![\"keyword](\"https:\/\/www.moneyjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/adwords-keyword-planner-not-working-768x440.jpg\")
<\/p>\nYou\u2019ve been cut off.<\/p>\n
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As of early August 2016, Google made some mortifying changes<\/a> to their Keyword Planner that would disturb SEOs around the world.<\/p>\n Adwords users like you and I were hit with limited keyword data showing volume ranges instead of the exact search volumes we took for granted.<\/p>\n What good do search volumes like this do?<\/p>\n There are obviously a lot of numbers in between, and it would have been equally fruitful just to kill the tool altogether.<\/p>\n Not only has this affected SEOs, but it\u2019s also hit millions of casual bloggers who rely on keyword search volumes to create their content.<\/p>\n According to Search Engine Land<\/a>, there were two types of accounts that were hit:<\/p>\n Google\u2019s recommendation is to use an alternative solution called Forecasting<\/a>.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what a Google community manager<\/a> had to say:<\/p>\n Haven\u2019t heard of Google\u2019s forecasting tool?<\/p>\n It\u2019s because it\u2019s just as useless as their broad range of search volumes. If you want to waste 3 minutes of your day, give it a shot, and you\u2019ll get results like this.<\/p>\n Michael Harrington, a Money Journal subscriber, raised a great point in my keyword competition video<\/a>.<\/p>\n The obvious solution seems to be to spend more money on Adwords campaigns.<\/p>\n But how much is enough? And is it a viable solution for new bloggers just starting out? Or what about advertisers who are already having success with Facebook or Pinterest Advertising<\/a>?<\/p>\n The fact is, there are plenty of keyword planner alternatives<\/strong>. The ones that made my shortlist or credit card statement are:<\/p>\n But these are more than just keyword tools. They have a wealth of data you can use for link building<\/a>, on-page SEO<\/a>, and hunting down long-tail keyword phrases<\/a>.<\/p>\n For most of us casual bloggers, we just want keyword planner back in its original form.<\/p>\n So today, I\u2019m going to show you a simple workaround to fix the useless search volume ranges and get back on track with data you can\u00a0rely on.<\/p>\n No strings attached.<\/p>\n You probably created your account by going to adwords.google.com<\/a>. We all did.<\/p>\n But did you know Adwords has “manager accounts?”<\/p>\n Manager accounts are designed for advertisers and agencies managing multiple Adwords accounts.<\/p>\n For whatever reason, Google hasn\u2019t rolled out their changes to these accounts.<\/p>\n Will they?<\/p>\n Only time will tell.<\/p>\n The first step is to create your Google Adwords Manager Account<\/a>.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll have to create a new Adwords account using an email address that has not<\/b> been registered with Adwords.<\/p>\n Set your country, currency, read\/agree with their \u201cRules of Use\u201d, and continue to the next step.<\/p>\n After you\u2019ve created your manager account, you\u2019ll need to login to your current Adwords account<\/em> and copy your Customer ID number.<\/p>\n The customer ID number will be used to link your personal\/business account with your manager account.<\/p>\n Next, you need to link your Adwords account to your manager\u2019s account. You will then be allow you to control all of your linked accounts from one central dashboard.<\/p>\n You can do this by selecting the \u201cLink existing accounts\u201d from the drop-down menu.<\/p>\n Finally, copy and paste your Adwords customer IDs in the text area provided.<\/p>\n All of the configuration is done on the manager\u2019s account side. Now you need to accept the request for access to your Adwords account.<\/p>\n In your Adwords account, click the gear icon and select \u201cAccount Settings.\u201d<\/p>\n On the left sidebar, you\u2019ll see a tab called \u201cAccount access.\u201d<\/p>\n From here, you just need to accept the request, and you\u2019re all set to go.<\/p>\n Your account is ready to go, and you can start looking at Google\u2019s search volume data now without the arbitrary ranges.<\/p>\n But you might have noticed that the \u201cTools\u201d menu that houses the Keyword Planner is missing.<\/p>\n Remember that this is an Adwords Manager account. The intent for these users is to oversee multiple Adwords accounts.<\/p>\n As a result, you\u2019ll need to go to one of your linked accounts to access the old Keyword Tool data.<\/p>\n You can do this simply by clicking on one of your Adwords account nicknames from the \u201cAccounts\u201d manager.<\/p>\n A new window will open where you can click on the “Tools” menu and then keyword planner.<\/p>\n From here, you\u2019ve got old Sally back up and running. It\u2019s just a matter of throwing in a keyword phrase and waiting for the search volumes to repopulate.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s give it a shot.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a good chance that you\u2019ve purchased another keyword tool at some point. Last year, I reviewed Market Samurai<\/a> with over 1.5 hours of video.<\/p>\n I thought it was only fair to put them to the test.<\/p>\n Since a lot of keyword research tools require you to authenticate your Adwords account, logically, they should work, right?<\/p>\n And it does for Market Samurai. In fact, processing bulk keywords were significantly faster than it ever has been.<\/p>\n I also have Long Tail Platinum in my software kit and decided to give it a spin. Strangely, they are still providing keyword data by range despite having a manager\u2019s account.<\/p>\n\n
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![\"keyword](\"https:\/\/www.moneyjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/google-forecasting-recommendation-768x231.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"google](\"https:\/\/www.moneyjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/google-forecasting-example-768x395.png\")
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![\"00-keyword-planner-search-volume-issue\"](\"https:\/\/www.moneyjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/00.keyword-planner-search-volume-issue-768x247.png\")
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The secret lies in your account type.<\/h2>\n
![\"adwords](\"https:\/\/www.moneyjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/adwords-manager-account-explained-768x270.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"setup](\"https:\/\/www.moneyjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/01.adwords-manager-account-768x267.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"setup](\"https:\/\/www.moneyjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/02.setup-google-adwords-manager-account.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"adwords](\"https:\/\/www.moneyjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/03.adwords-customer-id-768x238.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"link](\"https:\/\/www.moneyjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/04.Add_accounts-768x263.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"link](\"https:\/\/www.moneyjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/05.link-adwords-accounts1-768x495.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"accept](\"https:\/\/www.moneyjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/08.accept-request-768x196.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"confirm](\"https:\/\/www.moneyjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/09.confirm-manager-account-768x438.png\")
<\/p>\nKeyword Planner isn\u2019t available in your manager account.<\/h2>\n
![\"keyword](\"https:\/\/www.moneyjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/missing-menu-item-768x121.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"adwords](\"https:\/\/www.moneyjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/10.select-linked-account-768x240.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"select](\"https:\/\/www.moneyjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/12.select-keyword-planner-768x282.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"google-keyword-planner-fix\"](\"https:\/\/www.moneyjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/google-keyword-planner-fix-768x432.gif\")
<\/p>\nDoes this volume fix work for third party software?<\/h2>\n
![\"market](\"https:\/\/www.moneyjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/market-samurai-768x362.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"long](\"https:\/\/www.moneyjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/long-tail-platinum-768x359.png\")
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