PPC Keywords

Discover paid keywords used by competitors, with data on CPC, competition level, search volume, and ad placements.

Written by Mike
April 17, 2026

Find the Paid Keywords Your Competitors Are Bidding On

The PPC Keywords report lists every variation of your seed keyword that domains are actively using in paid search campaigns. Use it to discover which keywords competitors are bidding on, assess competition levels and costs before launching ads, and build a targeted PPC keyword list grounded in real market data.

What you can achieve:

• Validate keyword value before spending: See Volume, CPC, and Competition together for every keyword variation — so you invest only in keywords with proven demand and realistic cost.

• Discover the full keyword universe for your niche: The report surfaces all paid variations of your seed term, including long-tail and commercial-intent variations you may not have considered.

• Benchmark your ad spend against the market: CPC and Competition scores reveal what others are paying, helping you forecast budgets and identify underpriced keyword opportunities.

Getting Started

1. Navigate to Keyword Research → PPC Research → Keywords in the left sidebar.
2. Enter your seed keyword and select your regional database.
3. Click Search. The report loads all paid keyword variations containing your seed term.
4. Use Filters to narrow by CPC range, competition level, volume, or keyword length.
5. Select keywords with checkboxes and click Operations to export or transfer to other tools.
6. Click any domain or URL to jump directly to that site or its full report.

Key Metrics Explained

1. Landing pages: The number of unique landing pages that ads for this keyword lead to. A high number indicates intense advertiser competition with many different offers in the market.
2. Difficulty: Organic ranking difficulty score (0–100) — useful for identifying keywords where you could potentially win both paid and organic traffic.
3. Position: The paid rank this keyword holds for a given domain. The label "New" means the domain recently entered the top 100 Google or top 50 Bing for this keyword. Red/green indicators show position change dynamics.
4. Volume: Average monthly search volume over the last year. High volume with moderate CPC is the sweet spot for cost-efficient PPC.
5. CPC: Average cost per click in USD. High CPC signals that advertisers consider this keyword commercially valuable — a useful intent signal even for SEO planning.
6. Competition: PPC competition level (0–100%). High competition means many advertisers are bidding — expect to pay more and compete harder for ad placement.

Pro Tip: Find High-Intent Keywords Your Competitors Overpay For

The most valuable PPC opportunities aren't always the most expensive ones. This workflow finds keywords with strong buyer intent that are underpriced relative to their conversion potential.

1. Filter for Volume > 100 and Competition < 50% — this finds keywords with real traffic demand but less advertiser saturation.
2. Sort by CPC ascending within that filtered set. The lowest-CPC keywords in a competitive niche are often overlooked long-tail variations that convert just as well.
3. Check the Landing pages column — a keyword with few landing pages but decent volume means competitors haven't built dedicated pages for it yet. That's your opening.
4. The goal: Build a list of 20–30 low-CPC, moderate-volume keywords with few dedicated landing pages. These are your highest-ROI PPC entry points before scaling to competitive head terms.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How is PPC Keywords different from Keywords Selection?
A: Keywords Selection shows organic keyword variations — terms domains rank for naturally. PPC Keywords shows paid variations — terms domains are actively bidding on in Google Ads or Bing Ads. A keyword can appear in both, but high CPC with low organic competition is a strong signal for PPC-first targeting.

Q: Why do some keywords show a CPC of $0.00?
A: A $0.00 CPC means Serpstat hasn't recorded active bidding data for that keyword in the selected database. The keyword may have organic rankings but no recent paid activity — or the paid data simply hasn't been crawled yet for that region.

Q: Can I use this report to find negative keywords for my campaigns?
A: Yes — review the full keyword list and flag any irrelevant variations as potential negatives. Keywords with high volume but mismatched intent (e.g., informational queries mixed in with commercial ones) are your primary negative keyword candidates.

Next Steps

• PPC Competitors — See which domains are bidding most aggressively on your target keywords.
• Ads Examples — Study the actual ad creatives running for these keywords to inform your own copy.
• Keywords Selection — Cross-reference with organic keyword data to find terms worth targeting in both SEO and PPC simultaneously.