Software Type: Desktop Software (Windows)
Cost: $77

Adword Equalizer is a piece of Windows software that uses the Yahoo! Search Marketing data as its primary source of keyword sample data. It does, however, allow a couple of other methods of gathering data including from Nichebot, Worktracker (only 25 words), as well as some lateral search tools including misspelling.

This may sound pretty basic, but this software actually has some really neat features that suit affiliate marketers and that are not presently available in any other products on the market. It may be just the thing you are looking for!

Let’s take a closer look.

My Experience

I started up AdWord Equalizer and performed the login procedure (which I guess gets around pirating issues) and was greeted by a nice simple interface. I didn’t really need to take a look at the help files as it was pretty clear how it operated. I typed “fly fishing” in the keywords text box, maxed out the keyword number and chose my source as Overture (Yahoo! Search Marketing). It very quickly generated a list of 100 keywords showing just search volume (monthly and daily).

This simply loads the list into the software. You will notice that the other columns are now empty on the right hand side. You have to press the green play button to populate this data. I went ahead and pressed that green button and some very interesting data started to build.

Very quickly, this software went out and mined data in a different way to many of the other tools I have been trailing. It went beyond just the normal search volume and grabbed lots of extra information that helps you decide what niche areas to target. For example, Adword Equalizer looked at how many ads are being shown for both Overture (Yahoo! Search Marketing) and Google, as well as how many of those ads are actually affiliate ads.

Not only does it provide the volume of affiliate ads, it also shows which site is the most popular among these affiliate ads, as well as a measure of the strength of this popularity using a user definable points weighting system. You can also see a pie graph of the market share of these affiliate websites to see who exactly is the dominant vendor. This allows a user to be able to see what affiliate programs are hot, as well as those with few other affiliates promoting them.

This software also has some other great features such as fetching the bid data from Findwhat, Ah-ha and Brainfox. Unfortunately in this version they do not include Overture (Yahoo! Search Marketing) bid prices, which tend to give a better indication of what you actually will be paying most of the time.

I was able to export this data in a variety of formats including just text, CSV as well as HTML which gave me quite a few options at the end.

While this software has an excellent foundation, it is not all perfect. I found a few issues that I think should be improved upon in the next version.

Firstly, I couldn’t build on my list. I would have liked to be able to input my seed keyword or keyword phrase as the foundation. Once that is finished, I’d like to keep building the list with lateral search terms as well as digging down into more variations of the original 100 terms. This was not possible with AdWord Equalizer.

I was able to import keyword lists well with this software. However, it would not go out and grab the volume data for these keywords. It would only go out and grab the extra data after you pressed the play button. This feature is technically possible - other software does it.

The other gripe I had with this software was that there was no proxy server setting or any search engine friendly settings beyond the thread number control. This puts a much higher risk of having your IP logged and possibly banned from the search engines for abusing their resources.

Summary

So what did I end up with after using AdWord Equalizer?

• 100 Overture (Yahoo! Search Marketing) mined keywords.
• Lots of extra data about these keywords that may help affiliate marketers.

Strong Aspects

The strong points of this product:

• Data is shown quickly and is easy to manage.
• Lots of extra information is useful for affiliate marketers.
• Nice interface.
• Strong sorting ability.
• Customizable layout depending upon how you use the software.

Weak Aspects

The weak points of this product:

• Can’t combine work lists to do a large analysis.
• Can’t save your session to go back and continue later.
• Primarily Overture (Yahoo! Search Marketing) data.
• When loading in other keyword lists, won’t load in the search values.
• Can use Wordtracker and Nichebot but only comes up with the top 15.
• Poor lateral searching.
• Doesn’t look up Overture (Yahoo! Search Marketing) bid prices.
• Doesn’t take care of the search engines very well.

Who is it ideal for?

This software is fast and provides lots of extra data that would suit affiliate marketers. Generally does a decent job for other users as well.

Ratings

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

Site: Check Out AdWord Equalizer Now!