all that data in Google Ads can be overwhelming, which is why we built our platform to simplify the entire process. Instead of getting lost in columns and filters, you can use Graphed to ask plain-English questions like, "Which keywords have the highest cost per conversion this month?" or "Show me all keywords with a CTR below 1%." We give you the clarity you need in seconds, so you can spend less time hunting for data and more time making smart, strategic changes to your campaigns.