Software Type: Desktop Software (Windows)
Cost: $67

Ad Word Analyzer was one of the first software tools that performed look-ups of Overture and Google Ads to help determine niche markets. This software used Overture primarily as its means for mining these markets.

It has gone through a series of updates that has added refinements and feature additions to make it a very popular and well respected piece of software. The designer of this software is Jeff Alderson, who also designed other popular software such as the controversial Traffic Equalizer.

Let’s take a look at how this software stacks up against the other software products which occupy this ever expanding market.

My Experience

Ad Word Analyzer is quite intuitively designed. With large buttons and clear labels, it is fairly easy to get up and running. Once again I decided to go through the menu items to ensure that my set up was correct.

I left most of them at default as normal. However, I did edit the proxy server settings. I noticed here that there was the option to automatically assign a random proxy server. This sounds like a great idea to help avoid getting blocked by Google or Overture (Yahoo! Search Marketing). However, I used my trusty, anonymous proxy server that has worked well for me.

There were several other options in there that were well thought out, including a setting that helps regulate how friendly you want to be to the search engines when mining the necessary data. There was also a setting that helps ensure accuracy if you choose to make the software double check your entries.

I closed out my settings, typed in the usual “fly fishing” keyword phrase into the search box and selected Google Sandbox as my first data source. I was a little disappointed when it brought up only a few words. I changed the source to Overture (Yahoo! Search Marketing) and tried to press submit. Unfortunately, you can do only new searches and cannot append data on to the end of another search. So I started a new search with the new data source. This went ahead and generated 100 keywords, the number of competing web pages, as well as the number of Google and Overture (Yahoo! Search Marketing) ads.

I was quite startled by the number of Google ads the software was reporting. It said that there were 223 ads for “Fly Fishing Equipment”. Upon further investigation, I discovered it was counting duplicate ads when Google displays the same ad on multiple pages. This may be deliberate, but I think it is a mistake to do this as it really is not an accurate view of how many businesses you are competing against.

Once I had my data completed, I noticed that there was a filter at the top of the page that allowed me to remove those entries that were outside the parameters I was interested in. For example, I set it up so I was only shown the keywords that had at least 50 searches a month, more than 1 and less than 20 Overture ads. This is a big selling point, as I often find it quite difficult to sort out the junk keywords from the golden ones.

Another thing I noticed in the menu was that you could actually get the software to dig more than one level deep. This means that it will look up the data at the first level, and then for each of those keywords or phrases, it would look them up again individually. This means that you can mine data almost exponentially. At just 2 levels you would get 10,000 keyword phrases (100 x 100). At 3 levels you would get 1 million keywords.

I decided to get a bit crazy and set it up so the system would attempt to get a million keywords. Not surprisingly, the software crashed before it got anywhere near this amount. I also got banned from Google which unfortunately indicates that the proxy system may be working incorrectly. Google bans IP addresses that appear to be misusing their system by submitting to many requests at once. Keyword research software often does this which is why it is important that the software either regulates the queries, or else provides a way to mask your own IP address.

Once I was banned I was unable to extract any results from Google with the software. If I wanted to search Google in the normal fashion during my banned period I had to input security letters manually. This ban only lasted a few hours, however I was banned more quickly the second time. I soon realized how beneficial the functionality in the software that effectively helps to avoid getting banned really is. Even after the ban, I did however manage to get 170 good terms from this tool.

Another small gripe I had was the import keyword function didn’t work as I would like it. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t look up the imported data search volume on those lists that had been imported.

The export features were good with the ability to save as CSV, TXT, or HTML.

Summary

So what did I end up with after using Ad Word Analyzer?

• I ended up with Supply, Demand, R/S Ratio and Ad Data on 170 highly refined keywords. I could have had more if I had been able to make use of the dig function if the proxy settings had worked correctly.

Strong Aspects

The strong points of this product:

• Can dig deeper than 1st level of Overture (Yahoo! Search Marketing) data.
• Good interface.
• Good keyword filtering.
• Multiple outputs saving.
• Good advanced options.
• Inexpensive.

Weak Aspects

The weak points of this product:

• Crashes when using the advanced techniques like the multiple level digging.
• When loading in keywords, it won’t look up the search volume.
• Uses primarily Overture (Yahoo! Search Marketing) data.
• Crashed when trying to use some right click context menus.

Who is it ideal for?

This software suits niche miners, and to a lesser degree PPC advertisers and AdSense publishers.

Ratings:

For Niche Miners:
For Search Engine Optimizers:
For Pay Per Click Advertisers:
For AdSense Publishers:
Usability:
Value:

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