Top Pay Per Click Tools for Research, Automation & Optimization

According to Statista, the global search advertising market is expected to reach $355.1 billion by 2025. This highlights significant opportunities and intense competition in the digital advertising field. As costs rise, the key question is not whether to invest, but how to invest wisely.

WordStream's 2025 Google Ads benchmark data shows that 48% of industries experienced stable or improved click-through rates (CTR), while 87% of them saw increases in average cost-per-click (CPC). As a result, businesses are investing more to compete for the same target audience. Therefore, efficiency, accuracy, and smart planning are more crucial than ever for digital advertising.

That’s where advanced PPC tools become essential, as these platforms help businesses configure campaigns, monitor expenditures, and optimize advertising investments effectively.

A Market Research Future study indicates that the PPC software market was valued at USD 21.57 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow to USD 62.37 billion by 2034. 

In this article, we will explore leading pay-per-click tools for research, automation, and optimization. We'll also discuss how these tools can help refine your PPC strategy, reduce unnecessary spending, and gain business growth in a competitive digital advertising space.

‣ Best PPC Tools for Keyword Research

1. Google Keyword Planner (Free)

Google Keyword Planner is a tool that comes with Google Ads. It helps businesses, marketers, and advertisers conduct detailed keyword research for search campaigns. Google Keyword Planner provides insights into customer search behavior, including keyword trends and query patterns for products, services, and information. Here are its key features.

Keyword Discovery

This feature helps users find relevant keywords by entering seed terms into Google Keyword Planner. What are seed terms? Seed terms can be products, services, websites, or categories. Users can either type seed terms and select a region, or provide a URL so Google can suggest relevant keywords from that page or even the entire website. Once the input is given, the planner generates a list of keyword ideas the user might not have thought of before. For example, entering ‘running shoes’ shows related ideas like ‘best running shoes for women’ or ‘affordable running shoes.’

Search Volume Insights

It’s important to understand search trends for campaign planning. Google Keyword Planner provides detailed search volume data, including monthly search frequency for specific keywords and historical trends. Historical trends show how search volumes vary over time.

We can get insights until last month, along with Year-over-Year change and the last 3 months change to identify whether the trend is up or not. It also shows the Top of page bid (low range) and Top of page bid (high range), which indicate the minimum and maximum cost per click advertisers typically pay to appear at the top of Google search results for a keyword.

Competition & Bidding Data

Google Keyword Planner displays the competition level for each keyword and suggested bid ranges to help with budget planning. Competition levels are categorized as low, medium, or high. This information helps advertisers understand the competitive market and plan budgets accordingly.

Forecasting

Google Keyword Planner’s predictive capabilities estimate potential clicks, impressions, and costs for targeted keywords. This helps advertisers improve campaign performance and make decisions based on data before launch.

Geographic & Language Targeting

Google Keyword Planner provides advanced targeting options for specific regions, countries, or languages. This helps users identify opportunities that are relevant to their markets and customize campaigns for their targeted geographic segments.

2. Google Ads Transparency Center (Free Competitor Ad Analysis)

The Google Ads Transparency Center is a free tool from Google that lets marketers and businesses view competitors’ live and past ads across Google platforms, including Search, Display, YouTube, and Gmail. It’s an excellent resource for understanding competitor messaging, ad formats, and campaign strategies. Here are its key features.

Competitor Ad Insights

Marketers can view exact ad headlines, descriptions, and creative formats used by competitors. This helps identify effective messaging strategies and avoid redundant campaigns.

Advanced Filters

The tool offers multiple filters to help you focus on the most relevant ads for your research. The available filters are:

• Region (Country/Region)
• Date range (Any Time/Date Range)
• Platform (All Platforms, Google Maps, Google Play, Google
• Shopping, Google Search, YouTube)
• Ad format (All formats, Image, Text, Video)
• Advertiser/Domain (Search by advertiser name or website domain)
• Topics (All topics, Political ads)

Geographic & Campaign Insights

You can see where competitors are targeting their ads and analyze campaign durations, which helps evaluate ad effectiveness and plan your own strategies.

3. Semrush (Paid, Free Trial Available)

Semrush is primarily an SEO platform, with PPC features for keyword research, competitor analysis, and campaign optimization. Its large keyword database and detailed PPC analysis features set Semrush apart. The following are some of its features that make it a valuable tool.

Keyword Research

With access to billions of keywords across various regions, Semrush helps find useful opportunities. Semrush shows search volume, keyword difficulty, CPC trends, and SERP features.

