Keyword Planner

The Keyword Planner turns your manuscript into a categorized list of keywords tailored for Amazon KDP, Facebook, Instagram, Google, Pinterest, and X.

Your manuscript is full of keywords. This tool finds them.

The fastest way to lower your ad costs is to test more keywords.

Most authors launch ad campaigns with a handful of obvious keywords. They target three or four comp authors, add a genre term or two, and hope for the best. When those keywords don't perform, they assume ads don't work for their book. The best keywords are out there, but you need a lot of keywords to test to find them.

The more keywords you test, the faster you find the cheap, high-converting targets your competitors overlooked. But building a list of 100+ keywords by hand takes hours of research. The Keyword Planner does it in minutes by reading your actual manuscript.

When you upload your manuscript and paste your target reader profile, the tool generates:

• 100+ keywords organized by category, including comp authors, comp book titles, genre terms, trope keywords, setting and era terms, mood descriptors, reader search phrases, and related media interests.
• Platform-specific strategy guidance explaining which keyword categories work best on Amazon KDP Ads, Facebook, Instagram, Google, Pinterest, and X.
• Match type recommendations for Amazon so you know when to use broad, phrase, and exact match for different keyword types.
• A prioritized starting point so you know which platform deserves your ad budget first based on your genre and audience.

You will walk away with a paste-ready keyword list and a clear plan for which keywords to test on which platforms.

Use It To

• Build your first Amazon KDP Ads campaign with a full keyword list instead of guessing at five or six terms.
• Discover comp authors you hadn't considered, including mid-list authors with lower competition and cheaper clicks.
• Generate Facebook and Instagram interest targets that go beyond the obvious genre labels.
• Find long-tail reader search phrases ("books like Outlander but darker") that convert better and cost less than broad terms.
• Create Pinterest keyword lists built around the moods, aesthetics, and reading list terms that drive pins.
• Identify related TV shows, movies, and podcasts whose fans overlap with your readers for cross-media targeting.
• Refresh a stale campaign by adding dozens of new keywords you haven't tested yet.
• Relaunch an older book with a keyword strategy built from your actual manuscript instead of outdated assumptions.

Why It Works

The math behind book advertising favors volume. Out of every 100 keywords you test, only a few will perform well. The rest will spend a little money and teach you what doesn't work. Authors who start with 10 keywords may not find the winning keywords. Authors who start with 100+ keywords are more likely to find the winners.

The Keyword Planner stacks the odds further by pulling keywords from your manuscript. Instead of guessing what readers search for, the tool identifies the tropes, settings, character types, and comparable authors already embedded in your story. It cross-references those elements against your target reader profile to prioritize keywords that connect what you wrote to what your audience is already looking for.

The tool also accounts for how each platform works differently.

• Amazon KDP Ads reward exact keyword matches.
• Facebook rewards broad interest targeting.
• Google rewards search intent phrases.
• Pinterest rewards aesthetic and aspirational terms.
• X rewards conversational keywords and trending topic terms that match how readers talk about books in real time.
• Instagram rewards visual and lifestyle interest targeting, similar to Facebook but skewed toward younger, image-driven audiences.

A keyword that works perfectly on Amazon might be useless on Pinterest, and vice versa. The Keyword Planner gives you the right keywords for the right platform so you stop wasting budget on mismatched targeting.

Related Tools

Explore more Patron Toolbox tools that pair well with this one:

• Timothy Finder - Create a profile of potential readers along with a plan to reach them. Use this first to build the target reader profile that powers your keyword list.
• Ad Drafter - Turn your manuscript into scroll-stopping ads. Pair great keywords with great ad copy for better results.
• Amazon Keyword & Category Planner - Generate KDP keywords and Amazon categories. Use this for your book's metadata and the Keyword Planner for your ad campaigns.
• Ad Suitability Scanner - Find out if your book cover is ready for advertising before you spend money driving clicks to it.
• Trope Finder - Identify the story patterns in your book. Tropes make powerful ad keywords.

FAQ

• What is the Keyword Planner? It is a Patron Toolbox tool that reads your manuscript and target reader profile to generate 100+ organized advertising keywords you can use across the most popular platforms.
• What platforms does this support? Amazon KDP Ads, Facebook, Instagram, Google, Pinterest, and X.
• Who should use this tool? Any author running or planning to run paid advertising for their book. It works for both fiction and nonfiction across all genres.
• Do I need a target reader profile to use it? Yes. Paste your target reader profile into the Timothy field. If you don't have one yet, use the Reader Profiler to create one first.
• How is this different from the Amazon Keyword & Category Planner? The Amazon Keyword & Category Planner generates the seven keyword boxes and category picks for your KDP metadata. The Keyword Planner generates a much larger keyword list (100+) specifically for advertising campaigns across multiple platforms. They complement each other.
• Can I use the keywords right away? Yes. The keywords are organized by category and ready to paste into your ad platform's campaign builder. For Amazon, the tool also includes match type guidance so you know how to set up each keyword.
• What happens with my manuscript? Your manuscript is used only to generate your keyword list and is not stored or shared beyond this session.
• How much does this cost? This tool is available to Novel Marketing patrons at the $10/mo Patron Toolbox level and higher.