Editorial Articles

The use of bid management software to manage paid search campaigns has long been an area for debate for clients and agencies alike, with the launch of new tools greeted with equal measures of excitement and scepticism. Ever since the early days of Bid Buddy, the promise of software that fully automates the often time-consuming campaign management process, ensure performance targets are hit, and make you a great cup of tea while they’re at it (not really!) has been too attractive to be missed.

However, in too many cases, they just haven’t lived up to the hype. Performance data has too often been inconsistent, bid rules untrustworthy and inefficient and promised technical roadmaps left undelivered as software providers have been acquired, and their development budgets cut. As a result, with ever-increasing scrutiny on digital marketing budgets, their value has come into question, particularly with the array of insight that can be extracted from the myriad of free tools currently in the marketplace.

So the question is – ‘Are bid management tools really needed?’
The answer, in my opinion, is a resounding ‘Yes!’.

Trying to manage a large, keyword-heavy campaign to tight KPIs, armed only with a trusty Excel spreadsheet and last week’s performance data is nigh-on impossible; attempting to identify keywords that are having a positive and negative effect on the performance is like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack, and a campaign managed in this way will never reach its full potential.

However, those expecting a piece of software to be a panacea that immediately transforms the performance of their campaign will be very disappointed. It won’t happen. The success or failure of any paid search campaign is down to the knowledge, skill and proactivity of the person or people managing it, regardless of whether they have the latest algorithmic-based, portfolio management tool with built-in cross-media attribution and real-time conversion tracking, or not.

The correct use of a search management tool that is relevant to the goals of your campaign will potentially make the team managing the account significantly more efficient, and should provide extra levels of insight that, when fed into the optimisation process, will result in performance uplifts that far outweigh their cost.

From an advertiser or agency’s perspective, it is imperative that a provider is selected on how well they match up to the specific needs and goals of the campaigns that they will be used on, not on the basis of who has the coolest stand at Ad Tech. At the same time, the onus is very much on the software company to ensure that their tool does what it says on the tin, is constantly improved in line with market developments, and that we as their clients are fully supported throughout.

Chris Speed
Director of Ad Control and Partnerships, I Spy