Breakdown of popular tools in the PPC industry across categories including 3rd party management, competitive research, call tracking, reporting, conversion rate optimization, and more!

3. About Me

4. About Me – Avalaunch Media

5. Why a Paid Tools Presentation?
Tools make us more valuable (time)
Few are talking about them
Tools compliment the platforms
Which tools are worth it? Which are not?

6. Tools for Every Skill Level
BingAds Editor
Adwords Editor
Google Keyword Tool
Excel Google Analytics

7. What are we NOT going to hit on?
Free tools: Excel, Editor, Keyword Planner
Customer Relationship Management
Project Management
Giving an in-depth summary of
each tool, features, pricing, etc
Every tool out there

11. Who was surveyed?
Q1 – Where do you work?
Freelance/Independent - 7
Agency - 22
In-House - 8

12. Who was surveyed?
Q2 – What is the average size account
you work with? (in monthly spend)
Less than
$2,000
$2,001 to
$10,000
$10,001 to
$50,000
$50,001 to
$200,000
$200,000+
5
9
10
11
2

14. Which categories of tools are most popular?
Competitive Research - 23
Third Party Management Software - 17
Call Tracking - 17
Conversion Rate Optimization - 12
Landing Page Creation/Testing - 10
Data Feed Management - 9
Reporting - 9
Social PPC Tools - 6
Budgets - 4
Ad Optimization - 2
Keyword Research - 0

15. Most popular – Agency
Competitive Research - 16
Third Party Management Software - 13
Call Tracking - 13
Conversion Rate Optimization - 7
Reporting - 6
Landing Page Creation - 6
Social PPC Tools - 5
Data Feed Management - 5
Ad Optimization - 2
Keyword Research - 2
Budgets - 1

16. Most popular – Freelance/Independent
Competitive Research - 5
Third Party Management Software - 4
Landing Page Creation/Testing - 3
Budgets- 3
Call Tracking - 2
Conversion Rate Optimization - 2
Reporting - 2
Data Feed Management - 2
Ad Optimization - 1
Social PPC Tools - 1
Keyword Research - 0

17. Most popular – In-House
Conversion Rate Optimization - 3
Data Feed Management - 2
Competitive Research- 2
Call Tracking - 2
Budgets - 1
Reporting - 1
Landing Page Creation/Testing - 1
Third Party Management Software - 1
Social PPC Tools - 0
Ad Optimization - 0
Keyword Research - 0

18. Agency VS Freelance Vs In-House
Very little difference in tools between them
Competitive research maintained a high position
CRO and LP Testing were more important for
Freelance and In-House

19. Most popular – Large Agencies
Third Party Management Software - 10
Competitive Research - 9
Call Tracking - 7
Social PPC Tools - 4
Data Feed Management - 3
Reporting - 3
Landing Page Creation/Testing - 3
Conversion Rate Optimization - 2
Ad Optimization - 1
Keyword Research - 1
Budgets - 1

20. Most popular – Small Agencies
Competitive Research - 7
Call Tracking - 6
Ad Optimization - 5
Third Party Management Software - 4
Reporting - 3
Landing Page Creation/Testing - 3
Data Feed Management - 2
Social PPC Tools - 1
Ad Optimization - 1
Keyword Research - 1
Budgets- 1

21. Large Agency VS Small Agency
No matter the size of the accounts managed, the
tools used were nearly identical
3rd Party Management Tools were the exception
CRO completely missing from Small Agencies

22. Which category provides the most value?
Third Party Management Software - 6
Reporting - 3
Conversion Rate Optimization - 3
Social PPC Tools - 2
Call Tracking - 1
Landing Page Creation/Testing - 1
Data Feed Management - 1
Keyword Research - 1
Budgets - 1

23. Has you or your company built their own tool?
No – We have not built our own tool - 9
Reporting - 7
Third Party Management Software - 1
Ad Optimization - 1
Keyword Research - 1
Budgets - 1

