Today there are 127 different PPC tools. We spent 96 hours comparing the top 50 to find the seven best you can use to track, analyze, and improve your PPC performance.
What is the Best PPC Tool?
1. Semrush
Our Verdict — Best Of The Best
Price: Starts at $119.95/month
Semrush is the ultimate one-stop shop PPC tool. We think it’s the best of the best because it really is the most powerful keyword research tool anyone could ask for.
The Best Part:
- Industry-leading keyword research. Semrush's powerful research tools will dig up a ton of keywords you've been missing in your PPC campaigns.
The Worst Part:
- Pricey monthly plans. Semrush is like a fancy restaurant — it tastes great, but the bill can make your eyes water — with the cheapest plan starting at $119.95/month.
Get it if you want comprehensive PPC analysis tools with robust keyword research and auditing capabilities that’ll leave your competitors in the dust.
I recommend you start with the 7-day free trial, then get the Pro plan for $119.95/month.
(7-day free trial)
Best For
Semrush is best for businesses and agencies that want to gain a competitive edge in their PPC strategies.
Top Features
Never miss an opportunity. Find the missing keywords in your strategy with Semrush’s Keyword Overlap feature, allowing you to see which terms competitors are targeting and you’re missing out on.
Watch your ad clicks soar. Dig up the profitable ad copy and search terms your competitors use in their paid campaigns to know where the big bucks are.
Boost your conversions. Uncover the emotional triggers in your competitors’ ad copy to drive more clicks and conversions for your campaigns.
Maximize your profits. Get the inside track on your rivals' PPC budgets and what they spend on every ad, including current campaigns they’re running in real time.
Right place, right time. Zero in on the perfect location thanks to Semrush’s Geo Distribution insights, helping you reach the right audience at the right time with your campaigns.
Pricing
Semrush offers four pricing plans:
- Pro: $119.95/month for freelancers and startups that require a kit of essentials for PPC, SEO, and social media tools, for up to five projects.
- Guru: $229.95/month for SMBs and growing marketing agencies that require more advanced tools and a larger project capacity, for up to 15 projects.
- Business: $449.95/month for large-scale agencies and businesses that require premium data, API access and reporting, for up to 40 projects.
- Custom: Custom pricing, for enterprises and agencies that require a special plan to surpass the limitations for other subscriptions.
Annual plans provide up to a 17% discount.
Try Semrush today with a free 7-day trial.
Our Verdict — Best For Automation
Price: Starts at $99/month
Birch is a powerful PPC automation and management tool. We think it’s the best for automation because of its automated ad optimization tools.
The Best Part:
- Put the brakes on unprofitable ads. Birch's rule-based automation pauses every ad that’s not bringing in the dough, helping you get the most out of your ad spend.
The Worst Part:
- Short trial for thorough testing. Birch's 14-day free trial might be a tight squeeze for users keen on fully exploring the tool, running tests, and experiencing its impact on their campaigns before taking the plunge with a subscription.
Get it if you want a smart tool that takes the heavy lifting off your shoulders, enabling you to efficiently manage and scale your ad campaigns across multiple platforms.
I recommend you start with the 14-day free trial, then get the Pro plan for $99/month.
(14-day free trial)
Best For
Birch is best for busy marketers who want to automate their PPC campaigns for more profitable ads.
Top Features
- Stay in the loop. You can choose to receive instant notifications whenever Birch takes automatic actions on your campaigns, so you're always up-to-date on which ads are active, paused, duplicated, or edited.
- Endless automation options. Set rules to increase budgets on high-performing ads, pause underperforming ad sets, or adjust your targeting based on audience engagement, and much more.
- Skip the guesswork. Tap into Birch's battle-tested ad blueprints for ecommerce, lead generation, and mobile ads, and swiftly kick off campaigns that deliver the goods.
- One tool controls it all. Optimize and automate almost all of your ad campaigns from a single, all-powerful hub, thanks to Birch's seamless integrations with top dogs such as Facebook Ads, Snapchat Ads, TikTok Ads, Google Ads, Hyros, and Google Analytics.
- Get complete control over your Facebook Ads. Birch's flexibility is like a Swiss Army knife for your Facebook Ads, allowing you to pause, adjust, and optimize individual ad sets or entire campaigns based on your custom automation options.
Pricing
Birch offers two pricing plans:
- Pro: $99/month for small-to-medium businesses and marketers who want access to powerful PPC automation tools.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing, for larger organizations and agencies that require everything in the pro plan, plus premium support, onboarding help, and assistance in developing automation rules.
Annual plans provide up to a 20% discount.
