Regular monitoring is crucial after you launch any new PPC campaign. It’s an ongoing process that helps you quickly identify and address campaign performance issues before they cost you budget or customers.
However, PPC campaigns have lots of moving parts (ads, bids, keywords, impressions, etc.) that can make monitoring a nuanced and time-consuming process. So, choosing a PPC monitoring tool that simplifies that process is important.
PPC monitoring tools help you track and analyze your campaign performance quickly and easily. The best monitoring tools go beyond the basics and tell you exactly what led to a performance change (like an increase or decrease in certain KPIs). They offer deeper analysis, detailed insights, and simplified reporting to help you understand campaign performance.
They also notify you of changes to your most important metrics and save you time by automating tedious tasks. This lets you identify and focus on what matters most to improve your campaign performance and make the necessary adjustments.
In this article, you’ll learn:
- The factors you need to consider when choosing the right monitoring tool for your situation, and
- The best PPC monitoring tools available in the market today
What should you look for in a PPC monitoring tool?
There are so many PPC monitoring tools available catering to different levels of expertise, campaign complexity, and budget constraints. So, choosing the right monitoring tool requires careful consideration.
We believe there are five factors to consider when choosing the right monitoring tool. They are:
- Ease of use
- Analytic capabilities
- Account/campaign troubleshooting capabilities
- Alerts customization
- Customized reporting capabilities
Criteria | Description |
Ease of use | The tool should have a user-friendly interface that guides you through the analysis process step-by-step. It should present data clearly to help you make quick decisions and spot issues (like a drop in conversions, underperforming ads, or landing page problems) that might negatively impact your campaigns. |
Analytics capabilities | The tool should analyze KPI deviations (e.g., CTR, CPC, CPA, and ROAS). Additionally, competitor analysis is a vital feature, providing insights into your competitors' strategies. The tool should help you identify who is bidding on your keywords, brand name, and product names, as well as detect new competitors and monitor brands that have stopped competing on your search terms. |
Account/campaign troubleshooting capabilities | The tool should help you understand exactly what led to a specific performance change, whether positive or negative. This allows you to uncover the root causes of any deviations, helping you correct course. |
Alerts customization | The tool should allow you to configure alert thresholds according to your specific needs (for example, a 20% drop in CTR) so that you receive relevant and actionable data without being overwhelmed by unnecessary notifications. It should also support sending alerts through multiple channels where you and your team spend the most time. |
Customized reporting capabilities | The tool should enable you to create easy-to-read reports with various templates, formats, and visualizations that align with your budget, campaign goals, and the needs of your stakeholders. |
The best PPC monitoring tools on the market
Considering the factors listed above (on the condition that the tool satisfies at least four out of the five criteria), we’ve analyzed eight tools, including their key features and publicly available user feedback:
- Optmyzr
- Skai
- TrueClicks
- NinjaCat
- Opteo
- Marin
- Adalysis
- Acquisio
The listed tools offer these common features:
- Support for PPC monitoring: All the tools provide sufficient monitoring capabilities for PPC campaigns.
- Compatibility with major ad platforms: Most tools integrate with Google Ads and Microsoft Ads. Some also support Amazon Ads and Meta Ads.
- Timely alerts: All the tools analyze campaign data and offer suggestions for improvement.
- Performance insights: All the tools provide some level of insight into campaign performance metrics.
- Reporting: All the tools offer some form of reporting on the analysis conducted.
Optmyzr
Platforms supported: Google, Microsoft, Meta, LinkedIn, and Amazon Ads
Pricing: From $208/month ($10K spend, up to 25 accounts), with a 14-day free trial
Rating: 4.6/5 on G2 and 4.6/5 on Capterra (August 2024)
Optmyzr is an award-winning PPC management software solution that gives paid media marketers the tools they need for auditing, optimization, reporting, and automation. It is built for accounts of any size, diversity, or complexity.
