Back in August, I wrote about PPC Management Software, and my uphill struggle to find a really good PPC software provider. Well, after a few months of trawling the web and trying various options out, I've found a program that works exactly the way PPC software really should work: Kazaam from Israeli firm Kenshoo.
A gentleman by the name of Etai Rosen spotted my plea for help and got in touch to show me through Kenshoo's system, and I was completely blown away. In the training sessions since that initial sales session, and using it since the training, I could swear it's reading my mind and getting better. And there's a new version due out any minute that fixes just about every little gripe and problem I have found so far, and even adds the biggest feature currently missing from their offering.
So what's good about it ... well, it has the ability to import an XML file, daily and automatically from a URL. Awesome - that takes care of my product lists, special offers and so on. Other providers seemed to trip up on this point frequently.
There's a great system of bid policies - you set and forget (to a degree). Bids can be raised and lowered, bad keywords weeded out, all based on pre-set metrics, including an average CPA, and/or actual conversion data.
Copying campaigns from one engine to another takes 5 clicks.
A huge selection of highly automated keyword generators, some smarter than others but all interesting.
The objective appears to be to automate, as far as possible, the PPC process, and in that regard I think they've succeeded admirably. The whole system appears to be able to take control of most of the day to day tasks involved with running PPC campaigns.
It's early days yet but so far I'm very impressed. Things may change, of course, but I'll keep you posted!
18 Comments
Good Luck Dude! Let me know how it goes, keep us updated! The PPC Management vertical is due for a revamp and if they can help in making a change, it would be a great thing! Glad you found something that seems to work for you!
#1, Thomas, Unknown, 17 December 2007. Reply to this.
If you're looking for a time tested PPC Bid Management software then download a 30 Day FREE Trial of PPC BidMax 4.0.
PPC BidMax allows you to manage all of your Google, Yahoo! and MSN campaigns under the one simple and easy to use interface. You can import accounts across search engines, set and forget bid strategies, schedule bids, change settings all the way from account to keyword level, create new ad creatives within the software AND can take a CSV (or similar text file) sent over FTP and make the relevant API calls to add, pause and delete campaigns, ad groups, ads and keywords!
It does a whole lot more than this too! The Corporate Version is specifically designed for PPC Agencies and has comprehensive reporting features and project and client management tools to help you deliver a cost effective and efficitent service to your clients.
My name is Barbara Mesar and I am the Sales and Marketing Manager at Apex Pacific. Email me at marketing@apexpacific.com for a FREE Online Demonstration of PPC BidMax! or visit http://www.apexpacific.com to download the 30 Day Free Trial.
#2, Barbara Mesar, Australia, 17 December 2007. Reply to this.
I am not a PPC guru but I don't see any goods in a set and forget strategy in PPC. It needs modifications and optimizations often, definitely not a set and forget thing.
#3, Alex, Unknown, 20 December 2007. Reply to this.
Alex, I agree with your statement. PPC campaigns and strategies need to be monitored very closely to ensure maximum success.
PPC BidMax is not a tool that is designed for users to set their campaigns and walk away from them. Rather it is designed to give you greater control of your campaigns while managing them in a more efficient and cost effective way.
What I mean by "set and forget" bidding strategies above is that PPC BidMax offers you the choice to set a certain bidding strategy (eg. bid above determined competitor URL) and allow the program to bid to this strategy for you through the automated scheduling feature, until such time as you feel it necessary to change you bidding tactic.
At which time you can then modify your settings for one or a number of keywords.
There are three levels of control to the program:
1. Manual - users can manage their keyword bid settings, campaigns and ad creatives etc manually without any automated control from the program.
2. Semi-Automated - Users can perform some tasks manually (eg. generate reports) and elect that the prgram does the other tasks on the users behalf based on the pre-determined settings (eg. regular bid updates)
3. Fully Automated - the user can set keyword, report, campaign, account and ad settings and allow the program to update bids based on these settings until such time the user feels these settings need to be changed to maintain a successful campaign.
I hope the above has clarified my previous post better.
Regards
#4, Barbara Mesar, Australia, 21 December 2007. Reply to this.
Any information about cost.
Does it push keywords with their associated URLs to all Yahoo, Msn and Google?
Does it help u in any way to figure out a minimum bid to keep ur link to the top 3-4 positions?
Thanks
#5, David, Unknown, 29 December 2007. Reply to this.
PPC BidMax 4.0 is a subscription product which can be purchased on a monthly or yearly basis. There are three versions varying in the amount of keywprds and accounts that can be managed. Extra keywords can also be purchased:
1. Standard - Designed for beginners to PPC who manage up to 5 accounts in each search engine and up to 500 keywords in each account. Price starts from US$45.60 with our current 20% Off Promotion
2. Professional - Designed for larger PPC advertisers and PPC Professionals offering PPC management as a service. You can manage up to 25 Accounts and 5000 keywords in each search engine. Prices start from US$120.00 per month at the current 20% Off Promotion.
3. Corporate - Designed for the PPC Agency or PPC Service provider. Has extensive reporting and project management features including an Issues Management section so that issues with client accounts can be managed. This version also has a networking feature where it allows you to share information between team members on client accounts. Price is US$799.20 per month based on 20% Off Promotion.
What do you mean by your second question?
