Every marketer has a set of tool that he/she uses to manage their paid campaigns more effectively. Many gurus such as John Reese duly note that the more tools you have access to, the better chance you have to gaining a competitive edge over the folks who don’t have access to those tools. I am a firm believer of that. But obviously a lot of folks get a lot done with only one or two tools.

The tools that I use Use for my PPC campaigns:

Google Adwords Keyword Tool: Google Adwords‘ free keyword tool is the No. 1 keyword tool on the Internet without a doubt. The tool has been improved dramatically by Google, and when you add the Traffic Estimator and other tools available on your Adwords account, Google has one of the best PPC research tools in the market.

SEObook Keyword Toolset: Aaron wall, the legendary SEO expert, certainly knows how to create a keyword research toolset. This guy knows what it takes to be successful and has spent a lot of money to help his readers be successful as well. His SEO tools are great for PPC research as well.

Premium Keyword Research Tool: I do recommend that you get at least one premium keyword tool to complement your free tools. For a long time, I used WordTracker as my favorite keyword tool. But after using Wordze, I really see no reason to go back to WordTracker. Unless WordTracker makes big changes to its offering, Wordze will be my main tool for now. Keyword Discovery is another great tool if you have the cash to spend.

Competitive Intelligence Tools: competitive intelligence tools are very important for my PPC campaigns. These tools allow me to figure out what other people are doing, and what I can do better with my own campaigns. If you have reading my blog, you probably know my favorite too, SpyFu. But I also use Keyword Elite as a complementary tool.

There are many other tools that you can use to manage your PPC campaigns. Keep in mind that the above tools are mostly my keyword tools. I obviously use many analytics and testing tools to optimize my PPC campaigns. The key here is to don’t go overboard with these tools. There are just so many of them on the market. Just pick a couple that you feel are the best and master them so you can get the biggest bang for the buck. You can have all the tools in the world, but if you don’t use them, you are just wasting your money.