Optmyzr’s key features:
- Provides detailed account monitoring via powerful rule-based automation
- Detailed root cause analysis for performance changes and deviations
- Real-time budget tracking and spend projection
- Offers historical trends, conversion anomalies, competitor analysis, change history analysis, and more
- Real-time notifications via integrations with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zapier
Watch how Optmyzr’s monitoring tools make the day-to-day job of every advertiser easier:
What do users think of Optmyzr?
The following is a synopsis of feedback from G2 and Capterra reviews.
The good:
- Simplifies top-down and bottom-up investigation of account performance with powerful visualization
- Monitors for anomalies and automatically notifies account owners
- Provides actionable recommendations and growth opportunities with detailed insights
- Regular additions of new features and improvements based on user feedback
- Supports real-time data refresh
- Excellent customer support (typically a two-hour response time)
- Detailed product training (a free, in-depth Udemy course and a biweekly product tutorial video program called Learn with Optmyzr)
The bad:
- Some users may find the platform overwhelming to use
- Offers no free plan
Skai
Platforms supported: Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, and LinkedIn Ads
Pricing: On request
Rating: 4.0/5 on G2 and 4.3/5 on Capterra (August 2024)
Skai is an omnichannel platform performance marketers use to gather insights, streamline execution, and measure holistically across walled garden media.
Skai’s key features:
- Supports custom rules and cause-and-effect analysis to investigate account performance
- Integrates with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zapier for real-time notifications
What do users think of Skai?
The following is a synopsis of feedback from G2 and Capterra reviews.
The good:
- Automation, monitoring, and reporting capabilities for almost all of the major ad platforms
- Practical for enterprise teams
The bad:
- Expensive, complicated pricing and free trial structure
- No support for scripts for Performance Max campaigns (unreliable for advertisers who run monitoring scripts)
- Longer support response time (6-24 hours) than Optmyzr (2 hours)
Read: How Skai compares to Optmyzr
TrueClicks
Platforms supported: Google and Microsoft Ads
Pricing: From $208/month ($50K spend, unlimited accounts)
Rating: 4.6/5 on G2 and 4.4/5 on Capterra (August 2024)
TrueClicks is a cloud-based marketing solution for businesses to create, launch, and manage PPC marketing campaigns on a unified portal.
TrueClicks’s key features:
Integrates with analytics tools like Looker Studio, Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Power BI, and Tableau for advanced data analysis.
What do users think of TrueClicks?
The following is a synopsis of feedback from G2 and Capterra reviews.
The good:
- Free plan up to $50K monthly ad spend
- Offers insights and recommendations
- Provides good customer support
The bad:
- No support for Amazon Ads and Meta Ads
- Limited rule-based automation
- No support for scripts or native reporting
- Limited Performance Max and value-based bidding capabilities
- No support for real-time notifications via Microsoft Teams, Slack, or Zapier
Read: How TrueClicks compares to Optmyzr
NinjaCat
Platforms supported: Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Meta Ads, Amazon Ads, and more
Pricing: On request
Rating: 4.1/5 on G2 and 4.4/5 on Capterra (August 2024)
NinjaCat is a digital marketing performance management platform that helps marketers unify campaign data and automate reporting.
NinjaCat’s key features:
- Campaign monitoring, call tracking, and data management capabilities
- Integrates with over 150 analytics tools, like Looker Studio, Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Power BI, and Tableau for advanced data analysis
What do users think of NinjaCat?
The following is a synopsis of feedback from G2 and Capterra reviews.
The good:
- Integrates with channels like Google, Bing, Facebook, and more
- Easy-to-navigate interface
- Provides good customer support
The bad:
- Limited rule-based automation
- Some users have experienced notification delays
- Reporting for multi-location businesses operating under the same campaign can be challenging
- Some users find the platform complex with a steep learning curve
Read: How NinjaCat compares to Optmyzr
Opteo
Platforms supported: Google Ads
Pricing: From $129/month ($25K spend, 10 accounts)
Rating: 4.5/5 on G2 and 4.9/5 on Capterra (August 2024)
Opteo is a Google Ads management tool that recommends optimizations based on continuous account monitoring.
