Software Type: Desktop Software (Windows)
Cost: $99

If you are a Pay Per Click advertiser, this software has you in mind. It is produced by the same guys who produced one of the first pieces of desktop software that leveraged the Overture keyword suggestion data. Therefore, they are certainly not new to the keyword research game.

PPC Toolkit is three tools in one – a keyword builder, bid reporter and an ad maker for Google which helps streamline the process that PPC advertisers often take. So have they hit their target? Well let’s take a look at what I found out with a particular focus on the keyword research aspect of the tool kit.

My Experience

The first thing I did was jump into the keyword builder tool and get started. I was impressed by how the software looked with a nice interface, set out in a very professional looking way.

I discovered the keyword builder software has three parts; Research, Organizer, and a Phrase Builder.

The research aspect has a few different methods for building keywords and phrases. You can mine keywords using the Overture data, Yahoo, Teoma, as well as a misspelling generator. Only the Overture data was able to show search volume. There was no way of getting the search volume for the keywords found in alternative methods, which would have been nice.

The interface for this tool was slightly different to other tools that I have reviewed. You essentially used the various methods for generating the keywords, then you send these keywords to the organizer part of the software. I sent all my keywords to a group I named Fly Fishing.

I then went to the phrase builder and in a similar way to several other tools (e.g. PPC Galaxy) generated a huge list of other possible keywords. I did this by putting together a combination of possible words that might work together.

I ended up having my organizer filled with 3571 keywords. However, I had no idea whether or not these were any good, or if people actually searched for them as I had no other data. For people who are using this tool for reasons other than PPC advertising, it makes it difficult to see what keywords are more popular than others, and consequently which keywords might be best to focus on, or to identify niche markets.

At this point I could have generated an AdWords compatible file that I could use if I was wanting to create an AdWords campaign. This would definitely save time and allow direct exporting to Google.

I went ahead and exported this data to the bid reporter tool, which is another piece of software that is part of the Toolkit. I loaded in the keywords and ran the keyword report. It generated the costs for all of the keywords, which helps zero in on the keywords that might have a higher return on investment.

Of all the tools I’ve tested, this software gave the most bid prices for the most PPC companies. These included bid prices for Overture US, Overture UK, Miva, Xuppa, GoClick, Search Feed, Miva Uk, Miva Fr, AhHa, Kanoodle and Brainfox.

The way the software worked was really well thought out and could powerfully show me the data in many different ways. Some of the ways you could sort the data included: PPC Ranks & Bids, PPC Top Bids, Competitors, Keyword Suggestions, Bid Trend Charts, Recent Alerts, Google Competitors, and Google AdWords View. This information is displayed in ways that most other tools cannot, which makes this software a real drawcard for avid PPC users.

This software also had lots of other potentially useful tools for big PPC users. Some other functions include a cost calculator, an alert system if you need to modify your ad prices, as well as a Google AdWords ad builder where you can look at other people’s ads and then reformat those to suit your offering. This way you could glean ideas from other people’s ads instead of having to start from scratch.

Summary

So what did I end up with after using PPC Toolkit?

• Thousands of semi-relevant keywords with some demand data, as well as the PPC bid prices for Overture US, Overture UK, Miva, Xuppa, GoClick, Search Feed, Miva Uk, Miva Fr, AhHa, Kanoodle and Brainfox.

Strong Aspects

The strong points of this product:

• Offers some unique tools for PPC advertisers.
• Has a good phrase builder software built in.
• Many extras to cater for PPC advertisers.
• One of the few tools that allowed comparison across many of the major PPC companies.
• Good control over the presentation of the data.

Weak Aspects

The weak points of this product:

• Didn’t allow you to check search volume on data other than that of Overture (Yahoo! Search Marketing).
• Didn’t cater for other groups.
• Keyword mining was fairly limited.
• Not integrated and the workflow was a little hard to manage easily.
• Not very easy to sort out hot niche areas.

Who is it ideal for?

This tool is definitely designed for PPC advertisers. It is not trying to be all things to everyone and does a nice job at what it sets out to do. AdSense advertisers may also benefit as it will give quite a good indication of high priced keywords. However, it will not show actual AdSense data.

Rating

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

Site: Check Out PPC Toolkit Now!