kenshoo watchdog

If you’ve been visiting PPC Ian for a while, it will not surprise you at all that today’s post is about SEM automation software. After all, this is probably my favorite topic in the world. I’m particularly excited about today’s post, however, because I’m going to be discussing a new type of SEM automation software. I’m going to discuss software that fills a huge void in the world of large scale, corporate SEM. I’m going to talk about software that saved one retail advertiser $120,000 of potentially wasted ad spend (and $250,000 of potentially lost sales revenue) within just one short week after implementation. I’m thrilled to discuss the brand new Kenshoo Watchdog Platform.

What Is Kenshoo Watchdog?

So, what is Kenshoo Watchdog? Watchdog is basically software that functions as a 24/7 member of your team scouring your SEM campaigns for broken links, an abundance of redirects (bad for quality score), website failures, out of date products and promotions, and more. This patent-pending solution is the ultimate money-saver for those of us with enormous search engine marketing accounts with thousands upon thousands of ad copy all with different URLs, different promotions, and different messages. Watchdog comes from Sequoia-backed Kenshoo, one of the best and most innovative software companies I have ever seen. Due to the team backing this software, it’s jam-packed with innovative features such as prioritizing its audits on adgroups with the most spend and pages that were recently changed. If you’re in the corporate world of SEM (especially in a managerial level position), it’s really your duty to audition this tool, in my opinion.

Large SEM Accounts Can Get Out of Control

I’ve been in this corporate search engine marketing world long enough to know that it’s impossible to QA all campaigns, adgroups, and keywords on an ongoing basis. When you’re dealing with multiple accounts, hundreds of campaigns, tens of thousands (or even hundreds of thousands of adgroups), and millions of keywords, there’s no way you’re going to be able to QA it all manually. Now, throw into the mix that your website is constantly changing with new site releases. Once relevant offers are consistently changing, pages that once worked now fail to resolve at all. Despite your best efforts to make sure your program is perfect, that’s just not realistic in a manual fashion. Large SEM accounts at one point or another will get out of your control.

Even worse, your reputation as an online marketer is at stake. Executives at your company, investors, and customers are out there clicking your ads. The last thing you want is a broken link, bad offer, or outdated landing page tarnishing your reputation. So, what can you do to make sure your account is always in the perfect state and you’re spending all of your budget efficiently? Check out the next section…

Watchdog: Keeping Your Program In Check

I’m here to say that Kenshoo Watchdog is the perfect companion to your existing search marketing systems and practices, a companion that makes large scale audits of ad copy, URLs, offers, and landing pages possible.The best part of it all? Watchdog will work with any bidding and campaign management system you may already have in place. It’s a standalone solution. My prediction: I believe a huge percentage of large SEM spenders will be leveraging Kenshoo Watchdog within the next year because it’s so flexible and can basically plug into any existing program.

Kenshoo: Empowering The SEM Industry

I first got to know the Kenshoo team in 2009 and have been nothing but impressed. I know a good number of employees at Kenshoo across many teams (management, client services, marketing, and engineering), and they’re true thought leaders and innovators in our industry. As just one example, I highly recommend checking out my three part interview with Chad Baldwin, VP of Sales at Kenshoo (part 1, part 2, part 3). In short, these guys are doing amazing stuff and I truly recommend checking out Kenshoo, their world class Kenshoo Search platform ($15 billion+ annual sales revenue and $1 billion annual marketing spend is directed via this platform by the way), and of course the brand new standalone Kenshoo Watchdog platform. Watchdog is the platform to audition in 2011, in my opinion.