Digital advertising has changed drastically since display ads first launched in 1994. What started as simple website ad placements has evolved into a labyrinth of sophisticated algorithms and multichannel strategies. Online ad campaigns today offer unprecedented sales potential, but managing them is increasingly difficult—and often frustrating.
Thankfully, advertising isn’t an arts and crafts fair—you don’t get extra points for doing it by hand. Pay-per-click (PPC) management tools help you cut through the complexity and maximize your campaign performance. Here is more about different types of PPC tools and 11 options to help you reach and convert your target audience.
What are PPC tools?
PPC tools are web applications that help you manage PPC marketing campaigns, in which you pay a fee every time someone clicks on your ad. Campaigns run on platforms like search engines, social media, and display networks.
PPC tools facilitate ad campaign management by automating processes like bid management (adjusting bid amounts for optimal ad placement) and keyword research (identifying relevant terms to target the right audience and drive conversions).
Some tools tackle one specific aspect of the PPC process, like ad creative or data reporting, while others provide a full suite of solutions, from campaign launches to reporting.
What do PPC tools do?
PPC management tools automate various PPC ad campaign tasks to maximize efficiency. Here are the six most common use cases:
- Keyword research: Tools like Semrush and Wordstream are useful for paid search engine marketing. They help you identify high-volume, low-competition keywords, optimizing your bids and minimizing wasted spend on overly competitive or poorly converting terms.
- Tracking and attribution: Some PPC solutions provide visibility into which ads convert more effectively, tracking metrics like return on ad spend (ROAS). Third-party solutions, like Triple Whale, can enhance this by aligning Google’s conversion data with leads in your customer relationship management (CRM) system.
- Automation: No one can monitor performance or manually adjust bids 24/7—it’s impossible. Autonomous ad management tools like Optmyzr and Acquisio enable programmatic advertising: They automatically do the bidding and media buying for you.
- Creative production: PPC design tools like AdCreative.ai and Canva Pro create ad visuals without the need for dedicated design resources.
- Targeting: Some PPC tools like Shopify Audiences, AdRoll, and Meta Ads Manager help identify profitable audiences to target across platforms, using insights like demographics and behavior.
- Reporting and analysis: For informed decision-making, PPC dashboards generate custom reports and analyze critical key metrics, with the option to integrate automation. For instance, some tools automatically alert you if conversions or spend fall below a critical daily threshold.
Top PPC tools
- Shopify Audiences
- WordStream
- PMax Script
- Optmyzr
- Google Ads Editor
- Semrush
- Acquisio
- SellerApp
- AdCreative.ai
- Triple Whale
Here are some of the most popular PPC marketing tools to help you automate and optimize campaigns:
Shopify Audiences
Shopify Audiences helps you generate custom lists of consumers most likely to buy your products. The tool gathers data on millions of buyer behavior insights, drawn from participating merchants. It then provides audience lists based on how likely buyers are to purchase from your store.
You can then target your ads to these potential customers on Meta, Google, TikTok, and more. And although every ad strategy is unique, campaigns using the latest version of Shopify Audiences Retargeting Boost lists have demonstrated as much as double the return on ad spend compared to the next-best available tactic.
Pricing: Shopify Audiences is free to install for Shopify Plus merchants using Shopify payments and operating in the United States or Canada.
WordStream
WordStream offers two free tools ideal for smaller businesses without a large marketing budget or dedicated PPC team. Its free Google Ads Performance Grader tool audits your PPC accounts, assessing and reporting their strengths and weaknesses. It covers key PPC metrics like account activity, wasted spend, mobile optimization, and impression share. WordStream also offers a free keyword tool to help with keyword suggestions, search volumes, and competition data.
Pricing: WordStream’s keyword tool and Google Ads Performance Grader are both available with a free account.
PMax Script
Scripts are pieces of JavaScript code that can help you automate campaign segmentation for analysis. They’ve risen in popularity alongside fully automated campaign types, such as Google’s Performance Max (which enables you to access all of Google’s ad inventory through a single campaign).
For example, the Performance Max script by Mike Rhodes breaks down channel spend, conversion data, search categories, and ad creative reporting, enabling you to optimize conversion settings for your PMax campaign goals instead of having to use the Google Ads defaults.
Pricing: This script is available for a one-time fee of $200.
