Free Pay Per Click Resources
June 4, 2010 | PPC, Resources by Paul Baumgarthuber |
Creating and updating PPC campaigns can be tricky and time consuming. Luckily there are free tools to help streamline the process.
Google Keyword Research Tool
The Google keyword tool provides a wealth of information when determining what keywords to bid on. It can tell users the search volumes for the three different match types (broad, phrase, exact), estimated cost per click, competitiveness of the keyword, related keywords, and search trends for the keyword. The data displayed is derived from actual search information thus it is very accurate. Google recently released their new beta version of the tools that provides even more functionality. To see what has been added to the new tool visit our post, “Google’s New Keyword Research Tool“.
Google Trends
One issue that many search marketers run into is determining seasonal search volumes for keywords. Google trends is a great tool to overcome this issue. It can show you search volumes dating back to 2004, monthly search volumes for the current year, and also has an export function that provides actual figures. To learn how to utilize Google Trends to determine accurate seasonal search volumes visit our post, “Determine Seasonal Search Volumes“.
Google Insights For Search
Google’s Insights for Search is a unique tool in that it provide regional data on trendy keywords. The tool will tell you what new keywords search volumes are increasing rapidly allowing a search marketing to uncover new keyword targets. This is a great tool for emerging or advancing markets.
Google’s AdWords Editor
Anyone who has ever setup a large PPC campaign through Google’s web interface knows how time consuming and frustrating it can be. Luckily Google released a desktop tool to help speed up the process of creating and editing campaigns. The tool allows users to make bulk changes and updates. With the correct formatting data can be copy and pasted directly from Excel which for me is a God sent. The tool allows users to update all the setting that are present in the web interface with the exception of;
- Advanced targeting such as zip codes, cities and regions.
- Day parting
- Associating local business addresses with ads
- Setting position preferences
Luckily the above features are for more advanced campaigns and shouldn’t really affect most search marketers.
Yahoo! Search Marketing Desktop
The Yahoo Search Marketing Desktop is very similar to Google’s AdWords Editor in its capabilities. It will allow users to make bulk updates and changes. One aspect of the application that I do not like is the fact that it is built on the Adobe Air platform making it a bit lethargic in its responses. One big downside to Yahoo’s tool is that a search marketing only has access to it if they are considered a gold account. To become a gold account a marketer needs to have three consecutive months of $500 or more in advertising spend. All in all though it is a great alternative to dealing with Yahoo’s search marketing web interface if you meet the spending requirements.
Microsoft adCenter Desktop
Like Google and Yahoo, Microsoft also has a tool to make bulk updates. Their tool is a desktop app similar to Google’s AdWords editor, but not as light weight. In my experience with their tool I have had issues with connecting to their advertising platform. When it does connect it works well. Other than that issue it is a great improvement over their web interface.
More To Come…
These are just some of the tools available to search marketers. As I come across other tools that I find useful I will add to this collection. The tools listed are just some free basic tools to help improve search marketers efficiency. Please feel free to suggest other tools that you may find useful.
