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As a local business owner, you should be focusing your marketing efforts on driving traffic to your website. Pay per click advertising is one of the fastest way to get quality traffic but if you want to build a successful PPC campaign for your small business then there's no need to go it alone.
There are plenty of websites, apps and tools out there that can make a real difference to helping you successfully generate clicks and more importantly sales and which can save you a lot of time and frustration. These can help with everything from choosing your keywords, to testing your most successful combinations to creating display ads. And we're not just talking about Google here either – these tools can similarly help you whether you're looking to create Facebook ads or ads for Bing.
Here we will look at 11 of the very best PPC tools that we think are pretty much essential for your success. No matter your niche or your strategy, these will help you to create ads that get clicked and to waste less time chasing down keywords that no-one is interested in.
1. Local Keyword Generator (5minutesite.com/local_keywords.php)
Local Keyword Generator is a tool that comes from 5minutesite.com and which allows you to generate local keywords… as the name kind of suggests. Enter your desired keyphrase along with a city name, zip code or radius and let the generator do its work! Local businesses have a big advantage when it comes to AdWords and similar platforms as they will be fighting for a far less crowded niche and can be very exact in their choice of keywords. This tool will help ensure you don't squander that advantage!
2. SplitTester (splittester.com)
Split Testing is the definition of 'essential' when it comes to success in the world of PPC – too bad then that it takes a lot of time. SplitTester allows you to extrapolate the likely long-term performance of two different ads from short-term data in order to help you choose the best long-term choice.
3. BidCops (bidcops.com)
BidCops is designed to help you track down money-wasting keywords and to then provide you with effective alternatives that should increase your traffic and conversions. Sometimes it's more important to get rid of the keywords that are slowing you down rather than to hunt for even more to add to your campaign.
4. SEMRush (semrush.com)
SEMRush allows you to spy on your competitors which might sound sneaky but everyone's doing it! Just enter the address of your competitor's site and you'll get AdWords ad copy, key words, CPC and loads of other juicy details.
5. KeyWord Spy (keywordspy.com)
KeyWord Spy is a great tool again for checking out what the competition is up to. This way you can see who is spending what on PPC, what keywords they're targeting and more. Did you know for instance that Amazon spend over a million dollars a day sometimes on their AdWords? Whether you want to try and beat your competition at their own game, or you're looking to get inspiration for your own keywords, then Keyword Spy can be very helpful. They offer a premium account (which is well worth it) but you can get a lot out the free features as well so it's worth checking out.
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6. WordHippo (wordhippo.com)
WordHippo is a synonym or antonym generator which is very useful for mixing up your keywords as well as your negative keywords. Could a Thesaurus do the same job? Sure, but it's nice to have something convenient and build especially for PPC. And it’s free!
7. Facebook’s Suggested Likes and Interests (facebook.com)
PPC isn't just about Google, Facebook is also a big player in this field. Suggested Likes and Interests is again a tool that does what it says on the tin. Found on Facebook, you can use this to get suggestions for the most common likes and interests that can then allow you to show your ads to only the most targeted Facebook users.
8. ROI Calculator (tools.seobook.com)
Wouldn't it be nice if you knew whether or not your PPC campaign was going to pay off before you invested all of your hard-earned cash into it? With ROI calculator you can (in most cases) do exactly that. Enter the monthly clicks and estimated average cost per click along with some details and you'll get a convenient estimated ROI for any given ad. Sure, it's just a bit of basic math that you could probably do yourself, but it's definitely handy having it conveniently built-in like this.
9. JUMBO Keyword (jumbokeyword.com)
JUMBO Keywords can help you to edit and clean up your keywords with a single click and also has an Ad-Maker for testing copy and placements to see what your ads are going to look like. You can also save your configurations in a useful .txt file which
10. Google Web Designer (google.com/webdesigner)
If you're looking to create flashy HTML5 display ads, then you need Google Web Designer. Google Web Designer makes it easy to add animations and interactive elements to your banners which really grab attention and which can help to encourage interaction, engagement and clicks. This is also a great tool that can be used for a range of other applications and which is generally useful for learning the ropes of HTML5. As it's completely free, it's definitely worth downloading and trying out for yourself!
11. AdWord Editor (google.com/adwordseditorÂ)
Perhaps the most essential tool of all though is still Google's own AdWord Editor which makes it as easy as possible to create your ads and gives you all the tools you could possibly need right from the guys who brought you AdWords themselves. This might not be an exciting choice to end off the list, but there's no denying that it's certainly essential for almost any PPC campaigns.
And there you have it! Eleven tools that can go a long way to helping you target more effective keyphrases and optimize your campaigns to be as effective as possible. These tools will make your display ads more beautiful, your Facebook ads more targeted and your PPC more effective.
But remember: good tools will not make up for a poor strategy to begin with! Make sure that you are approaching these tools with the best strategy in mind and that you use a little common sense in the mix as well.