There’s always a way to make things easier.

As a society, that belief has gotten us to where we are today. It’s the driving force behind modern technology. It’s the reason you can travel anywhere in the world in a matter of hours, that you can contact people wherever they are and do your grocery shopping without leaving the sofa.

The same is true for online advertising, thanks to PPC optimisation tools. It’s why features like automation are the future of PPC.

What is a PPC optimisation tool?

A PPC optimisation tool is a piece of software or programme that’s designed to make managing your campaigns easier and less time-consuming.

No two PPC optimisation tools are the same. They have different functions and usability depending on what part of your campaigns they are trying to optimise. For example, one tool might look at your keywords, identifying duplicates and keywords you might be missing. While another tool could track your Quality Score.

Don’t underestimate the power in this. A PPC optimisation tool isn’t convenient for convenience’s sake. It’s not like spending thousands to install an escalator in your home when you’re perfectly able to take the stairs.

They are essential pieces of software you need to get the best from your online advertising.

Why do you need a PPC optimisation tool?

PPC tools make managing your campaigns easier and less time-consuming.

The reason why you need a tool is down to its lead benefit. It saves you time. With more time, you’ll be able to:

• Get more of your jobs done
• Focus on the areas of your business that matter
• Implement new changes to deliver better results
• Strengthen your PPC strategies for maximum effect
• Improve your ROI

This is why we built Adzooma.

Back as a small agency, we wasted hours trying to find a better way to manage our own campaigns. But finding nothing on the market that would work for us, we built our own platform.

Fast forward a few years, and our hard work lead us to exclusive partnerships with Google, Facebook and Microsoft, and an all-in-one solution for online advertising that:

• Analyses accounts 24/7
• Generates personalised one-click optimisations
• Alerts you to important changes
• Makes adjustments on your behalf with automated rules
• Creates custom, white-label reports in minutes

Now, we think that our tool is the best but don’t just take our word for it. The rest of this article will give you all the information you need to help choose the best PPC tool for your business.

Check out our PPC software comparison page and see how Adzooma compares to other platforms.

Are there any alternatives to PPC tools?

There’s no one forcing you into using a PPC tool at all. You could do it all yourself of course. The downside of this is that it’s going to take you longer, so you need to consider if you’re okay with all this wasted time.

And yes, it is wasted if there are plenty of options available that will speed things up for you. This is time that you can invest elsewhere, helping your business grow to new levels.

Now, another alternative to PPC tools is outsourcing to a PPC agency.

As we’ve covered before, there are pros and cons to PPC agencies. The good parts are that you’ll definitely save time because they will do all the work for you. It also cuts out any steep learning curves as PPC will be something they can master in their sleep.

But the downsides are that you’re paying a lot of money to surrender control to a company that, ultimately, might not care about your results. It’s an expensive gamble and not always worth it.

And, to let you in on a secret, these companies will be using PPC tools to manage your ads. Want to cut out the middle man and do it all yourself? Here’s how to find the best PPC tool for your business.

The top 5 questions to ask before choosing a PPC optimisation tool

Before you get into the good stuff, you need to figure out what your business actually needs.

Yeah, it can be annoying but it’s really important information that will help you access the tools that you’ve got.

Start by thinking about what you do now and what your biggest time sinks are. Where can you save the most time?. Now decide what tools you need to make things quicker.

For example,  if most of your time goes on creating reports, you need a reporting tool. If most of your time goes on adjusting bids, you need a tool that will automatically do it for you. Nice and simple.

These are the kinds of features you need to look out for; the essentials. Anything else is a nice extra.

Right, now you’ve got your starting point in mind it’s time to assess what’s on the market with these questions.

1. What features do they offer?

So first things first, check what features they offer against your personal list of must-haves.

If they don’t make the cut, it’s not the right tool for you. If there are a couple of tools that do the essential features you need, work your way down the nice-to-have features to help narrow your selection.

For example, having a reporting feature to save you hours of your working week could be an essential must-have. But, campaign scheduling might not be that important to your company, making it a nice-to-have.

2. Does it work for your business?

There’s no point getting a tool designed to manage multiple, large accounts if you’re just using it for small campaigns for your freelance clients.

After taking a look at the features, make sure it’s designed to work for businesses of your size and level.

It’s something we understand at Adzooma. In fact, it’s part of our mission to make PPC software accessible to all. No ifs, buts or special cases. No matter your size or industry, we’ve got a solution for you.

But this isn’t just about us, even if I am a little biased.

If you’re a freelancer, these PPC tools are worth a look:

• Adalysis
• AdEspresso
• KlientBoost 
• Opteo 
• Optmyzr
• Squared.io
• WordStream

For enterprises, Adalysis, AdEspresso, Opteo, Optmyzer and Squared.io should still be on your list. But you should also consider Kenshoo and Spaceboost.

If you’re an SME, you’re in luck. As our comparison table shows, all the leading PPC tools will have the functionality available for your business.

3. How much support do they offer?

If you want to make the best use out of your PPC software, you’ve got to know that all your questions and problems will be answered and solved. That’s why you need to check out the level of support on offer.

The type of support is also important. If you like physically getting on the phone and talking things through, you might be surprised at how little tools offer this. By our count, it’s only Kenshoo, Kilentboost and WordStream that have got you covered.

Nearly everyone will offer online support, emails or product tutorials to help ease you into the platform. And without appearing too sales-y, you can get in touch with us at Adzooma any way that you prefer.

Disappointingly, Squared.io offer none. If you’ve got a problem, I’m not sure how you would get in touch. Perhaps send them a carrier pigeon?

4. How much does it cost?

Price is a big one here.

Your PPC tool has got to be worth the investment for what it does. Break it down rationally, let’s say it can save your team a day every week. How much is that day worth?

If it improves your campaigns, how much are these improvements worth?

If they’re worth the cost of the tool, great. Continue. If not, then there’s not really much point in you using it. It’s like buying a £3000 sit-down lawnmower to cut a tiny piece of grass that you can’t even get the lawnmower on.

The bottom line: if it doesn’t fit in your budget, it’s not right for your company.

To make things a tad easier for you, we’ve found out the lowest prices on offer from each company.

5. Do they offer a free trial?

The most important thing you can do when choosing a PPC tool is to test it yourself.

It’s alright selling it with all the bells and whistles and promises that you can muster. But unless you physically use the tool, it’s impossible to know how it actually works with your business.

Most tools have at least a 7 or 14-day free trial of the product, apart from Kenshoo and KlientBoost. But they at least offer a demo of the product, so that’s something.

For PPC optimisation – is Adzooma worth it?

PPC optimisation tools are designed to save you time. But that only works if you choose the tools that work for your company and speed up your management process. If you follow the tips above, you’ll be on your way to a winner in no time.

To help you achieve that, it’s worth trying the complete Adzooma platform for free. For a whole 30 days, you will have full access to every single feature – including our automation tool – so you can find out first-hand how much of a difference it can make to your campaigns.

Ready to get started?

Grab your free trial of Adzooma today.