A while ago I had a chance to try PPC Web Spy by Brad Callen. It’s the latest innovative piece of software that allows you to complete your PPC market research without having to leave your browser (you can read about my early thoughts here). I was pretty impressed with the original release, but things have changed a bit in the past few weeks, and an updated review is in order. PPC Web Spy can be very useful in the right hands. But you wouldn’t know that if you didn’t know what you were getting with the software.

PPC Web Spy Review

PPC Web Spy is an innovative software solution that allows you to spy on your pay per click competitors without too much fuss. If you have been involved in the Internet marketing business, you have probably realized by now that the cost of doing business through PPC has been rising. You are probably stuck with a bunch of keywords that are not driving traffic to your website. And those keywords which bring traffic to your website do not convert well, leaving you with hefty PPC bills and nothing to really show for it.

If you have been in business for a while, you at least know which keywords do not work for you. If you are planning to promote a product from scratch, you are going to have to come up with a keyword list and probably go through a trial and error period to optimize your campaigns and find keywords that provide you with the biggest bang for the buck.

The best way to find keywords that actually do work is by monitoring folks who are making money online from pay per click marketing. And how do you go about finding these folks? Simple. By tracking who’s displaying ads online over a period of time. Once you find these guys, you can use their keywords as your own and join them in making money online.

PPC Web Spy is designed for folks who use Adwords heavily. The software enables you to see the exact keywords that Adwords advertisers are using to drive traffic to their websites. PPC Web Spy not only allows you to conduct market research fast, but also create large keywords lists to drive even more traffic to your website. Here is what Web Spy allows you to discover about other advertisers:

• Adwords ads
• Cost per click
• Average Ad Ranks
• Average Daily Spent

This information is very powerful as you can figure out how much your competitors are spending everyday and how much bang for the buck they are getting by keeping their ads at a specific position on Google (that’s right! Being the No. 1 advertiser on Google may not be the best idea).

One of the best features about PPC Spy is that you can find out exactly the landing page that is used by your competitors. This is extremely valuable as you can find out how many landing pages your competitors are testing and how you can use that information to increase your own conversions.

PPC Web Spy comes in 4 versions. You can get the standard version for free. The paid version are gold and platinum. These versions provide you with a more complete list of keywords that other advertisers are using to drive traffic to their websites.

Verdict: B+.

PPC Web Spy is a great tool for PPC marketers who are addicted to Google Adwords. Google Adwords is the best traffic driver, but it would be nice to see the same features on Yahoo! and MSN. Also the free versions are pretty limited in what they do. The gold and platinum version are a little bit pricey but they allow you to make money on the side from affiliate products. PPC Web Spy is a great little tool that makes doing market research easy, but at the end of the day, you need to sit down and analyze the data.