Keyword Planner in Microsoft Advertising: Ideas, Search Volume and Estimates

This guide uses Microsoft Advertising Help only, mainly How to use keyword planner and Understanding your keyword planner statistics and traffic estimates, plus the articles linked where they are used. Checked on 12 November 2026. How Google's tool works is in our Google Ads Keyword Planner guide, and account basics are in Microsoft Advertising: running search ads on Bing, so neither is repeated here.

Where to find it and what it is for

In Microsoft Advertising, open the navigation menu on the left and select Tools > Keywords. Microsoft says keyword planner "is now available to all customers". You need to be signed in to an account to use it.

One limit shapes everything else: keywords "can only be added to Search campaigns". Performance Max and audience campaigns do not take keywords, so the planner is a tool for Search campaigns. Microsoft describes three jobs for it: finding keywords that describe your business, seeing how many people search for them, and working out what to bid to compete. When you are done, you can save the keywords and ad groups straight to your account.

The tool opens on three starting points, covered one by one below:

• Search for new keywords using a phrase, website, or category: ideas when you do not have a list yet.
• Get search volume data and trends: history for a list you already have.
• Get performance and cost estimates: weekly forecasts for a list at a bid and budget you choose.

Search for new keywords

Choose Search for new keywords using a phrase, website, or category and enter one or more of:

• up to 200 words or phrases that describe what you are advertising;
• the URL of your website or one of its pages;
• a category for your product or service.

Then, optionally, set targeting (it changes the suggestions, the statistics and the estimates), enter negative keywords separated by commas so they are left out of the ideas, set a start and end month for the date range, and use Search options to keep only ideas that contain certain words. Select Get suggestions.

Results come in two tabs, one of suggested keywords and one of suggested ad groups that organise them. Microsoft's advice is to "be sure to look at both". From there you can Add selected to estimates or Export the list.

A website input has a catch. Microsoft says the planner reads keywords from your page's HTML, and if the page builds its content with JavaScript at runtime, "keyword planner will not extract keywords rendered from the JavaScript and you'll see fewer or no keywords." If a site built as a single-page app gives thin results, enter phrases instead of the URL, or use a page whose text is in the HTML.

Get search volume data and trends

For a list you already have, from a brainstorm, an old campaign or your Search Console queries, choose Get search volume data and trends. Type the keywords in Option 1 or upload a .csv or text file in Option 2, add targeting if you want, and select Get search volume. You get the same historical columns as for new ideas, and the same Add selected to estimates and Export options.

What the search volume columns mean

The statistics follow the targeting, search options and date range you picked. Microsoft defines the columns like this:

Column	What it shows	Worth knowing
Average monthly searches	How often the keyword was searched, for your location and network settings. By default averaged over 12 months.	Uses date range and targeting but not the language setting. It "does not take into account keyword match types." A dash means not enough data.
Competition	Low, Medium or High: the number of advertisers bidding on the keyword compared with all keywords across Microsoft Advertising.	Based on your location and other targeting. Advertiser competition, not how hard it is to rank organically.
Suggested bid	The suggested minimum bid for the keyword.	Built from your location and network settings and the average cost per click advertisers pay. "your actual CPC may vary."
Ad impression share	Your impressions divided by searches that matched the keyword exactly in the last calendar month.	Not the same as impression share in auction insights, which uses the impressions you were eligible for.

Search volumes are rounded, so totals across several locations may not add up. Microsoft also reminds you that searches move with seasons and news, and that "selecting keywords with higher search traffic or more competition doesn't mean that it's the right keyword for your advertising goals."

Performance and cost estimates

Choose Get performance and cost estimates, enter or upload keywords, add targeting and select Get estimates. You see a bid landscape: a graph of what the keywords might get at different bids. Enter a bid above the graph, or pick a point on it, to fill the table; enter a bid and a daily budget together to see estimates for that pair. Without a bid the table shows dashes.

The estimates are weekly. Clicks, impressions and spend are what the keyword might get "on a weekly basis", and the table adds click-through rate, average cost per click and average position. Microsoft points out that average CPC is not your max CPC bid, and that you pay for standard-quality clicks, not low-quality or invalid ones. How budgets, bid limits and billing work is in our Microsoft Ads cost guide.

You can change single bids in the Max. CPC column, or pick a percentage on the graph to move all bids by the same amount. Two signals in the graph matter:

• A shaded area means the budget is estimated to be too low for all the clicks and impressions available at those bids. Microsoft suggests raising the daily budget, or lowering the bid so each click costs less.
• A dash in Avg. position means the ad would likely get no impressions, usually because the bid or click-through rate is not enough. Try a higher bid.

