Google and Bing are so vain; they probably think this article is about them.
Of course, it is tough to talk about online advertising without mentioning these digital powerhouses, but plenty of free tools exist beyond their virtual walls that can help marketers improve their PPC campaigns. Here are 21 essential tools (not in any particular order) that are worth exploring today.
1.Local Keyword Generator
This free tool from 5minutesite.com allows Internet advertisers to get keyword phrases combined with locations (city name, zip code and/or radius) to improve geographical-modified keyword lists.
2.WordHippo
What's another word for...? What's the opposite of...? This easy-to-use tool from WordHippo generates synonyms or antonyms for keywords and negative keywords. 3.SEMRush
Enter a competitor's website address and get AdWords ad copy and position, organic position for domains and landing URLs, search volume, CPC, competition, number of results and more.
4.SplitTester
Which ad will perform the best in the end? Enter each ad's clicks and click-through rates and SplitTester will calculate long-term results to ensure the "winning ad" (from an A/B test, for example) is the best long-term choice.
5.AdWords Wrapper
Save time with this tool that wraps keywords in "quotation marks" (for phrase match) and [square brackets] (for exact match), as well as +Modified +Broad match, - "Negative Phrase" match and -[Negative Exact] match for use in Google AdWords campaigns.
Get Access to These Tool's + 9 More
Kristina Cutura, an AdWords consultant and former client education and optimization specialist at Google, shares her top free PPC tools (minus any offered from Google and Bing). at wsm.co/cuturapicks. 6.Ad Comparator
Use this ad optimization software to simultaneously test up to 15 different aspects of any advertisement, website or email campaign - free.
7.‚àö√∫bersuggest
Taking a step beyond providing keyword ideas, ‚àö√∫bersuggest narrows down the focus of terms with filters for language, source and search vertical (e.g. Web, Images, News, Shopping, Video and Recipes).
8.ROI Calculator (CPC)
Enter total monthly clicks, estimated average cost per click and more to calculate an ad's return on investment.
9.BidCops
Run a free 30-second audit to find money-wasting keywords and the best keywords to increase traffic and conversions.
10.MergeWords
Type three keywords into separate boxes and hit merge to avoid manually creating repetitive keyword combinations. MergeWords has additional options to add or subtract space between words, wrap in quotation marks and brackets and more.
11.Suggested Likes and Interests
Target Facebook ads by leveraging interests that are most common among specific audiences to increase ad relevancy (and likely click-throughs).
12.JUMBO Keyword
Aside from editing and cleaning up AdWords keywords with one click, this tool offers an Ad-Maker to test different copy and placements. Users can save the ads in a .txt file.
