A daily pay-per-click management routine can sometimes be a source of frustration. Thankfully, there are a few tools out there to streamline the process. What follows is a list of software that every pay-per-click account owner should consider.
AdWords Editor
AdWords Editor is Google’s campaign management application. It’s free and makes AdWords account updates much easier. In Editor, you are able to make all adjustments to the account, except for a few recently released AdWords features (such as pay-per-action and ad scheduling), through this desktop application and then post all changes to the live account.
It is also easy move around keywords, ads, Ad Groups and even entire campaigns using the AdWords Editor. Additionally, an Excel-friendly export feature is available. Find AdWords Editor here.
PPC Keyword Generator
PPC Keyword Generator is also free, and is an easy to use application that helps generate long-tail keywords without having to merge multiple cells to form one combined cell in Excel. Additionally, the software comes with a list of sales words that one should consider testing with your core keywords. Find PPC Keyword Generator here.
Conversion Optimizer
Conversion Optimizer is a recently released internal feature in Google. Basically, it is an internal bid manager that uses AdWords data to make necessary bid adjustments. I’ve had tremendous success with this application over traditional bid management software and would highly recommend testing it on one of your campaigns. However, you need to have at least 300 conversions in the past 30 days to qualify for this feature. Also, be aware that AdWords Editor does not work with Conversion Optimizer, and neither does any other API connected software (any third-party bid management application or analytics software, such as Omniture). Find Conversion Optimizer here.
SpyFu
If you were ever curious about what your competitors are doing then SpyFu is your answer. It scans search results pages for various keywords and matches those with corresponding advertisers. It is an interesting web-based tool for keyword ideas and competition analysis. It is not 100 percent accurate however, and in fact it is far from it. Still, it is a useful tool to get some new keyword ideas and see what other people are doing. Find it at Spyfu.com.
Spend some time reviewing all of the above tools. Hopefully, some of them could speed up your PPC management routine and even level the playing field between you and your competitors.