To label the search intent of a keyword list for SEO, Semrush, Moz Pro, Keyword Insights and SEO.ai all do the job, and SEO.ai does it free with no account. To decide whether a keyword deserves Google Ads budget, you need a verdict that accounts for what you sell. That is what Should I Bid returns: Bid, Test or Skip, with a score out of 100.
| Tool | Bid decision for your offer | Reads the live SERP | SEO intent labels | SEO work support | Free access | Total /5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Should I Bid (our tool) | 5 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3.6 |
| Keyword Insights | 1 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 3.1 |
| Semrush | 2 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3.0 |
| Moz Pro | 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 2.9 |
| SEO.ai | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 2.5 |
| Keyword Tool | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1.9 |
| Google Keyword Planner | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1.6 |
Each tool gets a whole score from 1 to 5 on five criteria, weighted for a Google Ads question: deciding whether a keyword deserves a bid. Scores rely on each vendor's official pages, reread on the date of the prices table. They measure neither overall product quality nor a tested accuracy.
A keyword intent tool usually answers an SEO question: what kind of page does this searcher want to read? A guide, a comparison, a product page. Google Ads asks a more expensive question: is this searcher worth a paid click, given what you sell? The two questions overlap. They are not the same.
SEO tools tell you what kind of page a searcher wants. Should I Bid tells you whether that searcher is worth paying for, given what you sell. If that verdict is all you need, start with per-keyword intent analysis.
In short, depending on what you need to deliver:
The classic model has three intents: learn something, go to a specific site, or take an action such as buying. SEO tools add a fourth, commercial intent, for people who compare options before they choose. Take a US company that sells a CRM to small businesses, and look at what each intent means when that company is the one paying for the click:
These usual readings are tendencies. The same intent can be a Bid for one seller and a Skip for the one next door: a free trial also attracts people who will never pay, and an informational query can pay off for a company that sells training. A label says ‘transactional’. It does not say whether to pay. Four gaps separate the two.
Who ranks, and who advertises. Organic results show what Google considers useful. Ads at the top and bottom of the page show that companies already pay for that click. A SERP full of guides and forums means people are learning, even when the query contains the word ‘price’.
Mixed intent. Many results pages blend guides and product pages. A single label hides that split. For a bid, a split SERP points to Test rather than Bid.
Fit with what you sell. Price level, B2B or B2C, the area you serve: ‘free invoicing software’ matters to a vendor with a free plan, much less to one that only sells annual licenses. No label knows your catalog.
A high CPC is not a verdict. You often read that an expensive click proves buyer intent. Google explains that the ‘top of page bid’ ranges in Keyword Planner reflect what advertisers have paid in the past, and that the actual price of a click is set in an auction against other advertisers. A high CPC proves that others pay. It does not prove the click will convert for you: those advertisers may sell at a higher price, to another audience, with a better-known brand.
Should I Bid starts from these four gaps. Its score out of 100 combines intent fit with your offer (40%), buying maturity (30%), competitive signal (15%) and the commercial signal of the results page (15%), plus an alignment bonus that can add up to 15 points. The details are on the page that explains how the score is computed.
We reread each vendor's official pages (features, free access, pricing) on the date shown under the verified prices table. We did not run the same keywords through every tool under real conditions. The scores describe what each tool says it does, not a measured accuracy.
Five criteria, weighted for the question this page answers, which is a Google Ads question: bid decision for your offer (30), live SERP reading (25), SEO intent labels (20), SEO work support (15) and free access (10). A tool can lose here and still be excellent for organic search. Should I Bid itself loses on three criteria out of five.
Should I Bid. For each keyword, it reads the Google results page for the market you pick, ads and organic results included; an AI then reads the pages that rank, and everything is checked against what you sell. It returns a Bid, Test or Skip verdict with a score out of 100. Vision suggests keyword ideas from a product or a URL, and every analysis recommends negative keywords you can export as a CSV for Google Ads. Its output is a bid decision; for an SEO content plan, the tools below are better equipped. It covers 50 markets, including the United States and France.
Semrush. Its keyword research shows an intent label next to each keyword, including in its free keyword tool. The suite adds search volumes, SEO and Ads competitor analysis, backlinks, site audits and rank tracking; its Advertising toolkit, sold separately, shows competitors' paid keywords and ads, with their history. Semrush does not return a bid verdict based on your offer: the label tells you what content to write, and it does not tell you whether to pay. The suite has a 7-day trial and a limited free plan. If you mostly use Semrush for Google Ads, read our Semrush alternative for Google Ads.
Moz Pro. Keyword Explorer gives volume, difficulty and organic CTR, with a primary search intent generated by Moz's AI. The suite adds SERP and SERP feature analysis, rank tracking, site audits, link analysis and visibility tracking in AI answers. Moz Pro has a free trial. It gives no per-keyword Google Ads bid verdict.
Keyword Insights. This is the tool built for volume: it classifies the search intent of large keyword lists based on the SERP, clusters keywords by topic and helps write the content. Monthly subscription or pay as you go, with a short paid trial. No Google Ads bid verdict.
SEO.ai. Its intent tool is free and needs no account, which makes it a quick way to check a label. The rest of the offer, on subscription, is an AI agent that writes and publishes content, tracks visibility on Google and ChatGPT, and says it also builds and optimizes Google Ads. It gives no per-keyword bid verdict based on your offer.
Google Keyword Planner. Free with a Google Ads account, it gives keyword ideas, search volumes, CPC ranges (the ‘top of page bid’ columns) and campaign forecasts. Exact volumes require an account with active spend; otherwise you see ranges. It does not read the real SERP and gives no intent verdict per keyword.
