Keyword spy services have become very popular with marketers who run pay per click campaigns. The best services are generally expensive monthly subscriptions. But recently a new keyword spy service with a low one-time fee has become available, making it the candidate keyword search engine for the masses.

Brad Callen, author 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 see inside the PPC campaigns of AdWords advertisers. He calls it PPC Web Spy.

What will you see with this magic tool? For starters, the keywords on which each advertiser is bidding and the advertisement copy they are using for those keywords. This is the same information that is provided by the monthly subscription sites, like Keyword Spy. Of course, there is a catch, as there always is with free applications.

The catch is this: you will only be able to view a small sample of just 10 keywords from each advertiser's account. This is just enough to get you hooked, and that is the idea. Once you have downloaded the software and started using it, it won't be long before you spot the tempting UPGRADE button at the bottom of the keyword popup screen - the one that encourages you to buy the Platinum version of the tool and get up to 100 of the advertiser's best money-making keywords.

Is it really 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 bidding on for their ads. But if you aren't yet a full-time 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 get 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 data is gold, and it won't 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 part of your Firefox browser which allows you to turn it off).

So how good is the tool?

Initially, when I first installed the PPC Web Spy program I noticed that the plugin 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 happens you will be prompted to re-download the plugin. This only takes a few seconds and you are back up again (though a browser restart is required). So the software is constantly getting better.

I have found that I use the PPC Web Spy toll virtually all the time now when performing Google searches. Is it the BEST keyword spy software out there? No. But I think, 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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