Keyword spy applications have become very popular with marketers who run pay per click campaigns. The better known services are generally expensive monthly subscriptions. But now a new keyword spy service with an inexpensive one-time fee has become available, making it the candidate keyword spy tool for the masses.

Brad Callen, creator of the well known "Elite" series of keyword tools, including Keyword Elite, Affiliate Elite, and SEO Elite, has put out a free Firefox browser application that allows anyone to peer inside the pay per click campaigns of AdWords advertisers. He calls it PPC Web Spy.

What will you find out with this magic tool? For starters, the keywords on which advertisers are bidding and the advertisement copy they are using for those keywords. This is the same data that is provided by the monthly subscription services, like Keyword Spy. Of course, there is a catch, as there always is with free software.

The catch is that you will only be able to see a small sample of just 10 keywords from each advertiser's campaigns. This is just enough to get you interested, and that is the idea. Once you have downloaded the application and started using it, it will not be long before you see the tempting UPGRADE button at the bottom of the keyword popup screen - the one that pushes you to buy the Platinum version of the plugin and get up to 100 of the advertiser's best money-making keywords.

Is it truly worth upgrading? Well, if you can absorb the expensive monthly subscription rate of a service like Keyword Spy then I would say go with that. You'll get essentially unlimited access to ALL the keywords that each advertiser is using to run their ads. But if you aren't yet a serious pay per click advertiser, the inexpensive Platinum version of PPC Web Spy is well worth the investment.

After you have set up PPC Web Spy you will find that all AdWords advertisements appear with a green "View Keywords" button. Click on the button and you will see a popup screen with keywords, ad copy, average cost per keyword, daily ad spend, and the number of clicks per day for the advertiser.

For any AdWords advertiser, this information is a must have, and it will not be long before you find it strange to view AdWords advertisements WITHOUT the PPC Web Spy program switched on (there is a button in the lower right portion of your Firefox browser which allows you to turn it off).

So how good is the software?

Initially, after I first downloaded the PPC Web Spy program I noticed that the application would sometimes put up the "now loading" icon but refuse to load any keywords. I suspected that the advertisers for these adverts had very large keyword lists. But it seems that the PPC Web Spy service goes through upgrades and when this takes place you will be prompted to re-download the software. This only takes a few seconds and you are back up and running (though a browser restart is required). So the service is constantly getting better.

I find that I use this PPC Web Spy software virtually all the time now when initiating Google searches. Is it the BEST keyword spy tool out there? No. But I believe, for now, it's the best inexpensive keyword spy software that you are likely to get your hands on.

Stephen Carter is a software developer and internet marketer. To learn more about PPC Web Spy and what bonus items are available to it's customers, check out his PPC Web Spy review page at http://www.ppcwebspyprogram.com/

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