Sphinn - 4 Ways Fool Your Competitors Using SpyFu.

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4 Ways Fool Your Competitors Using SpyFu.

Posted By: rfergie 63 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://www.seoptimise.com)
Category: Paid Search

Use weaknesses and gaps in SpyFu's algorithm to convince your competitors that you're spending more than you really are. This is a follow up to my blog post from two weeks ago; "The Great (but Small) SpyFu experiment.

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from Xurxo 63 days ago #

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Interesting topic - Sun Tzu would be proud: Make your enemies think you are weak, when you are strong.

Not sure what the adoption rate of tools like spyfu is given the lack of accuracy. Most search marketers I know take the data at face value and use it to get a rough idea.

Just the same, I appreciate the machiavellian thought that went into putting this post together.

from rfergie 62 days ago #

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Thanks Xurxo, I think I'll take your Machiavelli comment as a complement.

One of the points I was trying to make in my post was that it should be possible to manipulate the data so that it doesn't even give a rough idea so if a SEM was to take it at face value then they would be misled.

Another one from Sun Tzu: "A military operation involves deception. Even though you are competent, appear to be incompetent. Though effective, appear to be ineffective."

I think that exactly describes what you might aim for if you appear to spend more then you actually do.

from Chris1 61 days ago #

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If your competitors are making any decisions based on data they see in SpyFu, you are already way ahead in the game.

from rfergie 61 days ago #

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What do you use for information about your competitors?

SpyFu might not be very accurate but I think it can be useful to get some sort of idea about how a campaign is doing. For example, knowing that you are paying over the odds on an important keyword may mean you should consider bidding on something else or optimising you landing page.

from Chris1 61 days ago #

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I use mostly free tools from Google: Keyword Tool, Trends, Trends for Websites, Insights for Search, etc. Maybe compete.com as well. I know that the estimates from SpyFu for sites that I promote are not even close to reality.

from rfergie 61 days ago #

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Thanks Chris1,
I've never heard of compete.com before. I've just had a quick look and it seems like a pretty cool tool.
I've had a comment from Michael Roberts of Velocityscape saying that "Our goal is to make it so that people can audit our calculations with pen and paper if they like" so I guess it is possible to do your own research and get the same results. I don't know if you can get better results though...

I might investigate further. Anyone else know anything worth looking at?

from Chris1 61 days ago #

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No problem, rfergie. Compete.com has a great interface and features. The accuracy of their data is decent, but not great. As far as getting good estimates for CPC and impression volume, I use the Google keyword tool and recalculate with different max CPCs. Its far from perfect, but its the best bid estimate tool I have found since the Overture bid tool was discontinued (R.I.P.). :(

from rfergie 59 days ago #

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Hi Chris1,
I've just got a few questions for you:
Do you know anyone who has done any testing on the Google Keyword Tool? (Should I make this my next blog post?)
Why do you recalculate with different CPC's?

Unfortunately I'm too new at this to have used Overture, but surely it was only good for Yahoo?

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