In a technique for publishing keywords for use in an online advertising system (OAS), keywords are extracted from product information that is received from entities that provide products. Based on calculated performance metrics associated with the extracted keywords, an estimated viability of the keywords (such as an estimated profitability) when used in the OAS is determined and a subset of the keywords is selected. Then, the selected subset of the keywords is published to the OAS. For example, the selected keywords may be bid on for use in search-engine-based online-advertising campaigns. Note that the performance metrics for a given keyword may include: a performance metric that is independent of the product information, a performance metric that is based on the product information, and/or an OAS performance metric.