Try Birch today with a free 14-day trial.
3. Unbounce
Our Verdict — Best For PPC Landing Pages
Price: Starts at $99/month
Unbounce is designed to increase your conversions. We think it’s the best for PPC landing pages because of its smooth drag-and-drop builder.
The Best Part:
- Sleek landing page builder. Unbounce's drag-and-drop builder lets you create high-converting pages like a pro, even if you’re green in landing page design.
The Worst Part:
- It could be more customizable. Unbounce provides a good set of options, but it can be hit or miss if you’re planning to set complex rules and customizations for your landing pages.
Get it if you want to design professional landing pages that you can easily and accurately test for your PPC campaigns.
I recommend you start with the 14-day free trial, then get the Launch plan for $99/month.
(14-day free trial)
Best For
Unbounce is best for digital marketers and businesses that want a user-friendly tool for designing high-converting landing pages.
Top Features
Dynamic by design. Customize the text on your landing pages according to the ads your visitors clicked on using Classic Builder's dynamic text replacement feature.
Say goodbye to writer's block. Instantly generate content for landing pages, ads, and emails using UnBounce's Smart Copy feature.
Optimize like a pro. Unbounce's Smart Traffic feature routes your visitors to the best landing page for their needs, increasing your conversions by an average of 30%.
Get the money on the table. Recover lost conversions with targeted pop-ups and sticky bars that display when users are most likely to convert.
Integrate without breaking a sweat. Seamlessly integrate popular tools like PayPal, Stripe, and Shopify to your Smart Builder pages using Unbounce Apps — no coding required.
Pricing
Unbounce offers four pricing plans:
- Launch: $99/month for digital marketers and small teams who are new to PPC and want a reliable solution to create and test landing pages, for a single domain name.
- Optimize: $145/month for small teams that are ready to dive deeper into landing page design and A/B testing, for up to five domain names.
- Accelerate: $240/month for growing businesses that require more landing pages and want to accelerate their conversion rates, for up to ten domain names.
- Concierge: $625/month for established businesses and agencies that require extensive features and a dedicated customer rep, for up to 25 domain names.
Annual plans provide a 25% discount.
Try Unbounce today with a free 14-day trial.
Our Top Three Picks
Here’s a quick summary of our top three picks:
Here’s a quick comparison of our top seven picks:
Tool | Entry Offer | Pricing |
|---|---|---|
Semrush | 7-day free trial | Starts at $119.95/mo |
Birch | 14-day free trial | Starts at $99/mo |
Unbounce | 14-day free trial | Starts at $99/mo |
DashThis | 15-day free trial | Starts at $45/mo |
Ahrefs | Free Ahrefs Webmaster Tools account | Starts at $99/mo |
BuzzSumo | 30-day free trial | Starts at $119/mo |
Optmyzr | 14-day free trial | Starts at $249/mo |
Here are the top 50 PPC tools we considered in this review:
- Semrush
- Birch
- Unbounce
- DashThis
- Ahrefs
- BuzzSumo
- Optmyzr
- SpyFu
- Google Ads
- Google Keyword Planner
- WordStream
- AdEspresso
- AdRoll
- Kenshoo
- Bing Ads
- Canva
- Acquisio
- Marin Software
- Adstage
- Google Trends
- Crazy Egg
- Hotjar
- Google Analytics
- Kissmetrics
- Clicky
- Adobe Analytics
- Quantcast
- iSpionage
- Serpstat
- Supermetrics
- Finteza
- Adbeat
- WhatRunsWhere
- VWO
- Optimizely
- HubSpot
- CallRail
- Leadfeeder
- Zoho CRM
- Salesforce
- MailChimp
- Yoast SEO
- Ubersuggest
- ClickFunnels
- ConvertKit
- Instapage
- Buffer
- Hootsuite
- CoSchedule
- Trello
What to look for when buying PPC tools?
- Relevant keywords to target across various search engines
- Budget optimization features
- Help with your display ads advertising campaigns
- Full keyword data like earch volume, competition level, how profitable keywords are, and more
- Artificial intelligence tools to help with campaign performance
- Ability to create custom reports, with custom columns
- Competitor analysis tools, unveiling their advertising strategy
- Easy to use advertising budget management tools
- Look for tools that provide valuable insights with keyword suggestions
- Automation features based on campaign performance triggers
- Bid suggestions and other bidding strategy data
- Bulk edits
- A good customer service team
- A dedicated grading tool to help predict how your ads will perform on diferent advertising platforms
- Ability to create brandable reports with loads of visual content
The Bottom Line
To recap, here are the best PPC tools to try this year:
