AdWords Management Tools

Are there any decent ones out there?

[Fergus Ross Ferrier]

All of my information-finding efforts so far have yielded nothing but services where a boutique ad agency takes over your entire campaign for you, or cheap software that applies simple or irrelevant bidding strategies.

Can anyone please point me in the direction of any tools that one could use in-house to help manage a reasonable-sized account?

[chewy]

formerly GoToast Atlas Search, I think they are Atlas On-Point now.

there are many others.

are you using the AdWords Editor?

[smallcompany]

Depends on what you want. Some of us have never found one. What "manage" means for you?

[shorebreak]

Disclosure: I work at Omniture, maker of a self-service keyword management platform called SearchCenter]

Having worked in the keyword mgmt space for the last 5 years, I can tell you of a few different tools out there:

SearchCenter (Omniture's tool, well-integrated with their SiteCatalyst web analytics product which is the 800-lb player in that space)
DART Search (part of Doubleclick which is now part of Google). Tool's been around a long time and is now in Google's hands.
Efficient Frontier Express (a good option is you want good optimization math and don't need campaign administrative features)
Marin Software (new entrant into the space but have flexible terms and a relatively slick UI)
Acquisio (targeted towards agencies)
ESearchVision (Paris-based but claim to have good math. IMO there's some serviceware to it, but that's just MO)

I'd stay away from Atlas Search as by their own admission its automated campaign mgmt feature doesn't work in opaque bid marketplaces (ie G, Y! or MSN). Again, just my $0.02.

-Shorebreak

[Fergus Ross Ferrier]

I use the AdWords Editor indeed.

I'm mainly enquiring on behalf of a group of brand managers who manage some campaigns as a part of their job. Basically they should just be getting on with things like creating content or landing pages, and both the bidding and the account structure should be managed by something else.

Thanks for your suggestions so far.

Shorebreak - you used to work for Efficient Frontier right?

[shorebreak]

Correct.