Welcome to my review of WordStream!
These days, Pay Per Click marketing will teach you some harsh lessons if you attempt it blindfolded without the training and especially the right tool for the job.
If you’re struggling to convert your PPC ads into profits, then I’ve found a great solution that can help turn things around for your online Biz…
Quick Overview:
Name: WordStream (WS).
Website: wordstream.com.
Cost: Free trial. Then price varies from $2,928/year – $7,428/year. Plus $1,428/year for consulting.
Owner: Larry Kim.
My Score: 8/10.
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Table of Contents
What’s WordStream All About?
(WS) is basically a nifty piece of software that removes all the complexity of Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing.
It’s a keyword research tool and online Ad advisor that not only saves you time but makes it easier to manage and create profitable Ad campaigns on Google Adwords, Bing and also Facebook.
You can access all the tools and features you need and learn how to enhance the performance of all your advertising campaigns in just 20 minutes, which I’ll be discussing very shortly.
Who is Gonna Benefit From it?
Whether you’re a newcomer to online paid advertising who needs that helping hand to get started or you’re currently struggling to make a single dime in profit, then ‘WS’ will suit you right down to the ground.
In addition, marketing agencies and their clients will also benefit financially from the ‘WS’ platform.
However, the only thing I will say is just be prepared to have plenty of spare money aside because the tool will cost you a chunk of change.
Before we Dive in. Is Training Available?
When it comes to training, ‘WS’ does provide you with a bunch of invaluable resources for making the most of the tool for your campaigns.
Firstly, there’s a walk-through introduction of the software and how to get started with it.
Secondly, there are numerous videos that walk you through a “20-Minute Work Week”, Shortcuts, Tips & Tricks, using QueryStream, Account Build Out, and also Additional Tools.
Thirdly, you get step-by-step guides covering ‘WS’s’ Advisor HTML Dashboard, Landing Pages & Leads, Call Tracking FAQs and Social Ads Support.
The final training section provides you with videos on Understanding Match Types.
Plus there’s a blog that helps you with Adwords Tips, Paid Search Marketing, and Infographics.
Let’s Discover The Tools & Features…
As for the features, there are heaps of the things at your disposal.
#1: Manage Your PPC Accounts
You can quickly and easily view all the necessary PPC ad data in both your Google Adwords and Bing accounts.
‘WS’ automatically connects to both accounts and allows you to switch between the two without having to actually open up 2 separate browsers, which is the best part.
#2: Create Landing Pages
Easily create your own customized landing page by defining your own look and feel with a few “mobile-friendly” themes, creating content, building your form using specific fields, and choosing settings.
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#3: Daily Leads
Track customer lead growth over a long-term period using a targeted landing page and setting up the Call Tracking feature.
You can also export your lead data to XLS or CSV formats.
#4: Create Reports
There are 2 report templates for you to choose from for your ad campaigns.
Either select a Success Report which gives you highly detailed insights into your progress with Adwords or Bing. Or pick an Adwords Performance Grader to give you a percentage score and learn how to make improvements.
#5: Search Work Week
The “20 Minute PPC Work Week” report provides you with recommendations on adding negatives, keywords, optimizing your ads and bids, and reviewing costly keywords.
It also gives you annual figures on the numbers of clicks and savings.
There are additional services on offer…
#6: Social Ads Software
With over 1.55 BILLION monthly active users on Facebook, presents a real opportunity to get your online business out there to the “targeted” masses.
The ‘WS’ social ads software takes all the guesswork out of social media marketing on Facebook so you can easily profit.
Plus it also helps you with Instagram too!
#7: Managed Services
The ‘WS’ in-house team of search engine marketing specialists will take over the reins of optimizing your account, freeing up your time so you can focus on other aspects of building your online biz.
#8: Free Graders
Make use of various free marketing graders for an in-depth analysis of your Adwords campaign and landing page, and your FB as well as Bing campaigns.
#9: Agency Solutions
If you’re working for an agency, then you’ll know that managing multiple client accounts is a headache and a half.
The ‘WS’ Agency Solution service helps you to create top performing and extremely profitable ad campaigns for your customers with real ease.
You will have total control over your workload from using one single platform.
#10: Social Advertising on FB
This makes it easy to improve the overall performance of your FB ads.
It offers you smart tools and workflows to work with, easy management of the platform, powerful targeted audience capabilities, and a bunch of campaign recommendations.
#11: Premier Consulting Service
Your own professional ad advisor will help you to achieve maximum results with your internet marketing campaigns.
You’ll receive a one-hour monthly telephone call with help and guidance in any area of Pay Per Click, actions to take and also account diagnostics reports.
Help & Support is Available, Right?
If you have any questions about ‘WS’, you can easily contact the team via the following methods:
- Submit a form
- Ring the sales or support team
- Write to their mailing address
- Send a quick email
- Live-Chat with a rep is available
- Connect with them on FB, Twitter, G+ and Linkedin
You certainly have a heap of options for reaching out to the team.
But my preferred method of contact with any service is always via live chat because it’s the fastest way of getting a response, in my opinion.
Are You Ready For The Costs?
Firstly, you can take ‘WS’ for a 7-day free test-drive with no credit card required. So put your wallet or purse away, right now!
As for the pricing plans, there’s a big bunch to choose from depending on your budget.
Here are your options:
#1: When your monthly PPC ad spend is up to $2,500/month – membership costs between $264/month – $299/month or $2,928/year.
#2: Ad spend of $2,500 – $5,000/month = $374/month – $429/month or $4,008/year.
#3: Ad spend ($5K – $10K/mo) = $464/month – $529/month or $4,968/year.
#4: Ad spend ($10K – $25K/mo) = $694/month – $789/month or $7,428/year.
