Decide whether you need a tool that changes your accounts or one that reports on them. If you want specific optimisation suggestions you can apply, choose a PPC management tool. If your main job is showing results to clients or managers, a reporting platform fits better. Test each by asking what it would change in a real account this week.
PPC tools tend to do one of two things: tell you what to change in an account, or tell someone else how the account is doing. Adalysis sits in the first camp, with audits, monitoring, optimisation and automation for Google Ads and Microsoft Ads. The eight alternatives below, in no particular order, cover both camps, for agencies and in-house teams running search ads.
Actions or reports: the question to settle first
Plenty of tools look the same in a demo. There's a dashboard, some charts and a list of alerts. The difference shows when you ask what the tool wants you to do next. An optimisation tool should point at a specific ad group, keyword or bid and suggest a change you can accept or reject. A reporting tool shows trends and leaves the decision to you.
Both are useful, but they aren't interchangeable. If you replace an optimisation tool with a reporting one, your reports will look better and your accounts won't change. Before you switch, connect a real account to each shortlisted tool and write down every specific change it suggests in the first week.
It's also worth asking where suggestions come from. Some are rules you'd write yourself if you had the time, like pausing keywords that haven't converted. Others look across lots of accounts for patterns. Either can help, but you'll trust a suggestion more when you can see why it's been made, so check whether each tool explains its reasoning.
Optimisers and reporting platforms
Tools that suggest account changes
Optmyzr, Opteo and Adzooma focus on optimising campaigns. They differ in how many ad platforms they cover and how far they go into automation, so match them to the channels you manage.
Tools that report and monitor
Swydo, AgencyAnalytics and Whatagraph are built for agency reporting and monitoring across channels. Databox and Supermetrics take a broader data view, pulling marketing and business numbers together and, increasingly, letting you ask questions of them with AI.
Eight PPC tools listed alphabetically
In no particular order. Each line reflects how the vendor describes its own product.
Adzooma
Best for: Smaller advertisers who want to audit Google Ads, keep an eye on spend and optimise campaigns, with the vendor naming a free plan.
AgencyAnalytics
Best for: Marketing agencies that want automated client reporting and performance monitoring on one data foundation, as the vendor describes it.
Databox
Best for: Teams that want performance data, business context and AI workflows in one analytics platform, so they can act faster, per the vendor.
Opteo
Best for: Google Ads managers who want specific recommendations to act on, which the vendor says means less time buried in performance data.
Optmyzr
Best for: PPC specialists running Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, LinkedIn and TikTok ads who want faster optimisation across them, per the vendor.
Supermetrics
Best for: Marketers who want to query their marketing data in a chat and manage campaigns from the same conversation, which is the vendor's newest pitch.
Swydo
Best for: Online agencies automating client reports, dashboards and KPI monitoring across Google Ads, SEO and social media, according to the vendor.
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Whatagraph
Best for: Agencies and in-house teams pulling cross-channel marketing data into one governed layer for reporting, monitoring and analysis, per the vendor.
Optimisation and reporting tools at a glance
| Tool | Main job | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Adzooma | PPC management platform | Auditing and optimising Google Ads campaigns |
| AgencyAnalytics | Agency reporting platform | Client reports and monitoring for marketing agencies |
| Databox | Analytics platform | Bringing performance data and business context together |
| Opteo | Google Ads recommendations | Specific Google Ads improvement suggestions |
| Optmyzr | PPC optimisation suite | Managing several ad platforms from one tool |
| Supermetrics | Marketing data platform | Asking questions of your marketing data |
| Swydo | Agency reporting and monitoring | Automated client reports and KPI alerts |
| Whatagraph | Marketing reporting platform | Cross-channel reporting from governed data |
Advice for PPC managers replacing an optimisation tool
Keep your workflow in mind. If you log in each morning to review and apply suggestions, choose an optimiser and judge it on the quality of its suggestions, not the number of them. If your week goes on building client reports, a reporting platform will save more time, and you can keep optimising inside the ad platforms themselves.
Many agencies end up with one of each. That's fine, as long as you know which tool owns which job and you're not doubling up on the same chart in two places. For more, see my guides to PPC management software and Google Ads Editor.
Check permissions as well. A tool that makes changes needs edit access to your ad accounts, so agree who approves what before anything runs automatically on a client's account.
A one-account trial plan
- Pick one live account with enough activity to show patterns.
- Connect it to two or three shortlisted tools on the same day.
- Log every specific change each tool suggests during the first week.
- Apply the suggestions you agree with and note which ones you'd never have spotted yourself.
- Check how easily you can share results with a client or manager from each tool.
- Keep the tool whose suggestions you acted on most often.
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Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between PPC optimisation and PPC reporting software?
Optimisation software suggests or makes changes inside ad accounts. Reporting software collects results from accounts and channels and presents them in dashboards and reports.
Can I use the built-in Google Ads recommendations instead?
You can, and many advertisers do. Third-party tools add their own checks, cross-account views and automation, so compare their suggestions with the built-in ones on a real account.
Do PPC tools need full access to my ad accounts?
Optimisation tools usually need permission to make changes, while reporting tools often only need read access. Grant the lowest level each tool needs.
Should agencies use one tool for everything?
Some do, but many pair an optimiser with a reporting platform. What matters is that each job has a clear owner.
How long should I trial a PPC tool?
Long enough to see a full week of suggestions on a real account. A demo account rarely shows how useful the suggestions are.
Will switching tools disrupt my campaigns?
It shouldn't, as long as two optimisation tools aren't making automatic changes at the same time. Turn off automated rules in the old tool before you switch them on in the new one, and keep a change log for the first fortnight.
