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Keyword spy applications have become very popular with marketers who run pay per click campaigns. The better known services are usually expensive monthly subscriptions. But recently a new keyword spy service with an inexpensive one-time fee has become available, making this the candidate keyword search engine for the masses.
Brad Callen, author of the well known "Elite" series of keyword tools, including Keyword Elite, Affiliate Elite, and SEO Elite, has come out with a free Firefox browser application that allows anyone to look inside the PPC campaigns of AdWords advertisers. He calls his application PPC Web Spy.
What will you discover with this magic tool? For starters, the keywords on which advertisers are bidding and the ad copy they are using with those keywords. This is the same information that is provided by the monthly subscription sites, like Keyword Spy. Of course, there is a catch, as there always is with free applications.
The catch is that you will only be able to view a random sample of only 10 keywords from each advertiser's campaigns. This is just enough to get you hooked, and that is the idea. Once you have downloaded the software and started using it, it won't be long before you see the tempting UPGRADE button at the bottom of the keyword popup screen - the one that pushes you to purchase the Platinum version of the tool and get up to 100 of the advertiser's best money-making keywords.
Is it really worth upgrading? Well, if you can afford the expensive monthly subscription rate of a service like Keyword Spy then I recommend you go with that. You'll get essentially unlimited access to ALL the keywords that each advertiser is bidding on for their ads. But if you aren't yet a full-time pay per click advertiser, the cheap Platinum version of PPC Web Spy is well worth the investment.
After you have installed PPC Web Spy you will find that all AdWords advertisements appear with a green "View Keywords" button. Click on the button and you get a popup screen with keywords, ad copy, average cost per keyword, daily ad spend, and the number of clicks per day for the advertiser.
For any AdWords advertiser, this data is a must have, and it won't be long before you find it strange to view AdWords advertisements WITHOUT the PPC Web Spy program switched on (there is a button in the lower right portion of your Firefox browser which allows you to turn it off).
So how useful is the tool?
Initially, after I first installed the PPC Web Spy program I noticed that the plugin would sometimes show the "now loading" icon but refuse to display any keywords. I suspected that the advertisers for these adverts had very large keyword lists. But it appears that the PPC Web Spy service goes through upgrades and when this happens you will be prompted to re-download the plugin. This only takes a few seconds and you are back up and running (though a browser restart is required). So the service is constantly getting better.
I find that I use this PPC Web Spy toll virtually all the time now when initiating Google searches. Is it the BEST keyword spy service out there? No. But I think, for now, it is the best low-cost keyword spy software that you are likely to get your hands on.
Stephen Carter is a software developer and internet marketer. To learn more about PPC Web Spy and what bonus items are available to it's customers, check out his PPC Web Spy review page at http://www.ppcwebspyprogram.com/
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