Keyword Tool. It produces long-tail suggestions from Google autocomplete and 15 other platforms. The free version works without an account; the Pro version adds search volume, CPC and Google Ads competition, a 1,000-keyword import, CSV export, an API and an MCP server. It advertises no intent label and gives no bid verdict: it helps you find ideas, not qualify them.
You do not need a tool for a first reading. Plan on ten minutes or so per keyword:
Should I Bid automates most of that reading: for each keyword, it reads the ads and organic results on the Google page, an AI reads the pages that rank, then it checks it all against your offer and returns a verdict with a score out of 100. For the money side (max CPC, test rules), follow our five-check bid method.
The deliverable decides. For a content plan, use the SEO tools in the grid: Keyword Insights, Semrush or Moz Pro, and SEO.ai for a one-off check. Keep Google Keyword Planner for volumes and bid ranges.
Pick Should I Bid when the deliverable is a list of keywords to switch on in Google Ads. You start from your own ideas, or generate them from a product page to find keyword ideas with Vision, and you come back with what deserves a bid, what deserves a test and what to exclude. The Competitors module also shows who bids on your keywords, without connecting your Google Ads account.
To go further on reading the ads themselves, see our comparison of paid SERP analysis tools.
Should I Bid is not an SEO suite. It does not track your organic rankings, analyze your backlinks or audit your site. It is not an intent classifier for content plans either: Keyword Insights or Semrush fit that job better.
The score is an estimate built from today's results page and your context. It does not predict your conversions and does not replace a live campaign test. The AI that reads the pages can be wrong on an ambiguous query: in that case, a Test with a capped budget is the safe call.
Pricing is per credit: one credit per keyword analyzed, with free analyses, no credit card to try it. If you are building your list from scratch, start with our guide to choose Google Ads keywords.
| Tool | Starting price | Details | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Should I Bid | Per credit (see Pricing page) | Per credit (1 credit = 1 keyword analyzed). 5 free analyses to try, no credit card, then paid subscription plans with no commitment and credits renewed every month. Plans described on the Pricing page. | Source |
| Semrush | from $139/mo ($117.33/mo billed annually) | Entry “SEO” plan: $139 per month billed monthly, $117.33 per month billed annually. 7-day trial, limited free plan with no credit card. Separate “Advertising” toolkit: Base plan at $99 per month. | Source |
| Moz Pro | from $49/mo | Entry-level plan at $49 per month (single site). “Standard” plan: $99 per month billed monthly, $79 per month billed annually; Medium $179, Large $299 per month. Free trial. A promotion was shown on the day of the check: prices to be rechecked. | Source |
| Keyword Insights | from $58/mo ($46/mo billed annually) | “Basic” plan: $58 per month billed monthly, $46 per month billed annually ($552 per year). “Professional”: $99 per month ($79 annually). Pay-as-you-go option, 7-day trial for $1. | Source |
| SEO.AI | from $149/mo | “Single Site”: $149 per month (one site, one language); “Multi Site” from $299 per month. 25% off with annual payment, prices exclude VAT. 7-day trial. | Source |
| Google Keyword Planner | Free | Free with a Google Ads account. Exact volumes require an account with active spend, otherwise ranges. Google requires entering billing information and completing account setup to access keyword ideas. | Source |
| Keyword Tool (keywordtool.io) | from $88/mo ($68/mo billed annually) | Keyword Tool Pro “Starter”: $88 per month billed monthly, $68 per month billed annually. Growth $188, Scale $388, Agency $788 per month. Free version without an account. 30-day money-back guarantee. | Source |
Prices verified on . Public prices observed on the vendors’ websites on the date shown. They may have changed since: the source prevails.
Search the keyword in a private window, in the right country. Count the ads, sort the ten organic results by page type (guide, comparison, product page, pricing page) and read the related questions. A SERP of guides signals informational intent; a SERP of product pages and ads signals buying intent. Then check what you found against your offer before you decide to bid.
It depends on the deliverable. For an SEO content plan, Keyword Insights classifies intent at scale based on the SERP, and Semrush or Moz Pro show an intent next to each keyword idea. For a Google Ads campaign, the question becomes ‘should I pay for this click?’: Should I Bid reads the live SERP and returns a Bid, Test or Skip verdict based on what you sell.
Yes. The manual method costs nothing: you just read the Google results page. Among tools, SEO.ai offers a free intent tool with no account, and the free Semrush keyword tool shows an intent label. Moz Pro offers a free trial. Should I Bid offers free analyses to try, with no credit card, once you sign up.
Informational, to learn (‘how to choose a crm’); navigational, to reach a site (a CRM brand name plus ‘login’); commercial, to compare before choosing (‘best crm for small business’); transactional, to act or buy (‘crm software free trial’). The original classification has three types. SEO tools add commercial intent to isolate the comparison stage, which matters a lot when you pay per click.
No. A ‘commercial’ label says the searcher is comparing. It does not say whether they compare offers like yours, at your price level, in your area. Also look at who already advertises and whether the SERP mixes guides and product pages. When in doubt, a Test with a capped budget and negative keywords beats an immediate Bid.
No. According to Google, the top of page bid ranges in Keyword Planner reflect what advertisers have paid in the past, and the price of a click is set in an auction. A high CPC proves that others pay for that click. It does not prove it will convert for you: those advertisers may sell at a higher price, to another audience or with a better-known brand.