Wordwatch Software: PPC Adwords campaign managers heard of, tried, or actively using this?
-
I've been trialing WordWatch for about a month. I'll admit I've been skeptical from the start. I don't quite understand the results they're delivering or how it works.
So I did a search for "Wordwatch review" hoping someone out there could shed some light or help me decide whether this software was worth keeping. But all I can find are two suspicious and badly written posts, immediately raising red flags. (Penuguin should have eliminated crap sites using the Flesch-Kincaid reading level, but I digress.)
**Wordwatch premise: **They take over keyword bidding to maximize budgets and clicks. They monitor the Adwords campaign to find an "optimal" bid price. Two questions about this premise:
- How is it different than using the Google settings for optimize for clicks or conversions?
- Since Google Adwords is based on a Vickery auction, wouldn't lowering my bid only lower my position?
- Bearing everyone has the same QS, then lowering my bids to the range between 2 positions does not increase my actual cost.
I have Wordwatch enabled for a few of my campaigns. Their interface leaves a lot to be desired. They don't report the activity or the changes they make to the campaigns from the dashboard. I had to go into my Adwords Change History to track what they were doing. And lo and behold they're also adding long tail keywords to my ad groups.
Bottom line I didn't notice any huge impact, and I don't see how it's better than Google's own version of campaign settings. I don't know that they're really legit. But their marketing was so convincing, and they raised $1.4M that I need other opinions.
Any one with some pro/cons, or yay/nays?
-
We've been trialling WordMatch for around two weeks now and I am a bit suspicious as to whether or not any of what they do is actually automated, or if they are just outsourcing management to [insert low cost of living country here].
The only trend I can see by using, the 'Adword's Change History' is that every day they increase around 5 keywords, and then every third day, they decrease 3 words.
It all seems a little strange to me, as I would expect a lot more to be happening than this.
- Paul.
-
Hi Pashmina,
I'm currently going through a similar thought process to yourself.
I was wondering if you came to a conclusion about Wordtracker?
Anything would be useful!
Thanks - Alex
-
I'd be interested in seeing your reviews as well.
-
Thanks for posting this reply. I agree completely, it's a mistake to expect the supplier to volunteer the best price.
Did you ever publish your reviews for the other PPC software you mentioned above?
-
Pashmina-
We have been testing close to ten different PPC software solutions over the last 3 months and I will probably be releasing my findings in another month that hopefully will be useful to people. There is no one size fits all approach, so depending on what you specifically what you need and what you want to do, will determine what software makes the most sense. I am managing over $150k a month in PPC spend so what I need might be different then you....
Googles tools are solid tools that work. But there is a reason that all of these other companies are in business and selling software and collecting money from companies.....googles tools are free and if they were as good these other companies would be out of business. Googles tools are a little cumbersome and arent really user friendly but they get the job done. But there is one HUGE fundamental difference that no one seems to want to talk about. If you go to a car dealer and you want to negotiate the best deal on a car and you will spend up to $40,000, do you walk in and write them a check for $40k and tell them use your system to get me the best possible deal? NO WAY. But that is what you do with google. We cut them a check and load our ad accounts and then allow them to tell us how to optimize our bids. Fundamentally that is also enough to make you a little nervous and look for other tools......
Having said that we have tested the "wordwatch" system. (The fact that they raised $1.5 million is better than if they were broke but doesn't guarantee their success). This is what we have found so far:
- They have made some PPC changes related to normal analysis that has saved us some time. On average I am saving 2-3 hours of analysis a week because of the data and recommendations.
- Typically systems will make recommendations and require you to go in and make changes. Their system will actually go in and make them directly. (Good and bad news)
- Their negative keyword recommendations and long tail keywords have been helpful.
- Their GUI isn't great.
- Their dashboard is ok but the fact that it doesn't have an audit/change report is a weakness.
