A dilemma and challenge for many advanced search engine marketing experts is the need for a Pay Per Click management tool that does everything they need it to do. This article looks in some detail at the needs and benefits of such tools as well as some of those available in the market.

What is a PPC management tool?

It can be as broad as it sounds. There are multiple tools both online and downloadable which offer a variety of services from keyword generation and automated ad copy creation through to bid strategy optimisation and  analytics. The challenge I have had over my 8 years of working in the search market is a simple one, nothing offers me what I need! They can sometimes offer too much and cost an arm and a leg, or they only have strengths in one area or another. I didn’t think my wish list was that demanding but perhaps it is?

The Products

The Bid Optimisers

If only you could automatically apply bid strategy changes based on targets and goals per keyword. Well this is what these tools offer. Set your CPA, ROI, CPC, for example and these tools will apply CPC changes to your account on a keyword level to meet these targets. However without someone who understands the account and the goals looking to be achieved, these tools can be misused.

Often these tools only apply strategies once a day due to API costs and restrictions and in some cases can end up being less effective than a manual optimisation process. The benefits however would be where multiple keywords are running in many different campaigns all with separate strategies and goals. The retail sector can definitely benefit from these types of tools as the variety of product keywords which perform well based on completely different metrics. Some of the algorithms of these tools have been developed by high end data analysts and that is where the benefit comes.

The Reporting Suites

These tools allow you to generate and automate graphical representation of data to make the reporting process for agencies simpler and much faster. Normally these functionalities are partnered with one or more of the others to compile a tool that adds value over and above simply reporting.

If you can set up automated reports which are sent to you and your clients every week showing them data they need to see that can save huge amounts of time which may currently be spent formatting custom reports. However this will also restrict the variety of reports available to you.

The Analytics

About  5 years ago many analytics tools started jumping on the search wagon. Realising the massive growth in search as well as the need to see integrated reporting of all online marketing this seemed like a logical step… if done well. Some have done it well whilst others failed miserably.

Alongside this many PPC tools worked to integrate analytics into their offering to enable a platform to report on all online activity not just PPC. This is where the SEO and PPC offering became much closer as agencies could run and report on both alongside each other.

The key with these tools is normally you have unique tracking codes or redirects which allow you to track all online activity on your website. This makes it easier to integrate Social, banners, SEO, PPC , email data in one place and also manage and report on your whole online presence.

One big problem remains, you change tool, you have to change the code. For some businesses this means hours of developer time spent removing current code on the webpages and replacing them with new tracing code. This can sometimes influence the choice of sticking with your current supplier or changing to a new one due to the work involved in changing.

The Management tools

The other offering is the management suite, built to help save time. One interface, one login, one password with access to all your accounts. Bulk upload changes to all the major search engines in one go. Make multiple keywords, ad or campaign changes. Essentially these tools were built for agencies to make their day to day tasks more efficient allowing more intelligent strategies and creative ideas to be applied to clients’ accounts.

This can be a great time saver as some functionality of Yahoo and Microsoft are weak and take a huge amount of time, with one interface this makes things much simpler and quicker.

On the down side the tools are only as good as the access they have to the search engines. Google is a classic example – how many changes have they made to their AdWords tools, settings and reporting over the past 6 months? Quite a few, and to keep up with the developments 3^rd party tools need to keep developing and amending their tools to access the new functionality from Google – and that is based on Google allocating them access to do so via the API.

There will always be settings you need to make via the search engines themselves and sometimes if these tools are not ahead of the game they become dinosaurs within a few months with dated technologies and functionality.

So which PPC tool is the best?

Well with the wide array of solutions currently in the market and the variety of services they all offer it is difficult to pin down one. In fact none offer me exactly what I want, there are always the wish list function that are on the agenda but never seem to come.

A revert button to change any actions you have implemented back to their original state. This would save so much time. Or an advanced ad copy testing tool which truly makes sense of the adcopy performance and how to determine which ad’s perform ‘Best’. Or even a tool where you pay what you use, many of my clients don’t need all the functionality of Google AdWords free tools let alone the vast suite of products that are actually rarely used. Even these technologies sales teams themselves avoid functionality in the demo’s because it is either dated, irrelevant or was only built initially for one big client with huge budgets.

I am not an expert on all these tools however I have had my share of experience. Being influential to developing the concept for the functionality and display within DC Storm  – No guesses what the DC stands for? Digital Clarity also became the first UK agency to champion Omniture’s Search Center, not only reselling the product and managing the tool but also working with the product development team to really enhance the functionality and robustness. However neither of these tools fit the wish list. Every demo and trial and review I do there always seems to be at least one element missing which leaves me in disappointment.

However, there is a lot of worth in using the right tool as long as you have the right people driving it.

Google have recently been developing more functionality to auto optimise your bid strategies, a/b test strategies and ads as well as reporting on more data than ever before, and they are free.

I guess the key is determining which functionality is important and what value it ads to your business. Until there is a pick and mix pricing option or tool which is suitable for all clients the decision of which tool’s to use will always be a challenge.

SURVEY REPORT

I am planning to compile an up to date report on the available tools on the market and very keen to get some feedback on the tools below in regards to cost, functionality (what intelligence they offer over and above human optimisation ) and support (customer support to troubleshoot and guide on functionality) out of 10 marks, 10 being the highest. All feedback is greatly appreciated.