Aaron YoungGoogle Ads Coach | Define Digital Academy

Is keyword research still needed in Google Ads

22 Sept 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:15

In this 2025-focused YouTube talk, Aaron Young argues that keyword research remains a crucial component of successful Google Ads campaigns despite Google's move toward keyword‑less, AI‑driven targeting. He emphasizes that the effort required has dramatically decreased: instead of spending hours, a solid research session should take about ten minutes and focus on identifying broader keyword themes rather than isolated terms. Young advises using the Keyword Planner to uncover core themes, grouping them into ad groups, and structuring each ad group with one or two broad‑match keywords complemented by exact‑match keywords. This combination leverages broad‑match signals while the exact matches sharpen targeting. He also warns that broad‑match may not suit every business, urging marketers to review their own data before deciding. Overall, the video provides a concise, actionable framework for modern keyword research and ad group setup.

Chapters

Is keyword research for Google Ads still needed in 2025? And the answer is a big yes. While it's true that Google is leveraging more and more to its keywordless targeting, especially with AI max, but don't be fooled because keyword research is still a really, really important part for successful Google Ads campaigns. The good news is you don't need to do as much keyword research as you used to. I remember pre2020. Sometimes you could be spending 4, 5, 6 hours on keyword research that is not needed anymore. And keyword research should not really take any more than about 10 minutes to complete. The reason is because you're not looking for individual keywords, you're more looking for keyword themes. Now I've been on the record for a long time saying that skags the single keyword ad groups have been dead for a long time. So what you want to be doing with your keyword research going into your keyword planner, get some core keyword themes and then grouping them into your ad groups. And when you're structuring your ad groups, you want to have one or two broad match keywords and then build out your exact match keywords. The reason for why that is an important step because remember with your broad match keywords, one of the signals they do use for targeting is the other keywords in that same. So by adding in some extra exact match keywords, it does help with that broad match keyword targeting. There is a warning with broad match it may not be suitable for your business. So please look at your own data and make the best decisions for you and your business.