Shopping for an Effective PPC Bid Management Tool

There are a lot of Tools in the market - and it can be daunting to decide which one to use. I prepared a list of Questions you can ask them in order to determine their fit with your business model:

Engine Functionality

  • Does it work with three major Search Engines, Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing (Overture), & MSN AdCenter?
  • What is its functionality with Tier 2 Engines

Business Goal Settings

  • Does it allow you to set Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) Goals?
  • Does it allow you to set Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) Goals?

& Optimization

  • Does it manage & optimize Keyword Level Bids?
  • Does it manage & optimize Match Type Level Bids?
  • Is the tool able to manage Time Stamp based analysis & optimize CPC Bids accordingly (Day Parting)?
  • Does it allow you to set bids to Position?
  • Can bids be viewed in Preview Mode before going live?
  • Does the tool forecast account’s performance based on historical data?
  • Does it manage & optimize Bids for Content Distribution Campaigns?

Keyword Research & Functionality

  • Does it provide functionality for New Keyword List Research & Development?
  • Does it provide you with Competitive Landscape?
  • Does it identify Poorly performing Keywords and make suggestions?

Creative Testing

  • Does it Generate & Suggest New Creative/Ad Copy?
  • Does it identify Poorly performing Creative/Ad Copy and make suggestions?
  • Does it allow A/B Testing of Ad Copy?
  • Does it allow Landing Page Testing?

Data Sharing

  • Does it work only with Conversion Counter from Search Engines?
  • Or does it also allow advertiser to upload Conversion, & Margin data?

Reporting

  • Does it allow you to view Transaction History/Audit Trail?
  • Monitor & Store Account change history with Reasons?
  • How far back can the reports go? 1 Year? 6 months?

Scalability

  • Can it Manage Millions of Keywords per Account?
  • What is the Statistical Data threshold to make effective decisions? Can it base its decision on ly a handful of conversions, or is it a data intensive tool that requires at least 1-2 months worth of data to start optimizing account?

Data Integrity

  • Does it syncs with Search Engine accounts automatically and often - allowing the user to make changes through Search Engine UI as well?
  • Does it provide user with an option to roll back changes made by the Tool?

Start Up Considerations

  • Do you need to change existing URLs or other Tracking features?
  • How much time does it take to sync data with Tool?
  • Would you be using the Tool API or your own account’s API? Caution: Lot of Companies add cost of API to your billing, so if you do have your own API with the engines, use that instead of paying additional to use the Tool’s API
  • What is the average time you can expect for the Tool to start showing results in?
  • Any other business considerations based on your business model

Pricing & Contract Structure

  • Do they charge Per Month?
  • Or do they charge a percentage of Online Spend?
  • What are the Additional API Charges?
  • Is it Month to Month?
  • Or is it a termed Contract?

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 9:24 pm and is filed under 4. PPC Bid Management, Bid Management Tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Shopping for an Effective PPC Bid Management Tool”

  1. Sue Massey Says:
    July 22nd, 2008 at 9:30 pm

    I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!

  2. Search Engine Optimization Basics I | Search Engine Marketing Says:
    December 31st, 2008 at 12:00 am

    [...] http://www.mysemblog.com/2008/07/shopping-for-an-effective-ppc-bid-management-tool/ [...]

  3. SEO Elite Review Says:
    January 11th, 2009 at 1:00 am

    SEO Elite Review…

    Thanks for sharing these valuable information. :)…

  4. Lisa Says:
    June 12th, 2009 at 9:04 am

    The AdWords Quality Score (QS) factor is really coming into play these days when advertisers have to be extremely careful regarding budget & spend management. What do you think?

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