PPC Bid Management Tools

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Permalink Reply by Terry Howard on February 24, 2009 at 1:40pm

I'm of the philosophy that nothing can match the human mind when it comes to weighing all the angles of managing a PPC campaign, and any tests of services and tools have lent themselves to supporting that concept. Can't really be of much help on that front.

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Permalink Reply by Sharon Swendner on February 24, 2009 at 2:45pm

Sorry to throw a kink in the discussion, but I disagree with Terry. No human can ever work as fast and efficiently as a machine programmed properly. We use Reach Local. While it has some challenges on the set up and management of campaigns, we have tested it against manual campaigns and see better results. I believe that is because the engine is adjusting real time minute by minute based on conversions that we define. Another really cool part of this software is that it tracks and records phone calls, so we can actually hear what people are asking and saying. My team is aware of Omniture and while they believe it is good, at least the last time they were quoted which was several years ago it was quite pricey. Hope that helps.

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Permalink Reply by Darin on February 24, 2009 at 10:04pm

I have used omniture for the past 4 years and I wouldn't suggest anything else.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Shollenberger on February 25, 2009 at 3:54pm

I appreciate all of your insights. It's interesting there are 3 distinct points of view on this:

1. PPC is best left in the hands of human decisions
2. Omniture is good but is not worth the high cost compared to other alternatives
3. Omniture is the only way to go, regardless of cost.

Anyone else care to offer a tiebreaker or weigh in? Thanks again.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Kinchen on February 26, 2009 at 12:13pm

The right answer is to visit each of these solutions and decide what is right for you based on your limitations, expectations and goals.

Omnitue is a great tool and may be worth the expensive depending on how much marketing you are doing and the budget you are working with.

We do not know the level of experience or the needs of the person that will happen upon this post.

For someone that may be on a tighter budget and does not need all the advance features Omniture has to offer then Reach Local may be the right tool for you. The telephone tracking features alone is worth the price campared to other entities that offer this same service but without the campaign management. Such as;

- telecapture.com
- callsource.com
- yourroiguy.com (local guy)

In reply to Terry, these automated tools can consolidate staff that can handle multiple client campaigns that can then weigh "all the angles of managing a PPC campaign". Sure nothing can match the human mind but it was a human mind that built these things in the first place. They do and will outperform you. It just sounds like you have not had the time to investigate this type of software.

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