Opteo’s key features:
Provides scorecards to help advertisers understand performance.
What do users think of Opteo?
The following is a synopsis of feedback from G2 and Capterra reviews.
The good:
- Easy-to-understand UI
- Offers good customer support
- Real-time notifications via Slack
The bad:
- Doesn’t support Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon Ads
- Uses a 6- to 24-hour refresh cycle, not real-time like Optmyzr
- Very limited automation and spend monitoring capabilities
- Limited monitoring capabilities for shopping, RSA, and Performance Max campaigns
- Doesn’t support real-time notifications via Microsoft Teams or Zapier
Read: How Opteo compares to Optmyzr
Marin
Platforms supported: Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Meta Ads, Amazon Ads, and more
Pricing: From $500/month (5 accounts)
Rating: 3.8/5 on G2 and 4.1/5 on Capterra (August 2024)
Marin is a campaign management tool that helps marketers create and optimize campaigns for Google, Facebook & Amazon Ads.
Marin’s key features:
Marin integrates data from multiple advertising platforms for a holistic view that may help you understand the customer journey across different channels.
What do users think of Marin?
The following is a synopsis of feedback from G2 and Capterra reviews.
The good:
- Easy-to-understand UI
- Integrates search, social, and ecommerce advertising into a single dashboard
- Efficient campaign creation and management
The bad:
- Some users find the platform challenging to use and note occasional bugs
- Limited capabilities for creating graphic reports and presentations
- Connecting to some platforms can take a significant amount of time
- Particularly strict for European businesses, which can be annoying
- Doesn’t support real-time notifications via Microsoft Teams or Slack or Zapier
Read: How Marin compares to Optmyzr
Adalysis
Platforms supported: Google and Microsoft Ads
Pricing: From $127/month ($50K spend, unlimited accounts)
Rating: 4.8/5 on G2 and 4.6/5 on Capterra (August 2024)
Adalysis is a PPC management solution designed to help marketers manage advertising campaigns on Google and Bing search engines.
Adalysis’s key features:
- Provides monitoring via rule-based automation
- Offers tools to analyze campaign performance
What do users think of Adalysis?
The following is a synopsis of feedback from G2 and Capterra reviews.
The good:
- Easy to setup tests across multiple ad groups and campaigns
- Easy-to-understand UI
The bad:
- Doesn’t support Amazon Ads and Meta Ads
- Limited monitoring capabilities for Performance Max, value-based bidding, shopping ads, and rule-based automation
- Doesn’t support real-time notifications via Microsoft Teams, Slack, or Zapier
Read: How Adalysis compares to Optmyzr
Acquisio
Platforms supported: Google, Microsoft, and Meta Ads
Pricing: On request
Rating: 3.8/5 on G2 and 3.9/5 on Capterra (August 2024)
Acquisio is an AI-powered solution for marketers, agencies, and local SEM resellers to scale their PPC offerings on advertising platforms like Google, Meta, and Microsoft.
What do users think of Acquisio?
The following is a synopsis of feedback from G2 and Capterra reviews.
The good:
- Easy-to-understand UI
- Supports pricing based on your service needs
The bad:
- No support for Amazon Ads
- Limited rule-based automation and monitoring capabilities for Performance Max, value-based bidding, and shopping campaigns
- Bidding tools are fully black-box with limited recommendations and user control
- Many users reported a drop in performance when working with a high number of campaigns
- Doesn’t support real-time notifications via Microsoft Teams or Slack or Zapier
Read: How Acquisio compares to Optmyzr
Choose a monitoring tool that keeps your accounts safe.
The right PPC monitoring tool can be the difference between catching a small issue before it snowballs and budget leaks that turn into costly problems over time.
So, take the time to carefully evaluate your needs and choose a tool accordingly.
If you think Optmyzr may be the tool for you, sign up for a 14-day free trial today. Thousands of advertisers worldwide—from small agencies to big brands—use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year. Plus, if you want to know how Optmyzr’s various features help you in detail, talk to one of our experts today for a consultation call.
