Any one that knows me (Dave Moore) knows I do not recommend anyone spend any money outside of their Super Apprentice membership. That said, I had a couple friends/members (and non-members) ask me to check out Speed PPC and see if it is worth getting, so I decided to do so.

Just because I might do a review, does not mean I want you to spend any money on anything internet marketing related... especially when something claims to be the "Latest and Greatest". I am only doing a review on this product because I was asked to and because I don't want people spending money on something that might turn out to be a scam or is worth less than advertised.

The reason I thought it would be fun to try this product out is because I used to have a piece of software (years ago) that I never completed (because I am lazy) that did virtually the same thing. And I wanted to give Speed PPC my own test so that I could poke holes in it and tell you all the things I would have added... or why it might stink in some way. I will cover some of the features or changes I think the owner should probably think about a little bit later in this review.

Another reason I finally relented and agreed to review an 'internet marketing' product is because I believe this is going to be one of those super duper hype campaigns where you are going to be hit up by every single big time "GURU" and newsletter subscription on the planet. Probably because the affiliate payout is substantial. Honestly though, there is no way I know if this will blow up in that way because I am reviewing the product before it is launching to the open market. But basically, those hype-fests just make me sick to my stomach and I know there are a lot of people that listen to me that either don't really need this product or might need it but want to hear about it from me before they decide if it is right for them.

FYI - If you don't want to read me babbling on and just want to read about the product and watch the video on this guys website, just click on the banner on the right side of this page. Or just click this link: Click Here for More Information on Speed PPC

You will notice that I am not trying to "sell you" with this review, in fact, I even point out a lot of negative things (in my mind) about it. My focus with this Speed PPC review is just to make you informed as possible before you bite one of those Guru's promotions. And now to sound like a hypocrite, if you do decide to buy this product, please use the links on this page... geeze, just saying that made my ulcer flare up.

Speed PPC Case Study

For those that have used Adwords (or in some cases - MSN Adcenter) for affiliating products you know 2 things:
#1 - You have to get low bids for niched terms to get a good return on investment
#2 - It is time consuming to setup multiple Adgroups, keywords, ads, and landing pages and with too much time spent that starts eating into your return on investment.

So going into testing this product those where the 2 points I wanted to know about first.

After reading the guides, which provided ample instruction, I went about installing the first of two applications.

The first is a piece of software you install on your server. That part was really easy... but you will need to setup a database on your server. If you haven't done this before, it gives you a couple links to get instructions how to, but it is easy. This web-based application is what actually creates all the landing pages (dynamic, variables off of your destination URL, more in a moment) and also imports your datafeed, in other words the affiliate product information. Getting the datafeeds is pretty easy, he actually tells you where to get the feeds in the guides. Importing the feeds is even easier, just a browse and upload (10 meg maximum, plenty). What took a little bit longer is creating a template. The default template that comes with Speed PPC is unusable. I think this is on purpose, because they don't want everyone that uses the product to have the same template. The template uses placeholders or lines of code that are replaced when a URL (with your keyword and other terms) is sent to your domain from the Adwords destination URL. I think that they could have made this "template creation" step a little easier for the first time you setup a template by using simple tokens like %titlecasekeyword% rather than long lines of php code like: <?php echo ucwords(str_replace("-", " ", $_GET["final"])); ?>
That said, after you do your 1st template you know what to use from there on out... so that issue is more of a pet peeve thing for me, rather than a significant drawback on Speed PPC's part.

The second piece of software that I installed is a desktop application (Speed PPC Campaign Builder, pictured right) that is used to create the Adwords campaign, that you will upload into Adwords through Adwords Editor Desktop application (full instructions in the guides).

So now I have my server piece setup (datafeed imported, template created) and the Campaign Builder setup. Now I put in all the ad info into the campaign builder: seed keywords, the copy for your Adwords ads, etc.