Optmyzr
Optmyzer focuses on your campaign management workflow across different advertising platforms. It’s particularly handy for agencies and ecommerce companies, allowing them to manage and automate multiple accounts and ad campaigns across Google Ads, social media, and Amazon Ads.
On top of campaign creation, automation, and reporting, Optmyzr also lets you automate scripts like PMax and trigger alerts and notifications directly from the platform.
Pricing: Optmyzer offers sliding-scale pricing, with plans starting at $250 per month and a 14-day free trial.
Google Ads Editor
Google Ads Editor is a downloadable desktop app that lets you manage your Google Ads account—even offline. Google Ads Editor’s main benefit is that it lets you make bulk changes, like replacing a line of text across thousands of ad variants.
Google Ads Editor also imports analytics data from your Google Analytics account so you can see performance data alongside your ads.
Pricing: Google Ads Editor is free.
Semrush
Semrush includes a toolkit for campaign planning, keyword research, and competitor ad insights. The Keyword Magic Tool shows a keyword’s search volume, identifies gaps in keyword targeting, and tracks organic rankings so you can make strategic decisions about which keywords you bid on.
The Semrush Ecommerce Keyword Analytics tool is useful for online retailers, providing Amazon-specific metrics and search terms to include in your product listings and PPC campaigns for increased visibility—all in one place.
Pricing: Semrush’s pricing options include Pro at $140 per month, Guru at $250 per month, and Business at $450 per month—with fees ranging from $45 to $100 per month for additional users.
Acquisio
Acquisio differentiates itself by covering many stages of the PPC process—from keyword tools and ad extension management to performance reporting—in a single platform. This is particularly helpful if you run multiple PPC campaigns across various channels.
One of Acquisio’s major highlights is its use of machine learning for bid adjustments and budget allocation, ensuring you use your monthly ad spend efficiently based on real-time performance data.
Pricing: The estimated cost, available upon request, is $200+ per month.
SellerApp
SellerApp shares AI-driven suggestions for improving Amazon ad campaigns based on your set rules, leveraging key Amazon metrics like advertising cost of sales (ACOS), orders, and clicks. It also helps reduce wasted ad spend by preventing your PPC campaigns from appearing for irrelevant negative keywords.
Pricing: Thefreemium version has a basic campaign manager and advertising overview. Paid plans start at $100 per month with a seven-day free trial. Plans with automation capabilities start at $250 per month with a 14-day free trial.
AdCreative.ai
AdCreative.ai is a point solution that uses generative AI to create ad copy, imagery, and video content for your digital ads, saving time and money by shortening the design process. When connected with your ad accounts, AdCreative.Ai analyzes ad creative performance data and reveals your competitors’ best ads, giving you insight into how to stand out and what resonates with customers.
Pricing: AdCreative.ai offers a starter plan with 10 downloads for $40 per month, a professional plan with 100 downloads for $250 per month, and an ultimate plan with 500 downloads for $600 per month.
Triple Whale
Triple Whale is an analytics tool that consolidates data from different sources, including Shopify and Amazon, to provide comprehensive insights.
Triple Whale’s attribution measurement tool is particularly helpful for PPC campaigns because it assigns credit for a sale or conversion to the specific campaign, helping you double down on what works and report on campaign performance more accurately.
Pricing: Triple Whale’s pricing options include a free version for low-volume accounts, a Growth plan for $130 per month, a Pro plan for $200 per month, a Premium plan for $280 per month, and a Premium+ plan for $480 per month.
PPC tools FAQ
What is a PPC tool?
A PPC tool is a solution that helps you manage, optimize, and analyze pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns across various digital platforms. It lets you create PPC ads—like Google PPC ads—as well as perform keyword research, execute performance tracking, and automate various parts of your campaign process.
What is the best PPC reporting tool?
The best PPC reporting tools include Optmyzr, WordStream, Semrush, Acquisio, and the PMax Script.
Is PPC better than SEO?
Whether PPC or search engine optimization (SEO) is better for your business depends on your goals. PPC is better suited to short-term goals, driving immediate traffic and targeting high-competition keywords that may be too difficult to rank for organically; this method requires more spend to distribute the ad. SEO is helpful for long-term goals and targeting specific keywords to increase organic traffic over time; it requires more spend on content creation.