I like KeywordMax since it can be used on most engines not just the top 3.

It also can be tied to ROI numbers etc.

[I worked at Efficient Frontier until recently, so my opinion is biased in that direction, but I also have knowledge of many of the other tools for what it's worth.]

My thoughts on the below:

1. SearchRev - recently sold to AKQA. If you follow the history of acquisitions in this space, you'll notice that post-acquisition, the tool/SEM provider immediately turns inward to service internal/pre-existing demand the acquirer brings to the table. That was the case with GoToast/AtlasSearch, BidBuddy, ResolutionMedia, Reprise, etc. SearchRev claimed to have developed groundbreaking technology that tests every possible variable in a search campaign. But if that was the ideal way to optimize a search campaign, why would they sell at such a low price and so early in the lifecycle? Their business timeline IMO:

a)While working at Yahoo, the founders realized Yahoo didn't know how to manage its search campaigns (call that Semel-itis).

b)Founders sign a couple Y! business units to their fledgling startup and then realize they need a solution.

c)To build a solution, they realize they need $$. Hence they think up a technology spin, hence 'test every variable'. That approach, incidentally, is analogous to 4th graders adding up 24 17 times for lack of knowing how to do multiplication.

d)Once VC money's in hand, they start selling PPC dreams to marketers, many of whom know little and expect much.

***Still no solution***

e)12-18 months in, they start to realize the only business they're winning is with their pants around their ankles, and the desperate fire sale begins.

f)Enter wise AKQA who buys at the right moment = The Breaking Point.

This, IMO, is what you get when VC money is too plentiful and an industry has too much demand for suppliers.

2. SearchFeed - SearchFeed is a tier III ppc network, not a tool, so don't know why they're on the list.

3. SearchIgnite - Because VC's are awash with money and because search is the new Comstock gold mine, lots of firms have been getting funded in the SEM space. SearchIgnite/360i falls into that category; to their credit they have gotten to know search well these past two years, but IMO they are essentially trying to be a me-too to Efficient Frontier's relatively dominant position (in terms of spend under mgmt). They claim 'portfolio optimization' capabilities (with wording that was probably plagiarized from EF), but IMO when anyone other than Efficient Frontier talks about applying a portfolio approach to keyword management, what they mean is simply applying a rule(s) to a bucket of keywords and hoping that a human can tease a little more performance out of a few head-end keywords by hand. So if SearchIgnite sounds good, then I'd recommend the longer-running, larger, more global firm that they patterned themselves after, EF.

4. KeywordMax - admittedly I know very little about this tool, but what I do know is that in 4 years of working with and talking to 100's of top 1000 PPC advertisers, I've *never once* heard of any one of them using KeywordMax, other than in the past. That means what it means.

5. Apex - same of (4) but I've never even heard of anyone using them in the past. Their client list on their site doesn't contain a single well-known brand (except SaronicNet Promotions, of course)

6. Atlas Search - formerly GoToast, this is the Granddaddy of rules-based bid management tools. Congrats to the GoToast team for having gotten aftern the opportunity early and built a large install base, and congrats to Aquantive for having gotten $6B from Microsoft. All the hugging done? Great, 'cause rules-based bid management tools don't actually *optimize* campaigns. It might appear on the surface to be a passable SEM solution: it's available as a self-service ASP model which advertisers and agencies like, and works across all major search engines. Beautiful, splendid! Spend a little time reading their Atlas Search product brochure, however, and two deal-breakers emerge:

1) They admit it doesn’t work in opaque marketplaces. Check out the ** on page 3 of the product brochure (wherein on the right column they describe Campaign Optimizer, their ROI-based automated management feature) and the associated disclaimer at the bottom of page 3, which reads:

“Automated campaign optimization does not apply to engines with opaque bid landscapes.”

Given that 100% of the U.S. search market is now opaque (and 90%+ of the int'l market), that, folks, is all you should need to flush them out of the SEM consideration water. [Because virtually all SEM's are rules-based solutions, you should apply their admission to others as well.]

7. Omniture - SearchCenter is their keyword management product, and all I said about rules-based systems in (6) applies to them as well, on top of which the tool requires use of SiteCatalyst. If you need something other than an administrative dash board (ie - optimization, better ROI thru math, ROI modeling, etc) then IMO keep looking.

8. Google - Adwords Conversion Optimizer
I've seen 10-15 blog reports on what the tool's done in terms of ROI, and <50% of the stories are positive. Some are, though, and I definitely expect this tool to get better over time. But as a lead gen firm who spends $5-10M/year on AdWords told me today, he really doesn't want Google seeing his conversion data because *he's just too dependent on their traffic already*. Sound familiar?

