Although incredibly useful when conducting competitive online paid advertising research, keyword spy tools do have a number of flaws and negatives that it is important to be mindful of.

In this article, we are going to look at three of the main issues people experience when doing competitive keyword research.

1. The Results are not Real Time.

Generally speaking, the results that keyword spy tools display are from a couple of weeks ago, or in some cases a month ago. That is to say, that when you are looking at the data, it does not accurately reflect what your competitors are doing right this minute with their adwords campaigns, but it shows you what they were doing a week or so ago. Different services and different software update their information and data at different intervals, so how recent the results you are seeing, depends on what service or product you are using.

How to Deal With This: One of the most useful features of most good keyword spy tools is that you can see how long your competition have been bidding on certain keywords. So, a good indication of if a keyword is profitable is to look at how long some one has been bidding on it. If they spent a good amount of time (2 months +) bidding on a keyword, there is an excellent chance it is a profitable keyword, and worth testing, and this is the kind of information you can use, even if it is a couple weeks old.

On top of this, one of the other cool features of this kind of software offers, is to display the ads that your competition has been using, giving you the inside scoop on what adverts have been converting for other companies in your industry/niche.

2. Not all Keyword Spy Tools are Accurate.

Some products or services are not as accurate as others, and if you use a few at the same time, you will some times notice a disparity between the results and data that you are collecting. This is a result of the fact that results are not real time, and also the ways that the various services and products collect and monitor the data and activity of the advertisers. Some of the inaccuracies can often be found in the cost-per-click and the tool can also have trouble guessing the traffic levels and clicks certain ads are having.

How to Deal With This: The only real way to combat this is to use the right keyword tool when conducting your research. It is also important to keep in mind, that keyword spy tools do not have all the answers, and you should not be relying on them solely for your research. These tools are designed to give you a head-start by giving you some insight on what works right now in your industry/niche. If you rely on these tools exclusively, you will always be a step behind your competition. Once you have a working campaign, it would be valuable to branch out and test some of your own approaches and ideas out. Use these tools for what they are designed for and make sure you use the right product/service!

3. You Don’t Get the Full Picture

I am yet to see a tool which gives me a clear picture of what my competitors are doing on the content network, and what they might be advertising on youtube etc. That is because these tools are predominantly geared to keyword searches and advertising. PPC on Google adwords and other platforms are not the only ways of paid advertising, and often these tools don’t gather data from PPV and CPV networks. In other words, you can only see part of the bigger picture.

How to Deal With This: You need to do your own due diligence by surfing some websites in your niche and observing how, if and where people are advertising. You also need to accept the limitations of the keyword spy tool and use it for what it is, these tools are designed to provide you with information about keyword related searches and advertisements. This is a highly targeted area of advertising, and thus the gains to be made are huge. The use information wisely, and you will reap the benefits and rewards.

I hope you have found this post useful, and I hope it has been a help to you when deciding if you should buy a keyword spy tool for your online competitive intelligence.