Free PPC tools are more common than spammy ebooks. Here’s the handful of top-notch tools I use every week:
- SpyFu
SpyFu – GoogSpy on steroids – shows what keywords other AdWords users are bidding on. Is that ethical? That a matter for your conscience, but it’s no tough decision if competitors use it. Spyfu also offers average cost per click, search volume and related keywords. - Google Suggest Scraper
Google Suggest is a prime source of real-world search keywords – shame Google don’t make the output more SEM-friendly. No matter, since Dave Naylor has done the hard work, including running it through a proxy to avoid IP bans. - Keyword Discovery / Wordtracker
Keyword Discovery – my favourite paid-for PPC tool – has a top notch free demo. Wordtracker‘s two hour free demo is also priceless for PPC users on a budget. You’ll need to create accounts to try the tools, but some of my *cough* friends have a lot of email addresses… - Turbo Powered Typo Generator
PPC typo traffic can work wonders – particularly with trademark-blocked keywords on Google. This typo generator offers more control over output than most. - Keyword Lizard
This super-strength permutation generator helps generate enormous – but meaningful – keyword lists. Use up to three seed lists and add spaces, hyphens, match type and more to taste. The SEO Book Keyword Phrase List tool fills in when Keyword Lizard is down. - SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool
Keyword research means more than powering up the AdWord’s keyword tool. Aaron Wall’s keyword tool aggregates keyword data from Google,OvertureYahoo Search Marketing, Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery. - AOL Search Database
Forget the competition for high value terms, AOL’s leaked search data remains a huge reference for real-world search data. This site offers an easy-to-search version if you don’t want to get your hands dirty processing the data. With search data from 650,000 users, there’s still diamonds in the rough. - AdWords Wrapper
Making use of match types is a must with AdWords. One click formats your keywords into AdWords’ broad, phrase, exact or negative match, all offered on one simple results page. - Open Office
Spreadsheets are irreplaceable for generating keyword lists from data feeds. Don’t want to shell out $200 for Excel? Open Office (XP, OS X and more) is a decent open source substitute, albeit lacking some of Excel’s fancy features. - TBC
Feel I’ve forgotten your favourite free PPC tool? Post a comment or trackback to add your vote for tool number ten.
