Keyword Grouper

In the first example “shoes” is in every keyword, so it isn’t used for grouping: one group of everything wouldn’t help. The tool says which words it left out. “Shoe” and “shoes”, “men” and “mens” count as the same word, and little words like “for” and “the” are never a group.

How the keyword grouping works

• The word shared by the most keywords becomes the first group, then the next, until no word is shared by enough keywords (2 unless you choose more).
• Each keyword goes in one group only, so the groups can become ad groups without the same keyword bidding against itself.
• If a big group took the only partner of another keyword, that keyword borrows it back, as long as the big group stays big enough. That’s why “nike running shoes” went to nike in the first example.
• Keywords that share nothing with the rest go last, under Other.
• Two words next to each other makes smaller, tighter groups (“trail shoes for men” and “mens trail shoes” share men and trail), then groups what’s left by one word.

Keyword Planner, Search Console and spreadsheets

Copy the rows from Google Ads Keyword Planner, Search Console’s query report, Semrush, Ahrefs or any spreadsheet and paste them, heading row and all. The tool finds the column called Keyword (or Query, or Top queries) and leaves the other columns exactly as they were. When there’s a search volume column (Avg. monthly searches, Volume, or Impressions), each group’s searches are added up and the most searched groups come first.

Choose in a first column, for a spreadsheet to get a Group column in front of every row: paste it back into Excel or Google Sheets, or use it as the Ad group column in Google Ads Editor.

Is this keyword clustering?

It’s clustering by words, which is quick, free and private, and is how ad groups are usually built. Some paid SEO tools instead cluster by search results: two keywords go together when Google shows the same pages for both, so “cheap flights” and “low cost airfare” can share a group even with no word in common. That needs a live Google search for every keyword. For most lists, grouping by words gets you most of the way there, and you can move the odd keyword by hand.

Next steps

Use the Keyword Wrapper to put each group in [exact] or "phrase" match, remove duplicates first if your list came from several tools, or count words to see which words come up most.

A keyword list

running shoes for men
running shoes for women
trail running shoes
waterproof trail shoes
nike running shoes
nike air max
shoe stores near me
running shoe store near me
kids shoes

running (2)
running shoes for men
running shoes for women

trail (2)
trail running shoes
waterproof trail shoes

nike (2)
nike running shoes
nike air max

store (2)
shoe stores near me
running shoe store near me

Other (1)
kids shoes

Try this example

From Keyword Planner, most searched group first

Keyword	Avg. monthly searches
cheap flights	90500
cheap flights to paris	2900
flights to paris	12100
paris hotels	22200
cheap hotels in paris	1900
hotels near eiffel tower	1300

Group	Keyword	Avg. monthly searches
cheap	cheap flights	90500
cheap	cheap flights to paris	2900
hotels	paris hotels	22200
hotels	hotels near eiffel tower	1300
paris	flights to paris	12100
paris	cheap hotels in paris	1900

Try this example

Tighter groups: two words

mens running shoes
running shoes for men
womens running shoes
running shoes for women
mens trail shoes
trail shoes for men
waterproof trail shoes

men running (2)
mens running shoes
running shoes for men

women running (2)
womens running shoes
running shoes for women

men trail (2)
mens trail shoes
trail shoes for men

Other (1)
waterproof trail shoes

Try this example