We've just started up a shiny new in-house paid search team and are debating tools to help us manage a small number (under 20) of mostly small AdWords and Bing campaigns. We don't have a big budget, but the powers that be seem open to investing in something good. Anyone have recommendations for tools that they really like?
Are you doing conversion tracking and optimizing against spend? Do you have adwords conversion tracking enabled? I have a home-brewed script I wrote and have been using for years. I've recently made a version of it that is more generic and will work with adwords conversion data. There is an a bidding algorithm I built into it, but it also lets you review and modify the suggestions. I've been meaning to put it up somewhere and let people use it.
I, uh, happen to know one of the accounts fairly well :-)
Yes to conversion tracking in AdWords and also connected to GA with actual revenues for most conversions, goals with attributed value for some that can't be attributed back directly to a sale (i.e. if someone submits a form asking to get a call from a salesperson).
Littleman - Haha! What ergophobe said. I'd love to learn more about that script. Sounds like it could be pretty simple to use, and provide a lot of insight...
Okay, to be specific, the script looks at the keyword/match-type level and then calculates spend vs. Total Conv. Value multiplied by an earnings offset that is set by the user. So, if you have Total Conv. Value working it might work for you.