Competitor Insights

By analyzing competitor campaigns, ad copies, and historical ad spend, Semrush enables businesses to identify gaps and optimize their PPC strategy.

Advertising Research

Semrush reveals competitors’ strategies, ad spending, and product positioning by analyzing past and current advertising trends.

Campaign Planning

When planning campaigns, Semrush helps you avoid spending on ineffective clicks that don’t align with your marketing goals. By utilizing keyword data and budget forecasts, you can allocate the appropriate budget for your ads.

Integrations

Semrush integrates with Google Ads, Google Analytics, Microsoft Ads, and Facebook Ads to help you analyze, adjust, and expand campaigns from a single interface.

4. SpyFu (Paid, Free Version Available)

SpyFu is a PPC tool that helps businesses analyze their competitors' ads. Unlike tools focused solely on keyword ideas, SpyFu shows competitors’ current and past ads. Here's what makes SpyFu different.

Competitor Keyword Research

SpyFu shows which keywords your competitors are bidding on in Google Ads. It helps you identify missed opportunities and keywords with a lower cost-per-click that can still bring valuable traffic.

Ad History Tracking

With years of data on your competitors' ads, you can identify which ad copies were successful and improve your own campaigns.

Cost and ROI Insights

SpyFu can help estimate your spending, as well as CPC trends, providing an accurate plan for your PPC budgets.

Domain vs. Domain Comparison

By comparing multiple competitors' keywords and ads side by side in real time, you gain a clear picture of who leads each market.

Unlimited Search Results

SpyFu's paid plans include unlimited keyword and domain searches. This makes it a strong and valuable option for growing teams. However, lower-tier plans may limit data depth, such as fewer results per search or access to advanced metrics.

‣ Best PPC Tracking & Analytics Tools

1. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) - Free, Important for Behavior Tracking

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) offers advanced tracking and reporting features for managing PPC campaigns. It gives real-time insights into user behavior, conversions, and campaign performance. Here are its key features.

Event-Based Tracking

With GA4, marketers can track specific actions such as clicks, form submissions, or eCommerce events like product views, add to cart, begin checkout, or purchase, giving precise insight into how campaigns drive engagement.

Cross-Platform Measurement

GA4 helps you analyze user journeys across devices, offering a complete view of PPC performance. App tracking is available only when integrated via Firebase or third-party MMP tools. Otherwise, GA4 tracks web data through browser-level methods using direct code or Tag Manager, and through server-level methods using the Measurement API.

Custom Reporting

Using this feature, users can create custom reports based on their KPIs while focusing on metrics that suit their business goals well.

Seamless Integration

Linking GA4 with Google Ads data helps to analyse the user behaviour. With these insights, we can make decisions to optimize campaigns and improve ROI.

2. Microsoft Clarity – Free Heatmaps & Session Recording

Microsoft Clarity is a free user behavior analytics tool that helps you understand how visitors interact with your website. It captures clicks, scrolls, and navigation patterns, including rage clicks and bot traffic.

These insights help you to identify usability issues, improve user experience, and optimize site performance. There are a huge number of filters available for high-level data analysis. Key features include:

Heatmaps

Heatmaps show where users click, scroll, or hover, helping you optimize landing pages for higher conversions.

Session Recordings

Session recordings provide a playback of user interactions, showing patterns and areas that need improvement.

Insights Dashboard

Clarity's dashboard highlights popular pages, engagement patterns, and user drop-off points, enabling quicker decision-making.

Generous Free Plan

Microsoft Clarity offers unlimited session recordings (currently only 30-day video recordings) and heatmaps at no cost, making it suitable for websites of all sizes.

Easy Integration

It offers built-in integrations with popular platforms like TagManager, Shopify, HubSpot, and Webflow. This makes it easy for marketers and developers to gain user behavior insights quickly without complex coding. It’s also available for Mobile Apps, including Native Android, Native iOS, Flutter, React Native, Cordova, and Ionic.

‣ Best PPC Management Software for Automation

1. Optmyzr (Paid, Free Trial Available)

Optmyzr is an excellent PPC management platform that helps users simplify tasks, improve campaign performance, and increase Return On Investment. It manages ads across multiple platforms from a single dashboard. The following are its features.

Rule-Based Automation

Optmyzr optimizes campaigns based on performance metrics by setting rules for bids, budgets, and adjustments, saving time and reducing human error.

