Brad Callen’s PPC Web Spy Review - Spam Ware?

Aaron Wall suggests that ppc web spy is spam ware…

Thank you to my twitter friend, @just_vicky for giving me the heads up on Anne Smarty’s article, where I read about his allegation in the comments. Aaron claims that PPC Web Spy sneakily pollutes the top organic results with affiliate links?

Yes, there are these links, and yes its a bit stealth, and what the heck are these affiliate links doing in the the organic results anyways? All that being said, does this make it spam ware?

PPC Web Spy Pros

1. nice inline kw research tool seamlessly integrating with Google external kw tool. PPC Web Spy makes adwords competitive keyword research easy and fast.
2. invaluable to have a quick “good karma” link on adwords links, so you can click on competitor’s ads without costing them money. Every Adwords Manager needs this.
3. easy to preview other competitor ads without having to refresh or search other kws, a great time saver.
4. great affiliate spy tool, as you see affiliate links boldly in the ppc links and “not so boldly” in the top 1 or 2 organic links. This is an invaluable market research feature for affiliate marketers.

hover over the almost invisible ppcws icon to see: brought to you by…

click Go opens the Google external keyword in a new tab

Google External Keyword Tool: the real “meat and potatoes”

click a kw and preview other competitor ads - nice integration

PPC Web Spy Cons:

1. the whole theory of “accurately spying” on a competitor’s adwords kw basket… this really should be impossible, and I hope so to tell you the truth. I seriously doubt the validity of this data, seeing the service rather as primarily a keyword research tool, not a spy tool. SpyFu, gives a more granular and robust view, BUT, this data is really just not that accurate, also its mostly a wayback snapshot. I’d rather see the tool’s engine be reworked as primarily a keyword research tool, not based on competitors kw baskets. Many times, known advertisers are showing “no results”, in fact this no results happens too much for my liking.
2. Organic results are “polluted” with “less than transparent” affiliate links. This is why Aaron Wall considers this spam ware, and I would agree, if it were not possible to remove these links, but it is possible! Go to the options in the Firefox addons and deselect the default “show ads” option, it’s that simple.
3. Now that I am a “Platinum Member”, I can’t see the added organic affiliate ads. Darn, I liked seeing those links, I want them back :)

go to firefox tools addons options to remove affilate ads

too often we see no result, even on known long term advertisers

PPCPROZ Score for PPC Web Spy: 89

As you probably could tell , I am pretty excited about most of the PPC Web Spy features, and I do NOT consider it spam ware, spyware or malware.

I decided to leave the organic “show ads” selected, as I am an Adwords Addict, I mean professional. I enjoy seeing these top notch professionally-crafted Adwords ads; it sharpens my skills as an adwords copy writer. But, now that I’m a PPC Web Spy platinum member, I’m sadly missing this feature.

---