Yes, there are bidding strategies that you can choose and one in particular allows you to choose which position you want PPC BidMax to bid for you to attaing based on your Max CPC. There are various other bidding strategies also such as always bidding above a competitors URL.
You can download a trial version at http://www.apexpacific.com/download.html
You can also contact me for more information at barbara@apexpacific.com
#6, Barbara Mesar, Australia, 8 January 2008. Reply to this.
For all those reading about Apex PPC BidMax 4.0, it is a good piece of software but lacks many needed things that a heavy PPC advertiser looks for.
I noticed the software hung quite often causing my PC to lock down when doing updates to the PPC api services (Google and Yahoo).
Another thing I did not like is you only get so many words with your subscription. And, then you have to make sure you are in the good graces of the PPC engines (Google Yahoo etc) to allow you more api service calls than normal.
I noticed on the previous version of Bid Max it was not optimizing the service calls to Google; Google provides a function to pull down a list of keywords and their stats, and BidMax was pulling each keyword down seperately - this was wasting my api service call credits. When tech support from Apex contacted me they said the api call was optimized :( I guess Google was somehow miscalculating how many credits I wasted... :(
When it came to support from Apex, the support was slow to respond (they are in Australia). When I emailed in and told them that I was no longer using the software and to cancel my subscription they ignored my emails and phone calls. Only after I called American Express and ask them to reverse the fees did someone (I am thinking it was Barbara herself) call me during normal USA business hours to discuss. In the end they did give credit and offered to try the new version of the software for so many days.
I personally couldn't handle the mess of the software, like Alex, finding a great PPC software is hard to do for "major players".
I am somewhat out of the PPC advertising thing for the time being but I will give Kenshoo a look Alex.
Thanks for the post.
#7, Elvis, Unknown, 15 January 2008. Reply to this.
Elvis,
Thank you for your feedback on our software.
Many of those points you mentioned have been addressed over recent months and we are now in the final stages of developing a new version PPC BidMax 5.0. due out later this year.
Also, just to quickly add that all enquiries that we recieve from clients are responded to within 24hours if you happen to reach us out of office hours. I am not sure what happened in your specific case however many clients like yourself comment that no responses were recieved to their emails.
Generally we find after we do manage to eventually contact the client that our emails went into their Junk Mail folder and was deleted after 7 days of sitting there or they left an unclear message on our machine where are unable to accurately hear your phone number or contact details and thus really cannot get back to them until they contact us again.
We try to maintain very high customer service standards however sometimes we need the clients help to do so.
#8, Barbara Mesar, Australia, 16 January 2008. Reply to this.
Can you give us an idea on pricing for Kenshoo?
#9, Leo, United States, 26 February 2008. Reply to this.
Leo: For us, Kenshoo is very competetive.
David: Yes, it pushes to all the engines. Copying a campaign from one to another is about 4 clicks.
#10, Dave Child, United Kingdom, 26 February 2008. Reply to this.
Dave,
Have you heard anything about Click Tracks? Also, I'm having a hard time getting in touch with Kenshoo. Is there something I'm missing (other than good old fashioned persistence)? Thanks in advance.
#11, Leo, United States, 28 February 2008. Reply to this.
Meant to say Double Click, not Click Tracks.
#12, Leo, United States, 28 February 2008. Reply to this.
Hi Leo, please feel free to drop me a line to andrey.shirben@kenshoo.com and I'll direct the right person to reply to you swiftly.
Regards,
Andrey Shirben
#13, Andrey Shirben, Israel, 16 March 2008. Reply to this.
Does anyone know of a software package that can optimize you account for Return On Ad Spend. This is vital for e-commerce PPC. This number is total profit/total spend (if you use total revenue provided by the search engines you do not get a real percentage). If your profit is $100 and your spend is $100 you ROAS = 100% you are breaking even. As long as your ROAS is 101% or higher you are making $$$ and your PPC is free.
Both Google and Yahoo can tell you what this number is (although it is based on total revenue, you just have to figure out what ROAS you need based upon your profit margin) but they cannot optimize for this number.
I have yet to find any software that optimizes a PPC account for ROAS.
I am surprised at the number of online retailers that don?t even understand the concept. This is the number that determines how much money you take to the bank.
Any thoughts let me know.
Terry
email me if you like terry50@nc.rr.com
#14, Terry Stanfield, Unknown, 21 March 2008. Reply to this.
I looked over the Kenshoo software. It looks as though it though it would deffinitely be easy to help manage PPC campaigns. Thanks for the insite.
#15, Bape, Unknown, 5 April 2008. Reply to this.
Thanks for the resource. I have been looking for a good PPC management software for a long time.
#16, Daily Vitamins, United States, 8 April 2008. Reply to this.
Hey Dave,
I noticed you're based in Brighton. How have you not checked out DC Storm (also based in Brighton)? Or have you? :)
I've been checking out Kenshoo lately and I'm glad to see you're having such success with it. I was a little concerned about the lack intuitive flow in the demo. Can you speak to that?
#17, Luc, Unknown, 16 July 2008. Reply to this.
Many thanks. We've been reviewing the market to see what type of PPC management software is out there. This was helpful. Seems like most are pc-based installs, or service fee. Is anyone offering a free hosted solution?
#18, Adam, United States, 9 December 2008. Reply to this.