24. Value & Custom Built Tools
Tools that provide the most value are TIME savers
Most popular = competitive research, but no one
said competitive research provided the most value
Reporting tools are by far the most common built

26. Category Breakdown
3rd Party Management Software
PRICING: % OF SPEND & FLAT RATE
• Starts at a few hundred dollars
• Most will push you towards a contract
WHAT MAKES IT WORTH IT?
"Acquisio provides the most value since it's
able to mirror/scale bid rules and reporting
insights across multiple channels.
Bid Management
Cross Platform Management
Automate Some Tasks
Customized Reporting
Custom Alerts

27. Category Breakdown
Social PPC Tools
PRICING: % OF SPEND & FLAT RATE
• Starts at a few hundred dollars
• Most require contracts
"The most value comes from AdStage. LinkedIn campaigns can
be such a pain to manage and track conversions in and
AdStage solves all of that. Even though it doesn't do nearly as
much as some of the major tools, this definitely has the
greatest impact on my day to day job."
WHAT MAKES IT WORTH IT?
Cross Platform Management
Social PPC focus
Automate Tasks, like Bidding
Customized Reporting
Custom Alerts

28. Category Breakdown
Call Tracking
PRICING: FLAT RATE
• Starts at less than $50
• Pay for quantity of numbers
and minutes used
"Call Rail provides reports and post phone call notifications.
That provides a reminder that the client's PPC budget is
delivering leads. It's a nice reminder that we are delivering
results that mean cold hard cash to the client, not just quality
score improvements."
WHAT MAKES IT WORTH IT?
Record and listen to calls
Tie keywords to calls
Dynamically insert numbers
Import calls as goals into Analytics

29. Category Breakdown
Competitive Research
PRICING: FLAT RATE
• Starts at less than $100
“Burgers”
WHAT MAKES IT WORTH IT?
See competitors keywords, ads
budgets and placements
Get new keyword ideas
See overlap of competitors terms
Estimate budgets for new markets

30. Category Breakdown
Reporting
PRICING: FLAT RATE
• Starts at less than $100
WHAT MAKES IT WORTH IT?
Cross platform and automated reports
Integration of Analytics and Call Tracking
Some tools offer budget tracking
Some tools offer white-label dashboards
“Ninja cat helps us do what used to
take hours in minutes! We get all the
data from Adwords, BingAds,
Callrail, and Analytics in one place.”

31. Category Breakdown
Rate Optimization
PRICING: FLAT RATE
• Starts at less than $100
"Optimizely, because CRO."
WHAT MAKES IT WORTH IT?
Many types of tests; a/b, multi-
variate, split URL, geographic, etc.
Minimal IT help
Heatmaps & Clickmaps

32. Category Breakdown
Landing Page Creation/Testing
PRICING: FLAT RATE + ADDONS
• Start at less than $100
• Pay for more users, quantity
of traffic, new URLs
"Unbounce. The ability to create, modify,
and test landing pages is a huge part of
our success as an organization."
WHAT MAKES IT WORTH IT?
Build landing pages without IT help
Pages are responsive
A/B and split URL test
Create templates for later use

33. Category Breakdown
Data Feed Management
PRICING: FLAT RATE
• Starts at less than $50
"We've recently started using Feedonomics for shopping
feed management and it has been invaluable in getting
clean feeds setup. Previously we were running custom
programming on sites to generate a feed that was at
best a rough reflection of the site content and in no
way optimized for ads."
WHAT MAKES IT WORTH IT?
Data feed management
Integration with Comparison
Shopping Engines
Integration with Marketplaces
Feed monitoring

34. Takeaways with Tools
Each tool category provides its own value
Some tool categories overlap; reporting, CRO
Contract length and volume can get you a lower price

35. Paid PPC Tools Conclusion
Tools will save you time
The right combination of tools varies from situation to
situation
Comp. research, phone tracking, & 3rd party
management are by far the most common
Social PPC tools will rise