Best PPC Bid Tools

[covareo]

I've generally done everything by hand and met with good results, but the volume of work for some easier accounts has gotten to the point I'm ready to try Bid Management Software. Anyone have any recommendations or suggestions? Anything I should avoid? Desktop apps would be preferred, but I'll consider online services if they're worth it!

Thanks!

[awolski]

Watching this thread closely as I am interested as well.

[covareo]

Originally Posted by awolski

Watching this thread closely as I am interested as well.

I tried to find some up to date info but most seemed to be several years old...

I have been handling all my PPC campaigns manually, but the volume has gotten to a point where shifting some of the accounts in easier markets to an automated system seems worth it... unfortunately I cant seem to find any tools that 'look' like they are top notch. I'm looking for a PPC bid management tool that works with Google (Yahoo would be helpful as well) to monitor and bid based on coverage, position and the option to bid based on urls.

Anyone find a desktop app or service they are happy with? Seems most are just glorified front ends for the standard API... I am almost at the point of just coding my own.

[leftoverjoe]

One of the best tools I've come across, if you can't get into Omniture, etc., is PPC Pro. It is a local program that simply interfaces with the engines via an API. You can set all of the important rules to manage your bids. It also shows you a list of the competitors and their positions, as well as the ads they're running, all from the same interface.

You can easily do day-parting as well with a simple setup of a second bid group with different timing. Anyway, there are many features to use, it's a straight forward product which is run locally instead of through a website, and it is one of the more reasonably priced tools as well. They are currently working on updating their Yahoo product to be compatible with Panama, but it's not ready yet. I would suggest checking them out and waiting until the new version is ready before buying.

Good luck!

[covareo]

Thanks for the info - I had looked at that tool prior to posting and I'll go give it a second look!

[egain]

I analysed a number of tools a while back inclusive of Hitwise, Index Tools and Atlas. HAve to say that (from an agency perspective), if the Hitwise one had come with their "Competitive Intelligence" product, it would have won hands down, however all in all Atlas seemed to do the best job (however quite pricey in omparison to the others)

[leftoverjoe]

Atlas did look pretty solid from what I could tell. They definitely are one of the more expensive solutions though. It all depends on how many keywords you're looking to manage, if you need straightforward bidding tools, or extra tracking features, conversion analysis, etc.

If you want to spend $1,000 per month, get Omniture. If you want to spend $500 per month, get Atlas. If you want to spend around $100 per month or less, get PPC Pro.

Of course those aren't the only options, but ones that I would personally recommend.

[covareo]

Great feedback everyone - thank you for taking the time out of your days to share your knowledge.

I am pushing our clients to go with Omniture, but the cost is prohibitive for smaller accounts.

[leftoverjoe]

I hear you there. They are awesome though. I am an Omniture Certified Solutions Developer. We actually can re-sell smaller amounts of page views if you're interested. We buy the stuff in bulk and then distribute it to our clients based on their particular needs.

If you want to talk about it just PM me. Thanks!

[awolski]

We are likely going to be going with Webtrends Dynamic Search (formerly ClickShift).

[ExposureTim]

When I ran an agency (until recently) I had trouble getting a return phone call from Omniture... in fact I never got a return phone call from them and I clearly interested, ready-to-sign up. I tried several times over the course of several years but never heard from them, not even an email... Despite that, I'm still interested for some reason.

I'd like to hear continued thoughts on this topic... I have yet to see a decent review/comparison of these products even though people ask in these forums often enough. There's got to be more than a handful of people who could share opinions?? or link us to detailed reviews??

[leftoverjoe]

Originally Posted by ExposureTim

When I ran an agency (until recently) I had trouble getting a return phone call from Omniture... in fact I never got a return phone call from them and I clearly interested, ready-to-sign up. I tried several times over the course of several years but never heard from them, not even an email... Despite that, I'm still interested for some reason.

Tim, I do have to agree with you there. That, to me, is their biggest problem. For a world-class organization, and possibly the best bid-management, and statistical analysis software available, their customer service is frankly, lousy. We tried to 'pay' them for two months before they would get back in touch with us and have us talk to the right people. We were going after them so that we could send them money!

Since we got all of that mess taken care of things have been much smoother though. I have to say, even with that headache, they are still tops in my book.

[covareo]

Anyone try Web Trends Web Position?

http://www.webposition.com/product/compareeditions.asp

[awolski]

Not even remotely close to what I'd define as bid management software.

Originally Posted by covareo

Anyone try Web Trends Web Position?

http://www.webposition.com/product/compareeditions.asp

[covareo]

true - probably should have separated out to another thread - my apologies.

[JollyHockeySticks]

Hi Everyone,

Has anyone used Web Trends Dynamic Search? We are currently looking at automating our search campaigns and wondered if anyone had used them before. E.g. did they deliver results? It is worth the extra spend?

Cheers

[aolobia]

Estute experts. Can anyone tell me if they prefer Searchignite over efrontier for their search initiatives

[wasatch27]

We run fairly complex and robust PPC campaigns and have decided to switch our PPC management to Omniture's SearchCenter platform. We spent the last two years with another high profile 3rd party solution and never felt that it was adequate for us.

We are implementing Omniture over the next few weeks and will begin managing our campaigns after that process is complete. I'll let you know what I think about it then.

[aolobia]

We were very interested in using the Omniture tool ourselves unfortunately, our back end analytic tool is coremetrics and I could not get my company to switch analytics tools. Without their analytic tool, i was not too convinced about using omniture. However keep us in mind and let us know how it goes bacause we may come that route down the road.

[wasatch27]

We also are changing our analytics partner to Omniture as well. This was a very difficult decision for us as a company, but in the end we wanted a comprehensive system that could handle analytics and bid management. Plus we felt that we needed a company that was innovating on several fronts that would benefit us in the future.

Previously, we had one solution for analytics and another for ppc. The data from each solution was too difficult to reconcile and often left us with more questions than answers. Our hope is that by having one solution and set of data, it will remove a lot of the doubt that has hampered our team in the past.