One-Click Optimizations

Marketers can quickly edit campaigns in bulk. This ensures your large campaigns run smoothly with minimal manual effort.

Advanced Reporting

Businesses can track conversions, click-through rates, and ROI in real time, and create custom dashboards. These visualizations highlight trends and key areas for focus.

Quality Score Monitoring

Optmyzr monitors Quality Scores across campaigns, providing clear insights into keyword relevance and ad performance. The platform applies AI-based analysis to identify areas for improvement, optimize budget allocation, and improve overall campaign efficiency for better returns.

Integration Capabilities

Optmyzr integrates with Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, and Amazon Ads, helping advertisers to manage and optimize all campaigns from one platform. This integration streamlines workflows, reduces complexity, and ensures consistent performance management across channels.

2. Marin Software (Paid, Free Trial Available)

Marin Software is an enterprise-level platform designed to enhance PPC campaign management, improving outcomes across multiple advertising channels for large organizations. Here are its key features.

Bid and Budget Automation

With machine learning, Marin Software continuously optimizes bids and budgets to help you get more sales while spending your budget effectively.

Cross-Channel Management

Marketers can manage campaigns on Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram, and other social platforms through a simple interface, saving time and effort.

Advanced Reporting

Marin Software combines campaign data into comprehensive reports. The tool tracks key metrics, compares performance across channels, and discovers opportunities to improve efficiency and results.

Audience and Keyword Optimization

Marin Software optimizes audience targeting and identifies the most relevant keywords. The platform reduces unnecessary spend, improves engagement with target segments, and improves overall campaign performance.

Predictive Analytics

Businesses can evaluate how different bidding strategies and campaign changes will perform, allowing them to make strategic decisions.

3. Markopolo AI (Paid, Free Trial Available)

Markopolo AI utilizes AI to simplify campaign management and improve the results you get from your advertising spend.

AI-Based Campaign Optimization

To maximize performance, Markopolo AI automatically improves your ads by studying past results and current data.

Competitor Benchmarking

By understanding competitors' strategies, marketers can identify gaps, find opportunities, and maintain market leadership.

Predictive Performance Forecasts

Using predictive analytics, users can forecast campaign outcomes to optimize budgets.

Cross-Channel Management

Markopolo AI helps users manage their Google, Facebook, and TikTok ads from a single dashboard.

Automated Reporting

Markopolo AI generates detailed performance reports that help marketers uncover trends, discover opportunities, and measure their ROI.

4. Skai (formerly Kenshoo)

Skai is an omnichannel marketing platform and a PPC management and automation platform. As it uses advanced technology, it is ideal for enterprises and allows you to control all your advertising campaigns from one system.

Unified Campaign Management

Skai helps marketers manage campaigns across Google, Bing, Facebook, Amazon, and other platforms from one interface.

AI-Powered Bid Optimization

Skai’s AI-powered system dynamically adjusts bids to maximize sales and conversions while minimizing wasted ad spend.

Advanced Reporting and Analytics

When businesses compile performance data, they can determine their return on investment (ROI), understand customer engagement with their products or services, and identify market trends.

Predictive Modeling

Skai uses past results to predict future campaign performance and manages them to achieve optimal outcomes.

Audience Segmentation and Personalization

Skai helps create personalized experiences for key audience segments, boosting engagement and driving higher conversion rates.

Effective use of PPC tools helps businesses track performance, identify top-performing keywords, optimize campaigns for maximum ROI, and automate processes for efficiency. The right tools offer automation that simplifies the workflow while also providing a clear understanding of how the audience is being engaged, as well as where and how conversions are happening.

By using top PPC analysis tools, companies can accurately forecast budgets, plan expected clicks, and refine their targeting strategies. These tools handle day-to-day tasks while providing reliable insights into customer interactions and conversion patterns. Companies can utilize this data-based approach to make faster, smarter decisions, which should be a top priority. These decisions improve short-term results while ensuring consistent performance over time.

In short, by improving ad relevance, refining bidding strategies, or targeting audiences more precisely, the right PPC tool will help you identify opportunities that you might have missed otherwise.

As a digital marketing company, Webandcrafts provides PPC services for strategy and management. Recognized among leading performance marketing agencies, we focus on the needs of each client, implementing PPC campaigns that meet the performance metrics and KPIs. At the same time, we position the client’s brand for growth in the challenges that lie ahead.

By combining advanced analysis tools with our expertise , we help you achieve the best results from keyword discovery to campaign automation. Contact Webandcrafts today to enhance your campaign outcomes.