This system is a light system. If you are managing fairly simple campaigns in a business that is fairly stable and you didn't want to do any PPC work then this is a solid value for the cost....and there really is no risk with a month to month contract/pay as you go.
Let me give you another recommendation that is more expensive but more robust. wordstream. They also have a freemium trial. There are some things I dont like about the system but overall it is a powerful system and provides more tools and functionality than wordwatch and has worked well with our MCC system importing the data directly.....Worth comparing for you.......
Hope this helps.
Mark
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Adwords Express Placement and Explanation
I spoke with the adwords express rep about this, and he was extremely vague and unhelpful. So, I'd appreciate some assistance...even though it's a lot of questions. Whatever insights you can share to any portion of this, i would greatly appreciate. We setup an adwords express account, and we set our budget $50 over what Adwodrds Express says was our competitors average range. However, our ads only show up on the bottom right side of page 2. We are trying to figure out why that is? Are adwords express accounts only placed on the lower tier of PPC by definition? Will they always be on the bottom of a sidebar on the second page? Does it depend on how much we are willing to pay a month? So, if we double what we are willing to pay per month, will the ad move up? Also, it's not clear to me at all, how much we are being charged per click or how we are being billed. How are they determining what each click costs? Happy Friday and thanks in advance, Ruben
Paid Search Marketing | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Near-duplicate content for landing pages - use noindex?
We want to create 5-10 near-duplicates of our homepage to use as landing pages – nearly all same text, but some different images. We want to make sure Google doesn't ding us for duplicate content. Is the best way to do that to tag each of these pages with "noindex"?
Paid Search Marketing | | HopeIndu1 -
Adwords Search with Display select. Better ROI than just Adwords Search only?
What is your experience running Adwords Search with Display select? Are you getting a better ROI then just running Adwords Search only?
Paid Search Marketing | | marketvantageteam0 -
PPC Adwords Trademark Protection
Hi Wheres the form for filling in/registering your brand with Google for trademark protection in adwords ? I can only find an infringement/complaint form, which given no one currently infringing i imagine will be pointless filling it in. I understand its possible to register trademark with Google in the first place If someone can direct me to the exact page will be much appreciated ? Many Thanks Dan
Paid Search Marketing | | Dan-Lawrence1 -
Adwords Keyword Quality Score changes when keyword is paused
Today I was pausing a bunch of low quality score keywords for a client, the thing is, once I paused the keywords, the quality score would immediately change. For example, a number of keywords that had a QS of 3 while they were running, immediately changed to 1 once paused. Out of curiosity I un-paused one of them and it remained at 1. Has anyone else experienced this and/or have an explanation? Cheers
Paid Search Marketing | | David_ODonnell0 -
Redirecting AdWords Display URLs
I feel it's a best practice (from a user experience POV) to create a 301redirect when using a fictitious display URL in your PPC ads. And according to the AdWords help page (http://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=175906&rd=2) Google doesn't have an issue using a redirect. "Redirects used for tracking purposes are fine as long as the final landing page has the same domain as the display URL." I'm curious if there is ad score penalty if one does not ionclude a redirect - i.e. the user types in your display URL and gets a 404. Has anyone seen an evidence of this?
Paid Search Marketing | | legalseo0 -
Does increased adwords traffic boost your search engines rankings?
Does paying for 1cent low quality clicks give you more traffic that can be used to increase your search engine rankings?
Paid Search Marketing | | nutworkweb0 -
Keyword domains for AdWords - duplicate content an issue
Hi guys, A client of mine has bought a raft of keyword domains for use in an AdWords campaign. This isn't my area of expertise, hence the question. They have a hosting account which can host an unlimited number of domains. Can they set up the domains with the same content on each site and then use AdWords to drive traffic to the sites? I've suggested they can use rel="canonical" to specify that the preferred site is the main site of the company which should bypass the duplicate content issue. Is this the best way to host the sites or is there a better alternative? Thanks in advance, Brendan.
Paid Search Marketing | | brendanbelladesign0