Oh, I failed to mention one of the central features about Speed PPC...the system uses "expansion" lists of words to use in combination with your seed keyword list. These expansion words are used to create niched Keywords/Adgroups as well as peppering your template to increase your landing page quality with Adwords (ie. lower bids). There are a few of these lists built in (like a list of cities, etc) or you can use your own.

After you have done this you simply press a button to create a CSV formatted output that you then import into your Adwords account through the Adwords Editor desktop app.

Ok, remember my number 2 point above:
#2 - It is time consuming to setup multiple Adgroups, keywords, ads, and landing pages and with too much time spent that starts eating into your return on investment.
Well, mission accomplished on that point, hands-down. Although the first time you setup all this stuff it takes a good bit of time, the creation of the "output" in the Campaign Builder and the seamless import into Adwords was super fast. I didn't time it with a stop watch or anything, as honestly I think that is fairly hokey/salesy practice that belongs on internet marketing sales pages, but I would say it took me less than 15 minutes for the Speed PPC Campaign Builder creation and import 370+ niched Adgroups with 9400+ keywords. So, I was pretty encouraged by that.

But even more encouraging was bid prices, remember point number 1 above:
#1 - You have to get low bids for niched terms to get a good return on investment
When I setup my campaign in the Campaign Builder I set my maximum cost per click (CPC) at 11 cents. With my knowledge of Adwords, I knew that .25 might be a little too high... but frankly I thought that .11 was a ridiculously low bid and I really wanted to test the system out. Plus at .25 your return on investment can get a little hairy, depending on your products. So at .11, I knew all those keywords would for sure get smoked and Adwords would make them inactive and say I needed to bid like a $1 or something like that (if you know about the Google Slap, you know what I am talking about). After importing and logging into Adwords, I was shocked... not shocked like internet marketing guru talk, but genuinely surprised. Every one of my keywords were active. Not only that, but Adwords told me that I could have set my max CPC at 4-5 cents. If you know about Adwords, you know that these low bids are all attributed to the landing page quality score, that Speed PPC handled for me.

Here is a quick report I ran:

... then scoot on down to the bottom of the spreadsheet...

Every single keyword was active and said the landing pages for all those keywords were of high enough quality that I could have set the bid at $0.04 to $0.05 if I wanted to.

But, in some cases, I have seen this before right when you create a new Adgroup, and then a few minutes later most of your keywords are inactive. I just checked (just under 24 hours later) and all the keywords are still active. And here is some more interesting news... in less than 24 hours I have received 54,109 impressions (average cost of $0.07 per click) with an average ad placement of 3.1, experienced Adwords users will know how cool that is for a brand new Campaign. In the spirit of full-disclosure... there is something I need to mention about all those impressions, although they were very high, there were not many clicks. I would tell you the truth if I thought this issue had anything to do with Speed PPC, but it really doesn't... it is really because of me. I spent maybe 14 seconds writing my Adwords ad and picking out products. With more time spent finding good products and making a real ad, I know that I could turn a nice profit from Day 1. I haven't looked around his site yet (and I don't remember it in the guide), but I hope he has just a little bit of info on choosing products (or stores) and how to write a good ad... if he doesn't I hope he reads this review and adds just a little bit of training in that regard.

So all in all I was fairly please with the results.

Final Speed PPC Breakdown

Solid Benefits -
#1 Product Results
The main thing I wanted to see from Speed PPC was if it would do 2 things: Save a lot of time and get lower bids to be active.
Both of those were achieved and that is the greatest benefit. It is very difficult to get thousands of keywords accepted in Adwords at ultra-low bids, Speed PPC handles this with no issues, at least from our tests.
#2 Data Feeds / Multiple Products On-The-Fly
If you use any data feeds from the major affiliate houses you are in for a real treat. This product imports them seamlessly. And after your template has been setup once, all the landing pages are customized to get a passing Google landing page quality score, in turn you can get activated low bids for thousands of keywords/products in one shot with Speed PPC.
#3 One time payment
How many internet marketing products of this caliber have you seen that charge 200, 300 a month? This product does what it says it will do and you only have to pay for it once... good stuff.
#4 Installs On Your Server
After you purchase Speed PPC, you get the 2 pieces of software mentioned above. You install 1 on your PC (for the Adwords campaign creation) and the other on your server. You can even use a cheap host like a 10 buck Baby Gator account on HOST GATOR. This is a cool benefit because you won't ever have to worry about Speed PPC being online or their server going down or anything like that.
#5 Open Source (the server piece)
When we downloaded the application and opened it up we were stunned that the Speed PPC data feed software (php) was not scrambled up in anyway. This is a huge benefit to those that have a programmer (or do their own programming) and want to "play" with the app to customize it a little more to their liking. ;) To those that do PPC and have no idea what I am talking about, disregard this benefit as you don't even have to know what I am talking about to get a lot out of the program.

