Note that the tutorial is based on Google AdWords Keyword Data API that is due to sunset in April 2022. However, the video provides sufficient instructions that can be equally applied to making API requests to Google Ads Keyword Data API.

Keyword research opens up ample opportunities for understanding the target market and focusing on the right points in SEO activity. Keywords Data API is a set of endpoints designed for providing ultimate metrics to scale up keyword research. One of its highlights is the search volume endpoint. It supplies a solid data foundation for developing SEO and PPC bidding strategies. This guide will show you how to obtain search volume for keywords with our API.

We will first set a task and retrieve the results using the Standard method. It requires making two separate requests to the API server – POST and GET. After that, we will use the Live method to receive the results in real-time.

Setting a task

1First of all, you should log in to the v3 account dashboard. We will need it later.

2Next, open the Introduction section of our documentation and download the Postman collection in JSON. If you need examples for a different programming language, you can also download them from this page. Find gzip-compressed examples on your desktop, open Postman and import them.

3When the import is completed, select “edit” and open the authorization tab. You should set the “basic authentication” type, fill in your credentials from the account dashboard and hit “update”.

4Once you have saved the settings, click on the DataForSEO examples in the sidebar, open the “Keywords Data” folder and select “search volume”. To set a task, choose task_post. Remember to choose “inherit authentication from parent” in the authorization section.

5Now, let’s move on to the body of the request. First, you should specify the search engine language and location. You can choose to specify either the “language_code” or the “language_name”. Next, define a code, a name or the coordinates for a location. Please, turn to our documentation to learn more.

6Next goes the “keywords” field. It can contain a maximum of 700 keywords. For the character and word limit, please check our documentation. Additionally, you can set up sorting by relevance or search volume. If you do not use this field, default sorting by search volume will be applied. Once you have filled in all the necessary fields, hit send.

The response from the API server will contain information about the set task. Before proceeding to the next part, copy the id of the task, e.g.:

"id": "11201044-0696-0110-0000-9f560a19543e"

Retrieving results by id

1Select task_get under the “search volume” folder in the sidebar. In the GET URL, replace the id variable with the id of the task you copied.

https://api.dataforseo.com/v3/keywords_data/google_ads/search_volume/task_get/$id

2Set the authorization to “inherit authentication from parent”, and then hit “send”.

3The bottom window with the response of the API server will contain metrics for all specified keywords. You can review competition, cpc, monthly search volume, product and service categories, as well as monthly searches. Our documentation has a detailed description of each field.

Retrieving real-time results

1In the Postman sidebar, choose “live” under “Keywords Data” – “search volume”. The steps for setting a task using this method are the same as for the Standard method.

2First, remember to authorize using the credentials from your account dashboard. Then, open the body of the request, indicate the language and location of the search engine and fill in the keywords. You can set up sorting by search volume or relevance, or not use this field at all. By default, the keywords will be listed according to search volume in the decreasing order. Once you are ready with the body structure, hit send.

3The response of the API server will contain the keyword metrics at once. A detailed description of these fields is provided in our documentation.

Congratulations on your first call to Keywords Data API. Now you know how to empower your keyword research with DataForSEO.

Don’t hesitate to create a free account and try Keyword Data API in our API Explorer.

If you’d like to learn more about testing our APIs through a graphic user interface, check out this Help Center article.