WordWatch aims to give AdWords power back to the “little guy” [100 free accounts]

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising through Google AdWords used to be largely the preserve of small businesses, but larger companies have increasingly moved into the market, driving up demand for keywords and pricing many of the “little guys” out of prime positions. This is the problem that a new product called WordWatch aims to solve.

Billed as offering “More bang for your PPC buck”, WordWatch aims to offer the kind of keyword management that large companies pay third-party agencies pay big money for, but pitched at the small business market.

Taking the form of a web-based interface, the service allows users to automate the process of managing the most cost-effective keywords to bid against and taking the “repetitive, time–consuming grunt work” out of campaign management. The system can manage millions of keywords at the same time, analyses campaign data each night and optimising the user’s bid for every keyword.

WordWatch is aiming at small to medium-sized businesses as well as offering its service to agencies and resellers. How is WordWatch able to offer this functionality at a price “the little guys” can afford? The company’s Todd Wilkinson explains “Our product is dead simple for the user, we don’t need 2-week training programs and ongoing support, etc. We cut out all the kinds of overly-complex features that high-end agencies and mega-advertisers need. We know who we’re playing to: small businesses. They simply want more clicks, more conversions and less hassle.

“We like to think we’re the Flip videocam of our market: we’ve tailored our services a demographic that doesn’t need, appreciate, or want to pay for all the extras. And they’ve got a pent-up demand because precisely because they’ve been overlooked for so long. Because we’re starting out this way, we haven’t grandfathered in the kinds of costs structures of the big guys.”

For the future, WordWatch plans to add integration with advertising on social media platforms while keeping the core product as streamlined and simple to use as possible. Like many startups these days, WordWatch is spread across the globe. Based in California, its technology base is in Krakow, Poland and it has a commercial office in Amsterdam. “We’re trying to keep things as light as possible on the office infrastructure side and just focus on the market,” explains Wilkinson.

Currently in open beta, the startup aims to begin charging from next month. However, we’ve got 100 free 6-month accounts with WordWatch to give away. If this is something you think your businesses could do with, just visit this page and sign up – but be quick, they’re sure to go fast.