Things I Would Change or Add or Just Didn't Like-
#1 Process Flow
The process is just a bit convoluted at first. It is not that big a deal after you get used to the program and process. But at the beginning there seems to be a lot of parts to the puzzle when you start out learning how to use Speed PPC. This could just be me though.
#2 Template Setup Time
This is a "didn't like" for me... but not so much because it is a bad thing about Speed PPC, but more because I am lazy and like things very dumbed-down. On a positive note about template creation... after you've done it once you can use that template over and over again, and making new ones will be easier for you.
#3 SEO Warnings
I really think that most people that would buy this product are going to know this... but for those that don't it could be a real problem. The guy needs to add to his training that this product should not be used on domain that is precious to you. If you are an SA member (or do white hat sites), don't use this on those sites. Don't get me wrong, I really don't see this tool as spammy from a PPC perspective, but it should not be used for SEO or anything like that... and will probably be frowned upon by the organic SE algorithms. But to my knowledge it does meet all the Adwords and MSN Adcenter policies, so with a new domain (or a domain you don't get organic traffic from) you should be just fine.
#4 Simple Save Button
It is a small issue, but the Speed PPC Campaign Builder does not allow you to save your work. If you were working on your Adwords ads or something, and if you accidentally close the Builder your work is gone. It doesn't seem like it would have been to hard to make like, you know, a project file that you could save/open various projects. This type of addition should already be on the first release of the Campaign Builder (the desktop piece). That said, my guess is this will be added sooner rather than later with people giving their feedback.
#5 Tokens
It seems like setting up the template would have been much easier if they would have incorporated the use of tokens (example: %uppercasekeyword%) instead of a lengthy line of php. But this is not that big a deal as once you know what to use it is simple after your first time creating a template.

Setup & Use - Moderate
You will need some technical skills and Pay Per Click experience to setup and use Speed PPC. It will take about half a day to a full day to setup and understand how to use. Make sure you read the guides thoroughly before attempting the install.

BS Factor - Very Low
This is one of the few products on the market that does what it claims.

Target Market - Experienced
A complete online marketing newbie should not try this program unless they plan on using Pay Per Click in the future. The only reason I would recommend Speed PPC for a future PPC user is because this is a 1 time payment and it will be in such demand that I think the price could be higher later on when the owner realizes this demand.

SA Model - Doesn't Fit
I would only recommend this product to SA members that are full-time online marketers (that already had an interest in this type of product before you read this review). I say "full-time" meaning - those that have enough time to handle one model at a time and/or dabble in PPC already. If you are not an SA member (for some crazy reason, LOL) and you have some marketing, PPC, or web design experience... I would say at least take a peak at the home page.

Overall - Good
If you are using PPC right now this is definitely worth the investment. It makes setting up massive amounts of campaigns, Adgroups and landing pages a very easy process compared to the normal manual process. It is a product that is the first of it's kind and is a 1-payment product, something I really like. Bid prices come out low and landing pages are created on the fly. Most of the negatives I mentioned will more than likely be remedied sooner than later as I am about to send a link to this review to the guy in about five minutes. I would say check Speed PPC out if you think it is something you can really use.

Click Here for More Information on Speed PPC