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9 Best Services for PPC Research in 2025

The key success factor of a PPC campaign is the ability to do the research and measure its effectiveness correctly. The marketers spend hours studying reports and acquiring data that would facilitate their work and increase the effectiveness of such campaigns. This is the job no one wants that can be easily avoided.

Let’s have a quick overview of the top PPC research services that help do all the hard work, make correct conclusions and decrease the cost of PPC campaigns. 

Which services help run effective PPC campaigns?

Google Keyword Planner

Surely, when running PPC campaigns in Google, this must be a number one tool to consider. The keyword planner is free and is integrated within Google AdWords. Surely, it’s not a magic wand but allows you to:

•  track keywords search volumes by month
• see competitive metrics

However, the provided data may not be enough to have a full picture, analyze the competitors and make the necessary improvements to decrease investment. Thus, you might need to go for extra SEO tools for in-depth analysis.

First, the positive:

• free of charge
• keyword search

Now, the negative:

• limited functionality
• no research of the competitors’ ads
• inability to easily track the level of competition

Pricing: FREE

Serpstat

This all-in-one SEO solution works perfectly for PPC research. All the necessary data are available after you enter keyword/URL prefix/root domain/URL/with subdomains in the search field, then specify a country you wish to target and click the Search button.

The navigation is easy and intuitive. Thus, on the left, under the PPC tab, all the relevant data is conveniently provided. You get to flawlessly research the necessary info about:

• Keywords
• Competitors
• ad examples
• ad research

The keywords tab is purely awesome. It allows tracking such metrics as ad’s position, volume, CPC, level of competition, as well as search queries for which the ads with the keywords you use are displayed.

Access to and the ability to have this kind of data available, would be certainly handy for PPC advertisers, and help increase ROI and campaign optimization.

First, the positive:

• profound analysis of the competitors
• preview of the ads
• research of the key phrase used in PPC
• level of competition and the ability to change/specify competitors
• cost of the chosen keyword phrase
• reports on PPC ads with the researched keyword phrase, including landing pages they lead to
• on-going innovations and improvements
• advanced reports
• outstanding customer service and support

Now, the negative:

The service has been created for deep SEO site analysis, thus newbies may find the terminology a little frustrating. Which doesn’t seem to be an actual disadvantage, right? Anyways, user tutorials are also available here.

Pricing: Serpstat can boast of an advanced pricing strategy. They’ve got plans for personal and business use. Personal plans start at $19 per months to $299. Yearly plans are offered with a good 20% off discount. Business plans are surely more advanced. Also, they offer to see the tool in action for free with a limit to 30 daily queries.

SpyFu

This service offers great opportunities to do PPC-related research. You’ll be able to:

• see what ads your competitors run, and how exactly they do that
• track keywords threats and see which keywords you might be missing
• see what budget the competitors spend on ads
• take a look at the most successful campaigns and learn from the experience of others
• find best keywords bids
• apply templates for easier optimization

First, the positive:

• quick access to information
• great possibility to study the competitors

Now, the negative:

• missing data on specific websites’ campaigns – thus, not the complete info is provided
• confusing UX due to a plethora of dashboards
• often incorrect or outdated info
• no way to export graphs the way they are, not just as a report

Pricing:

SpyFu offers three types of subscription plans, annual and monthly. Prices start at $33 to $299.

SEMRush

When it comes to PPC research, I’d say SEMrush falls a little behind aside from keyword analysis for such ads. The tool claims to use multiple channels to collect keywords, thus allowing you to find the most relevant ones.

First, the positive:

• keyword suggestions
• convenient data import from specific file formats (.csv, .xls sheets* and .txt)
• ability to conveniently remove cross-group negative keywords
• recommendations for PPC campaigns

Now, the negative:

• complicated dashboard that makes it easy for a user to get lost
• hard to read format of keyword volatility and competitiveness

Pricing:

SEMrush offers highly diversified prices. Monthly plans start at $99.95 up to $399.95. Custom enterprise solutions seem to be individually calculated based on specific business needs.

