PPC Spy Tools – Competitive Intelligence or Cheating?
Who wins when you use PPC spy tools to steal competitors keywords and strategies? Firuze says Google wins. As several affiliates spy on successful campaigns and jump on the same winning keywords, all it will do is jack up the PPC cost. She covers other pros and cons in a very good post at her new blog AffZilla.
COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE TOOLS: GOOD OR BAD?
“While we are trying to beat Google Adwords and our competitors, we become losers with too many keyword info which becomes worthless. Affiliate marketing is not a game which is played once. It is a long term investment of creative capital. Affiliates must work hard and design new methods to promote their merchants. Stealing other affiliates data will catch you later, damage your marketing operations and affiliate marketing industry in general.”
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#1 Firuze Okten Gokce wrote on Monday, March 16th, 2009:
Linda Many Thanks for quoting from my post and stressing this important topic ones more. I think we affiliate marketers have to self educate ourselves and try to find ethical solutions.
Either intentionally or unintentionally, we must not harm ourselves and our industry which is at its infancy and needs a lot of good care.
Everybody tries to find methods to beat Google Adwords but the solution is not in Google Adwords, if we can open up our eyes and find a broader vision to catch it up outside of Google.
#2 Linda Buquet wrote on Monday, March 16th, 2009:
Thanks for stopping by and weighing in Firuze, as well as for writing a quote worthy blog post.
#3 PPC Spy Tools - Competitive Intelligence or Cheating? - 5 Star … | Internet Seo blog wrote on Monday, March 16th, 2009:
[...] Here is the original post: PPC Spy Tools – Competitive Intelligence or Cheating? – 5 Star … [...]
#4 Chris Kramer wrote on Monday, March 16th, 2009:
Competitive intelligence shouldn’t be about stealing or copying what others are doing, but rather gathering the data in order to spend your money in the most effective places. When it comes to copy, its important to see what others are using so you can position against them but never to just copy/paste from them. When spending thousands or millions of dollars on advertising you should be using the best tools to make the right decisions.
#5 Firuze Okten Gokce wrote on Monday, March 16th, 2009:
Chris I really would like to thank you for your valuable contribution.
I understand your point and it is very reasonable. However, my concern is on fair competition and self consciousness. I respect the intelligence behind developing and also using any software but we have to analyze the real life outcomes in bare eyes. When something is used by masses, you can not take control over how they are going to be used or with what intentions.
Let me explain it in more details. If you are competing in a well established market like beauty products, it is quite essential to check for what’s happening in this market in terms of keywords, ads, competition level and etc. The conditions are already set in this market. With experience and ethical values you’ve already taken care you know what to do and how to do.
On the other side, when someone has just discovered a niche market, he/she then designs strategies, keywords, ads and other parameters for successful results after times of hard working and relentless efforts. What happens if someone just comes by and by using intelligence tools copies all days and nights hard work?
Maybe there is no unique answer for this question. Both sides have their own reasons and it is our challenge to work over this dilemma.
Performance marketing is a tough field where we have to educate ourselves and accept realities as they are. There is always a flip side of the coin and we have to separate what’s harmful or not.
I think today it’s a time to take care of the reputation of our industry and the ethical values. Because I believe this industry will become the future of marketing!
#6 Chris Kramer wrote on Monday, March 16th, 2009:
All good points as well – I still believe that success in affiliate marketing and success in general is hard if not impossible to achieve through shortcuts. You may get ahead for a while but you won’t stay ahead. I look at all of the affiliates we’ve worked with over the past 10 years and this is universally true. There are always people trying to take shortcuts and break the rules but they do not last.