When you set up a Google AdWords campaign, you will need to set a daily budget. Some people set this budget based on how much they can afford to spend each day, while others set the budget based on how many sales they need to make each day compared to their conversion rate. When setting a budget on this basis, it is important to know how to estimate traffic for AdWords keywords.

Learning how to estimate traffic for AdWords keywords is really quite simple – you use the tools that Google gives you. The Google Keyword Tool, which can easily be found within your AdWords account – just login, click on Keyword Tool, build your keyword list, and then click on ‘traffic estimates’ for the keyword list that you have built.  Simple - right? Well, maybe it isn’t quite that simple, although, that is the way it is done.

There is a little more you need to know when it comes to knowing how to estimate traffic for AdWords keywords. First, this traffic estimator tool often makes people rethink keywords that they were sure would be winners – instead of going with their gut instinct, they go with something else that doesn’t do nearly as well – simply because the estimator tool told them that they shouldn’t expect much traffic.

First, you must realize that you are asking a computer what human beings think when you use this tool. In fact, you are really asking a computer to guess at what humans might think. Who knows better about what humans might think – you (a human) or a machine? You do, of course! Go ahead and go with your gut instinct. Give it a few days and track the results – that keyword might be a winner after all!

The traffic estimator makes its decision based on what searches have been performed in the past, and what the click through rates were on those searches. It does not look at your ad. It does not look at how fine tuned the keywords are – or even what you are using the keywords for.

Many Google AdWords users report that they use the traffic estimation tool, and it is completely wrong when their campaigns go live. For instance, one person is told by the estimator tool that they will be in the number two spot, with a CPC of .50 – but when the ad goes live, they find that they are in the fifth spot, with a CPC of .80!

What you must remember is that the traffic estimate is an ESTIMATE. While you can use it to make adjustments to get your ad to the first page in the search results – within your budget, you must realize that the results you see in the traffic estimator are not 100% accurate – but they are fairly close. In order to be completely wrong, there would need to be a much greater spread between that .50 per click and the .80 per click, as well as the number two spot and the number 5 spot. When you start using the tool, and you learn how to estimate traffic for AdWords keywords, you will understand that it is an estimation tool – not a written guarantee!