What this assignment produces: An honest account of where your current keywords came from, how many started as Planner suggestions vs. real intent signals, and one sentence about what that means for the quality of your list.

Why it matters: Before you build a new process, it's worth being clear-eyed about the old one. Most people discover they've been starting with the wrong input and working from there. That's not a criticism. It's just a starting point.

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Instructions

Step 1 — Pick a campaign to examine. Either a current live campaign you manage, or the last campaign you built. If you have nothing yet, note that and skip to Step 4.

Step 2 — For each keyword in the campaign, categorize its source as best you can remember or infer:

Source	Count
Came directly from Keyword Planner suggestions
Came from a paid tool (SEMrush, Ahrefs, etc.)
Came from competitor observation / SERP research
Came from actual buyer language (calls, forms, CRM)
Came from the Search Terms Report of a previous campaign
Not sure / can't trace it

Step 3 — Calculate the percentage that came from real intent signals vs. tool suggestions.

Step 4 — Write one honest sentence:

"My current keywords came mostly from ___, which means ___."

For example: "My current keywords came mostly from Keyword Planner suggestions, which means they were chosen based on what Google wanted me to bid on, not based on what my buyers are actually searching."

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Assignment complete when: You have the source breakdown table filled in and one honest sentence written. Keep this — you'll come back to it at the end of the course to see what changed.

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Module 2: Start Where the Buyers Are

Module objective: Build a raw keyword list using five free research inputs, in the right sequence, so you're starting from real buyer intent rather than platform suggestions.

This is the core of the course. The sequence matters. Most practitioners run it backwards.

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