Marin Search Marketer: The Holy Grail or Another Great Pretender
Marin Software is currently in beta testing of a software package, Marin Search Marketer, which promises to be what every PPC marketer has dreamed of for years – A single interface to manage Google, Yahoo & MSN. I have heard of such a product before, and also worked in development on another that we launched to a paid version, but thus far, all of these programs have fatal flaws, or simply don’t complete all the necessary tasks which we search marketers need.
Marin Search Marketer promises to fulfill all the obvious needs of PPC managers: Cross-Publisher management (MSN, Google, Yahoo), Keyword Generation and Submission tools, Revenue Tracking and Bid Optimization, and Enterprise Level Analytics. All of this fully integrated into one interface; a PPC marketer’s Holy Grail.
Having been down this road personally, I am skeptical that what is promised will be delivered. The frequent changes, flaws, and vagaries of the search engines themselves make full, flawless integration a near Sisyphean task. Broken APIs, spur of the moment system upgrades (like MSN did this June), and simple formatting issues at the engines will have to be constantly monitored and the software must be flawlessly upgraded by Marin. However, Marin Software is not a lightweight company dabbling in this field. They have invested millions in this tool, and have an enterprise level team dedicated to making it work.
The jury is out for now, I will be getting an in person demonstration at SES San Jose next Monday, so keep tuned in for an update… but who knows, if it works really well I may just shut my mouth and keep it to myself.
~PPC Handy Man
on November 28th, 2007 at 9:30 am
Any update? Did you get the demo at SES SJ? Still a Sisyphean task?
on December 13th, 2007 at 11:41 pm
PPC Handy Man, if you haven’t had your demo yet of Marin Search Marketer, please email me and we’ll set one up. Our application is complete and offers workflow, analysis and optimization functionality to professional search marketers who spend $50,000 and up per month. The application delivers time savings and improved financial performance. We have spent over a year working with search marketers and software experts to deliver this application to the SEM community. We offer a 30-day, full featured free trial with no upfront fees and pay as you go pricing. Please go to http://www.marinsoftware.com for more information. We have delivered the first second generation paid search management application for large advertisers and agencies. Please take a look — I believe you will be very happy that you did.
on August 14th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
…crickets chirping…
on September 26th, 2008 at 7:59 am
PPC Handy Man left the company on September 19th., according to other posts.