Spaceboost

This is another easy to use but relatively new service that helps polish your PPC campaigns. Most users confirm that it allows achieving higher ROI as the service entirely specializes in search and shopping PPC automation.

The customer service is good, as well as the UX of this tool. Additionally, some user guides are provided to ensure a flawless experience.

First, the positive:

• proved ability of the tool to take the performance of campaigns to a new level
• perfect for business with long-tail clients’ strategy
• great customer service

Now, the negative:

• doesn’t fully match non-long-tail clients’ strategies
• too complicated to understand without additional training

Pricing:

Spaceboost pricing is really advanced. It starts from free up to 17,400 euro per month, all depends on your requirements and available budget.

AdWards Performance Grader

 

This is an awesome tool that helps run a different kind of research. It allows analyzing how your existing Google ads are actually performing. Moreover, the tool is free and easy. All you need to do is enter your email address and get started. You’ll be able to have a good-quality overview of your Google Ads account within a minute.  

First, the positive:

• free
• fast
• easy

Now, the negative: not detected so far as the tool does what it says, no more no less.

Pricing: FREE.

iSpionage

This PPC research tool focuses primarily on how your competitors do it. This can be handy in order to make your campaigns more optimized, as well as always be ahead and avoid any stabs in the back from the competitors.

In order to know what your competitors are about, you’d only need to enter their website URL in the iSpionage search field on the main page and click ‘start spying’. You’ll get to the page, where the following competitor’s data will be available:

• PPC keywords
• ads
• more data on the competitors

Thus, you’ll see what budget the competitors monthly spend on AdWords, and select profitable keywords based on data you’ve got on the competitors.

First, the positive:

• quality keywords
• ability to create keywords alerts
• great tool to spy on the competitors
• works perfectly for longtail and mainstream keywords

Now, the negative:

• data on some competitors is not always available
• limited possibilities of the free account
• display ads don’t get tracked
• sometimes confusing misleading data

Pricing:

Monthly plans start from $59 to $299. There’s also the ability to purchase a custom enterprise solution. 6-months plans go at a discounted price as well:

Ahrefs

You might disagree to see Ahrefs the last on the list. This SEO tool has been undoubtedly one of the top SEO solutions for a while already, and it does offer a great pool of functionality when it comes to search engine optimization. However, when talking about PPC research, the service does fall behind. Though you’ll still be able to track keywords with the highest CPC, this data may not be enough. The ability to walk around their service to have a better idea about what exactly they offer for PPC research would be much appreciated. For now, they do not provide a free trial, which is certainly a miss.

First, the positive:

• great support &helpful guides
• trusted site with an expertise in SEO
• advanced backlinks database

Now, the negative:

• 7-day trial is paid. It’ll cost you $7 to check out what the tool offers
• not always accurate data on keywords CPC
• can get too complicated and overwhelming
• can be pricey especially when PPC research is solely required
• limited functionality when it comes to PPC research

Pricing:

$7 for a trial, and plans starting at $99 up to $999.

WordTracker

 

This is indeed worth considering. It primarily specializes in the keywords research. The tool provides data on keywords volume, PPC competition, CPC and frequently asked questions that include keywords you are searching for.

First, the positive:

• small-niche tool
• quality results
• flawless navigation and experience
• keywords suggestions
• ability to conveniently include/exclude keywords
• creating lists

Now, the negative:

• limited possibilities if you need more SEO data
• no in-depth analysis of the competitors
• no possibility to quickly overview the competitors’ ads

Pricing:

Plans start from $27 to $99 with a possibility to get 40% off for annual plans.

Wrap Up

Doing the research is critical to run effective PPC campaigns. The tools mentioned above already have both feet on the floor. They have been tested on multiple occasions, reviewed and proved to help run budget-friendly ads. Hopefully, it’ll be easy for you to make your choice and avoid bidding on PPC keywords that are too expensive and highly competitive.

About the Author:

Inna Yatsyna – a Brand and Community Manager at Serpstat, an all-in-one SEO platform. She’s a passionate lover of writing useful posts and helping people. Also, Inna likes reading, traveling, and animals (especially dogs).