9. Yahoo - Campaign Optimization - dude, I just caughed while drinking coffee when I saw (9). The only place Y!'s C.O. gets much usage is Korea and Japan, markets where Y! Search has >50% marketshare and where the U.S./European tools providers haven't really touched yet. All you need to know is this - C.O. was built for Yahoo's *old* system, not the new [Panama] opaque, yield-based ranking system they've been using since mid-last year. I don't know of anyone in the U.S. or Europe who's using it.

10. MSN - AdCenter - same as (2). AdCenter's a PPC engine, not a management platform.

I would add two firms to the above list:

Efficient Frontier - $500M in spend under management across 3 continents, and 80+ of the top 1000 PPC advertisers. Why? They do cross-keyword portfolio optimization, which is to rules-based optimization as a Bugatti is to a Puch moped. If you spend $50K-$1M+/mo, EF should *always* be in your top 3 list because they've proven ROI lift and admin value for dozens of PPC's most prominent advertisers. Keep in mind, though, that they're more of a mananaged service than a tool. They do have a self-service tool (Express), and it brings the same portfolio algorithm optimization to the table, sans much of the administrative interface other tools have.

Marin Software - Whereas EF is a great technology delivered as a managed service, Marin is a self-service keyword management system that your own person/people could operate.I'm intrigued with Marin Software's solution and feel like it might be the first self-service solution that a) automates well; b) works on Google; and c) provides lift. CEO was COO at Adteractive previously, VP Product owned Siebel's SaaS CRM solution, and VP Engineering has tons of relevant experience building systems to manage the volumes of data large keyword campaigns entail. Worth looking at, and their newness might actually be an advantage - no baggage.

DART Search - when I was at EF, DART Search was by far my biggest competitor in the big accounts that mattered. While I'm confident their optimization technology is rules-based and hence unworthy, they've been at search for 5+ years, have executed well, and are a quality bunch of people both pre and post-sale.

I hope I educate more than I offend #:^)

I'd say thumbs down to Atlas

Thumbs up to KW max for being inexpensive, tracking well and not getting in the way especially for smaller advertisers.

Most anything rules based doesn't really work but with better assumptions and by looking at the real constraints in the PPC systems, they could work better.

The problem with every system out there is that it only focuses on bids and doesn't do anything to optimize for people.

After reviewing a bunch of systems recently, Search Advisor will probably be our choice.

If they can get a critical mass of conversion data, the people at Google will probably be able to top everything. Just as there is no "average person", there is no "average PPC campaign" since there are so many variables that differ between sites & campaigns and depending on the approach they take, it may never really work.

The whole space needs a little outside of the box thinking, IMHO.

In a perfect world, I think you'd have Omniture (analytics)or something like it, maybe with an EF front end (never actually seen that system first hand but if it works as promised, then that), combined with some extra special sauce that could beat the pants off anything in the marketplace.

a few weeks ago i saw a demo of Kenshoo. They're relatively new to 'the space' but i've never seen any cross-engine PPC managent software that looks so good, is so intuitive and is obviously built by people who really understand search.

why we are not using it: the pricing model doesn't work for us, especially considering you're only buying a technology, not campaign managent expertise. You can still run a very bad campaign with excellent technology.

We believe that we have the expertise in-house to run good campaigns and Kenshoo's expensive, inflexible pricing model didn't allow us to test whether or not the improvements we could get from using their system would actually exceed the costs.

But as i said, i think it's probably better value for money than something like Dart.

(disclaimer: I have no relationship whatsoever to the companies mentioned)

Hey skibum, will you comment on why you said “rules based doesn't really work”. What if the rule is to bid to a certain ROI at the adgroup level (which applies the ROI setting to thightly grouped keywords)? Then you can test at different ROI levels, compare the results to overall profit and optimize accordingly. Is there a flaw to this plan, or does it fall outside your definition of rules based bidding?

I called Search Advisor and they said that their system would not work for us because our revenue and profit margins are not consistent.

I've worked with a good deal of the services mentioned, but have had the best results with tools and services offered by MakeMeTop - specifically their Roi-testing.com solution, which has some fantastic bid management and strategy options. On top of that, their willingness to build customized services and listen to suggestions have been better that I've experienced with any other ppc/bid management software providers.

It's a matter of needs versus money versus time I guess. They all offer to handle ppc, but their abiluty to deliver is very different imo.

[edited by: Rumbas at 2:48 pm (utc) on Dec. 30, 2007]

KeywordThinkTank - give it a try. It's still a beta, but quite usable. A major update is coming up.