When your monthly ad spend is $25K and over, you must call the team for special plans and pricing figures.
The following add-ons are optional:
Facebook Social Advertising will cost you $49 per month.
Premier Consulting costs from $135/month – $149/month or $1,428/year.
Managed Services Fees: If you have advanced PPC needs, then help from the team will cost you a fee of $1,000 + 7% – 10% of your monthly ad spend.
Social Adas Fees: For this FB ad service, your fees will be vary from $79/month – $149/month depending on your monthly Facebook spend.
I hope I didn’t bore you to death too much with the prices lol.
But as you can see, it’s not exactly cost-effective software is it?
PROS vs CONS of ‘WS’
PROS
- Sign up for a 7-day free trial – (No credit card is required)
- Manage your campaigns in only 20 minutes every week
- Receive 20 minute-work-week alerts
- Get access to all the features you need
- Additional add-ons are available
- You get training & support
- Schedule a Demo on request
CONS
- The membership fees are expensive
- Extra fees required for add-ons
Final Thoughts: Is WordStream Worth it?…
With so many fantastic resources to help with optimizing and enhancing your PPC campaigns on Google, Bing and FB – you’d be crazy not to take ‘WS’ for a 7-day free spin.
I also love the fact that ‘WS’ doesn’t require your credit card details for the trial and also provides you with heaps of invaluable training as well as numerous support options.
However, my only issue with the software is that it’s incredibly costly, but I guess it can pay for itself when you’re raking in the profits from your ads.
But before you go – if you’re also an SEO marketer looking for a sweet keyword tool for getting 1st-page rankings in Google and driving tons of traffic to your website/blog…
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Your Friend, Neil 😀
If you have any questions or thoughts on ‘WS’, we’d LOVE to hear from you below…
I am very turned off by Wordstream. I’ve been stalked for the past year by one of their sales people. They are ruthless. They have emailed my work email, personal email, called, tried to add me on LinkedIn. I have a local agency that I’d much rather work with who I see on a monthly basis, and who actually cares about helping us learn and become better at digital marketing/SEO that I’d rather work with. How do you so pleasantly tell someone to bugger off?
So sorry to hear about your bad experience, Kara.
Following up with you is one thing, but when the guys behind WordStream are harassing you and invading your privacy, it’s is disgraceful behavior. If that’s how they treat their leads/customers, then I don’t blame you for approaching an agency.
IF the harassment is genuinely from WS sales representatives, then try complaining to their customer support to get it resolved. But if it continues, then I would strongly suggest seeking legal advice because they’re clearly breaking laws.
Failing that, you’d have to change your contact details which would be a real pain in the ass lol.
Great review on how to generate money online with Wordstream.
Thanks for your info on the PPC tool coz it was very educational and look forward to reading more of your keyword tool reviews.
Thanks very muchly, Brian!
You’re welcome! Glad you’ve gained something out of this review. I’ll certainly be reviewing heaps more keyword tools, so do pop back soon.
I am currently using the Wealthy Affiliate keyword tool and SEO training where the price is much more affordable. Wordstream is like easily 10 times the price I paid at WA.
Is WS geared for more experienced internet marketers? My concern is paying a huge amount but with limited results. I know things like these happen.
Fantastic, Kenny! You’ll definitely love the tools and training from WA! 🙂
I do agree that the WS tool is costly, but it focuses on PPC, whereas WA’s tool is for organic search engine rankings.
I think ES caters to all experience levels. But if you’re a total newbie with zero knowledge, then it’s probably best to learn a little about PPC before diving into the software so you can better understand the data.
Very interesting review of Wordstream. I have been looking for a Pay Per Click marketing program for a while now.
PPC can be expensive so investing in a program that gives you the tools to do it right seems like a good idea.
Cheers, Cole! 🙂
Indeed, PPC can be very costly, especially if you don’t have the right training and tools prior to chucking money into it. Trust me, this is coming from experience lol.
HI Neil, I’ve just been running campaigns on Google and Bing and thinking that there should be a platform that works across both, obviously, there is.
Wordstream looks great but the cost does seem to be incredibly high considering both major ad platforms offer most of these facilities for free – you just have to keep switching between the two.
It’s a shame there isn’t any free option if your advertising spend is very low, I can imagine that businesses starting out won’t be investing this much in PPC?
Hey, Marie!
Glad to hear you’ve got your PPC ads set up and I hope you’re having success. 😀 WS does allow you to save a little time with both of your ad networks in one place which is a great thing about the software.
I do agree that the costs of WS are incredibly expensive, and yeah you could just have 2 web browser windows open for your campaigns if you wanted to save your money I guess.
Maybe WS will create a free or much lower paid membership option one day, who knows.
When you’re just getting started in the online biz world, then it’s best to keep your costs down until your profitable and have the necessary funds to invest in advanced PPC software/tools.
Thanks for the Wordstream review. Sometimes PPC can be confusing for me, do you have any ideas on how I can make PPC easier to understand and more effective to use?
Also, WordPress does not offer proper landing pages. Do you have any suggestions where I can find good landing pages for free or for an affordable price?
You’re welcome, my King! LOL.
The best way to approach PPC is to keep things really simple.
Choose 5 – 10 keywords for each ad group and ensure your keywords, ad heading, ad body, and even the landing page URL are “relevant” to exactly what people are searching for.
“RELEVANCE” is the key to running successful ads on Google, Yahoo and Bing that convert into sales and profits 🙂
When it comes to landing pages, there are some WordPress plugins that allow you to create them.
Alternatively, you could also try email autoresponders like Aweber and GetResponse because I know they help you to create some great lead capture pages on the cheap.
But if you can afford it, then ClickFunnels is awesome for building squeeze pages, sales funnels, and also comes with its own email autoresponder + training for creating profitable funnels.