Once keywords are live, the Keywords tab gives three more bid estimates for exact matches: first page, mainline (among the ads in the mainline of results) and best position. Microsoft says these follow your keyword's Quality Score and recent competition, and that meeting them "isn't a guarantee" of placement (estimated bids). For choosing between manual bids and automated strategies, see our guide to bid strategies in Microsoft Advertising.

Device, location and competitor views

A dropdown above the graph switches the view. For keyword ideas the options are search volume trends, mobile trends, breakdown by device (computer, mobile and tablet), breakdown by location, and two comparisons. For estimates you can break results down by device, or open the Location tab.

Location views go by state or province, DMA or metro area, city, or your targeted locations. You can only pick geographic segments that exist in all the locations you target. Microsoft suggests using this to adjust location targeting toward where people search for what you sell.

The comparisons set your ad impression share against competitor domains (advertisers like you, to spot keywords where you are missing out) or market leader domains (the average of the top five for your keyword ideas). They use the last calendar month, so they do not change with the date range, and the competitor option may not appear for some campaign or market settings. Microsoft says these reports do not reveal keywords, quality, bids or settings in either direction.

Saving keywords to your account

After reviewing estimates, select Save to account in the upper right to create a new campaign or add the ad groups and keywords to an existing one. Some rules from How to add or delete keywords apply from then on:

• An ad group needs at least one keyword before its ads can go live.
• Each keyword can be up to 100 characters, including spaces.
• Keywords are managed at campaign or ad group level, not account level; negative keywords can also be account level.
• Keyword text cannot be edited after saving. To change it, delete the keyword and add a new one, which goes to editorial review. Bid, match type and landing page can still be edited.
• Variations that only add punctuation count as duplicates and are removed automatically.

Microsoft's keyword list advice adds: include common variations and spellings (travel agent, travel agency), group closely related keywords into ad groups, and do not repeat a keyword across ad groups, or "you will be competing against yourself". Average monthly searches ignore match type, so pick match types when you save, not from the volume figure. Microsoft's match types are broad, phrase and exact (keyword match types); our match types guide explains the idea with Google's rules. If you already run Google Ads, importing your Google campaigns brings the keywords over, and the planner is then more useful for finding gaps.

How it differs from Google's Keyword Planner

The two tools look alike, but the help pages describe several differences. Google's side is summarised from our Google Ads Keyword Planner guide.

Point	Microsoft keyword planner	Google Keyword Planner
Starting points	Three: new keywords (phrase, website or category), search volume, performance and cost estimates	Two: discover new keywords, search volume and forecasts
Idea inputs	Up to 200 phrases, a URL, a category; ideas also grouped into suggested ad groups	Keywords or a website
Bid column	One suggested minimum bid	Top of page bid, low and high range
Estimates	Weekly clicks, impressions, spend, CTR, avg. CPC and avg. position	Daily clicks, cost, impressions, CTR and avg. CPC; conversions if tracked
Comparisons	Ad impression share against competitor and market leader domains	Organic impression share for your own site
Keyword length	Up to 100 characters	Up to 80 characters and 10 words in the planner

The search volume in each tool comes from its own search network, so the same keyword shows different numbers. Use Microsoft's figures for Bing campaigns and Google's for Google campaigns.

How we use it

This part is our opinion, not Microsoft's. When we bring a client's search ads to Bing, we import the Google campaigns first, then run the main product phrases through Search for new keywords with the target locations set, and read the suggested ad groups tab for themes the Google account lacks. The competitor domains view helps to choose which of those to add first. Before saving, we set a bid and daily budget in the estimates and check for a shaded area: if the budget cannot cover the keywords, we cut the list rather than spread the budget thin.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Microsoft Advertising keyword planner free?

It is part of your Microsoft Advertising account, under Tools > Keywords, and Microsoft says it is available to all customers. You need to sign in to use it.

Does Microsoft's search volume include match types?

No. Microsoft says average monthly searches do not take keyword match types into account. The language setting is not used either.

Are Microsoft keyword planner estimates daily or weekly?

Weekly. Clicks, impressions and spend are shown as what a keyword might get on a weekly basis, once you enter a bid and, optionally, a daily budget.

Why does the planner find no keywords from my website?

It reads keywords from the page's HTML. Content that JavaScript renders at runtime is not read, so you may see fewer or no keywords. Enter phrases or a category instead.

Can I use keyword planner keywords in Performance Max campaigns?

No. Microsoft says keywords can only be added to Search campaigns.

Keyword research pays off when the landing page answers the search. See our website development service and all our services, or email [email protected].