The main drawbacks to advertising on PPC engines to date have been:

a) The quick exhaustion of funds due to large traffic volume

b) The time consuming nature of bid rank analysis for multiple keywords

c) The impact of bid gaps on cost-effectiveness (when your bid is more than it needs to be to maintain your target rank).

When you are managing PPC campaigns for hundreds of keyword sets for multiple client sites, these problems are compounded. Fortunately, software has sprung up to help people manage their PPC campaigns and automate bidding process.

We have reviewed eight of these Bid Management Software programs in our effort to find one right for our client campaigns and thought we’d share results with you:

(Please note a more detailed version of this article, including a Software Features Chart can be viewed at our site here: http://www.high-search-engine-ranking.com/PPC_Bid_Management_Software_Showdown.htm)

1. Tangare’s Pay Per Click Maximiser www.tangare.com

The Pay Per Click Maximiser is a great product. A downloadable desktop program, no monthly fees, plenty of keywords and a good price for Standard edition (USD $199 for 500 keywords). It supports FindWhat, Kanoodle and eSpotting in conjunction with Overture US & UK and allows user to determine bid update frequency. Other notable features include ability to export reports to Excel, HTML and email.

My only real problem with this program is Interface, which tends to be confusing, (all that gray on gray) and not very intuitive. There is a help menu, but on first launch, it is not clear where to start or how to launch a new project. The "manage search terms" tab is also a little user unfriendly, but once you study help menu to determine how to set your rank targets and bid limits, you’re off and running. Their free trial download simulates bid optimization process, but is otherwise fully functional. Score 8/10

2. Click Patrol www.clickpatrol.com

Click Patrol claim to be largest provider of automated Pay-Per-Click bid management services, but I can’t see any redeeming features that differentiate service from other providers. For starters, it is Internet based, so if you are security conscious, you may not like idea of handing over your Overture account login details to a third party provider. Then there are monthly fees, which are most expensive of all programs reviewed, ranging from $100 to $500, with an extra fee per keyword if you want your bids checked more often than every 24 hours. See Features Chart for details. They do support seven of major PPC engines and I hear their "Auto Position" feature works well to close price gaps, but there is no free trial of their system that I could find, only case studies and a screen capture. Score 5/10

3. Gapster www.did-it.com/gapster

With release of their freeware bid optimization tool Gapster, Did-it had an opportunity to win hearts and capitalize on a thankful market. It sure sounded promising: free automatic bid monitoring & updating for 200 keywords on Overture US & UK, FindWhat and Kanoodle.

Unfortunately, they chose to abuse privacy of their customers and win enemies for their trouble. As reported by Danny Sullivan in his latest Search Engine Update newsletter, beta users of Gapster allegedly had their Overture account login details published on Internet last month, care of one of Did-it’s own servers. The security breach was quickly corrected, but damage to Did-It’s reputation was already done. Mindful of this first impression clouding my judgment, I tried to download beta version to verify product itself and give them benefit of doubt. But at time of writing download was unavailable due to software undergoing an update. Let’s hope their updating their security protocols. Score 0/10

4. Save Per Click www.saveperclick.com

Many major retailers spend those monthly amounts on multiple segments of their web site to maintain market share of comparable product sales, knowing that their competition is doing same with their web copy.

But my customers are very often one-person shop in which owner does it all, including building and maintaining their web site! When they come across my articles discussing SEO techniques in small newsletters, they'll contact me asking what I can do for them within their marketing budget. That budget, more often than not, is less than what they spend monthly on their yellow page phone book ads or their (very small) office rent.

Faced with that level of spending, I knew that I would have to do high-volume of work in order to make a living. What I decided to do was to create an online tutorial that explains in detail how to go about achieving good search positions. That tutorial would rank well in search engines for all phrases relevant to Search Engine work and attract lots of customers seeking to improve their business online.

What I expected was harried business owners too pressed for time to do reading to find out how to improve their own search engine rank. They'd come seeking information on metatags, keyword density, linking campaigns, page architecture and when they arrived, they'd realize it would take them more time than they could afford to effectively learn and implement those ingredients into their sites. The idea was to offer lots of free information for them to read, then when they find out how complex work is, they would say, "Ummm, I'm too busy this week, could you do it for me?"

What I got was harried business owners too pressed for time to read all that FREE information provided in hundreds of pages which I already offer FREE. Not surprisingly, they DO then ask me to do it for them, but being frugal and diligent, they ask me HOW I do it after they hire me - through voluminous email during my work for them. Sometimes they ask me how to do it before they hire me, at which point I tell them that it is all in my search engine tutorial and they can read it for them- selves. The address is . . .

http://website101.com/Search_Engine_Positioning/SEO_tutorial_index.html

But then they remember that they don't have time to do it and agree to pay me for my services and let me begin work. During job, they will look at what I've done on their site and ask "Why does change of order and frequency of words on my page effect my search engine rank?" Then I refer them back to tutorial.

Even though I provide a report at conclusion of job, clients ask same questions repeatedly as I am working and I've decided to short-circuit that experience by providing a parody of a sales letter for all potential clients to read before they hire me. It's all meant in fun, but helps silence those who ask lots of questions as I work. A typical email:

"My main intent is to be able to get into search engines. I want to be able to submit to Yahoo, pay submission fee (UGH!) and get in for sure with a decent ranking. Will you explain how to do this when you write your report?"

I'll explain it right now and make report shorter.