Keyword CPC Reader

Last updated: 2026-08-16

Keyword CPC Reader is a command-line tool used to plan the writing on Korea, Verified, a reference site about Korean visas, arrival paperwork, transport and connectivity. It is run by one person on one laptop. It is not sold, hosted, distributed or offered to anyone else.

What it does

Deciding which question to answer next is the hardest part of running the site, and search volume on its own is a poor guide. This tool reads how often a phrase is searched and what advertisers bid on it, which together say whether a subject has an audience before a week goes into writing about it.

One command, one output file:

node keyword-cpc.mjs --file keywords.txt --geo us --out result.csv

It reads a plain list of keywords, makes one request to the Google Ads API, and writes a CSV containing, for each keyword, the average monthly searches, the competition level, and the low and high top-of-page bid. Then it stops. There is no interface, no server, no hosting and no login.

The permission it asks for, and why

The tool signs in through Google OAuth to one account, the operator's own, and requests a single scope:

https://www.googleapis.com/auth/adwords

That scope is the only way to read keyword metrics from the Google Ads API, which is the data the tool exists to fetch. It calls one method, KeywordPlanIdeaService.GenerateKeywordHistoricalMetrics, and no others.

It performs no mutate operation of any kind. No campaign, ad group, ad, keyword, budget, bid or setting is created, changed or removed. The script contains no code capable of doing so. The account it queries is fixed in a local configuration file and cannot be supplied as an argument, so it has no mechanism for reaching a different account.

Whose data this is

No visitor's Google account is read, requested or accessed at any point. Korea, Verified has no accounts, no login and no sign-in button. Nobody except the operator has ever authorised this tool, and it is not offered for anyone else to authorise.

Output is a CSV file in a local folder, read by the person who ran the command, and used to choose article topics. Nothing it returns is published on the site, displayed to visitors, sold, or passed to any third party. Credentials are kept in one local file that is excluded from version control and is not backed up to any external service.

Who runs it

Jayden Hwang, in Incheon, the sole operator of Korea, Verified and the holder of the Google Ads account it reads. There are no employees, contractors or other users. More on the about page, and questions at contact@koreaverified.com.