In our last article The best software for SEO we looked at the reasons to use SEO tools, some of the key features that you should look for in SEO tools, and a few of the most popular SEO tools on the market.
In this article we do the same for PPC – Pay-Per-Click.
Again, this is by no means a comprehensive list, but should serve as a useful guide to point you in the right direction.
Why use PPC tools?
PPC enables marketers to buy visits to their site, by paying a pre-bidded fee each time one of their ads is clicked. One of the best locations for PPC ads is search engine advertising. Marketers can bid to Google to place their ad before the organic results for a search query on keywords related to their business.
Essential to the success of PPC is bidding on the best keywords that will get your ad in front of your target audience. But to do this, you need not only to research those best keywords but also understand which keywords your competitors are also bidding on. You then need to decide how much you are prepared to pay to ensure that it is your ad – and not your competitor’s – that ends up in the top slot.
PPC tools can help you to make all these critical decisions and also to monitor and adapt your campaigns and budgets on a regular basis.
5 key features to look out for in a PPC tool
- Keyword research
A good PPC tool will take the strain out of your keyword research. Not only should it have its own database of keywords, but it can also provide information on the keywords that your competitors are using that you might have been missing. It will also be able to provide you with prices of keywords, and information about where traffic comes from for any given keyword – ie organic search or paid search.
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- Competitor tracking
Most PPC tools are able to research competitors ads and find out what keywords they are bidding on and where their traffic is coming from. Tools with this facility can also alert you to any new ad or campaign based on any keyword. You should be able to see every domain bidding on your AdWords and also identify emerging threats from new competitors.
- Historical ad data
It is incredibly useful to be able to look back on historical ad performance. Not just your own, but your competitors. Look for a PPC tool that charts all the ads that a business has run during its various campaigns. You need to see what has and has not worked, the changes that have been made to ads and how much has been spent on them.
- Bidding automation
Different PPC tools have different strengths, but if you are running a variety of PPC campaigns you may want to look for one that will handle bidding automatically for you. Automation is becoming more reliable as algorithm bidding advances, and can free up a lot of time on a day-to-day basis.
Google Ads has various automated bidding strategies, based on different business goals such as increasing site visits, increasing visibility and increasing conversions. Good PPC tools can help you to make the most of these options and keep your campaign up to date.
- Integrates with different ad platforms
The default assumption is that search engine advertising is all to do with Google. Which most of the time it probably is. But never forget that there are other ad platforms around, for example Bing, so a good PPC tool will be able to integrate with those platforms as well as Google.
Comparison of 5 popular PPC tools
The first thing to note is that some of the popular SEO tools that we looked at in our last article also handle PPC very well too. So do not be surprised to see a couple of the same names as before.
Also be aware that many PPC tools tend to specialise in some of the above features, rather than being “one size fits all”. So some may be stronger on competitor analysis whilst others are expert in automation.
So with those caveats in mind, let’s take a look and see how a variety of PPC tools compare in terms of the above five features:
| Keyword research | Competitor tracking | Historical ad data | Bidding automation | Multi platform | Key USP | Current Cost | |
| Spyfu | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | One of the most comprehensive PPC tools for spying on the competition. | Spyfu from $33 per month: varies according to use | |
| SEMrush | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | Excellent at competitor analysis, with vast amounts of information on competitor domains including in graphical format. | SEMrush from $99.95 per month: varies according to use. | |
| Optmyzr | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | Optmyzr is an award-winning PPC tool in terms of its automation capability based on machine learning. It is more advanced and expert than many others. | Optmyzr from $499 per month: varies according to use | ||
| Wordstream Advisor | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | Has additional analytical tools that are aimed at small businesses who do not have expert PPC staff. Has a “20 Minute Work Week” tool to provide quick advice on PPC campaigns | Wordstream Advisor from $244 per month | |
| Ahrefs | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | Primarily known as a highly respected SEO tool but also has robust PPC functionality, especially in terms of keyword research and competitor analysis. | Ahrefs from $99 per month: varies according to use |
As with our SEO article, the above table is simply a guide as to the main features available with each PPC tool listed, and is subject to change at any time. So if you are using PPC it is well worth taking the time to research these and other PPC tools in more depth, to find the ideal tool to help you achieve your business goals.