TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Google Ads

    Score8.4 out of 10
    N/AGoogle Ads (formerly AdWords) is Google's pay-per-click online advertising program. With Google Ads users set their budget and choose where their ads appear in search listings, and on partner websites. Google Ads uses cost-per-click (CPC) bidding.

    $500

    in Ads credit in the first 60 days

    SpyFu

    Score7 out of 10
    N/ASpyFu is the eponymous SEO and PPC research platform from the company in Scottsdale, Arizona focused on "spying" on competitors, or basically using their behaviors to refine your own through keyword and content analysis, and backlink poaching. This positional search engine optimization and paid listings management platform touts the ability to lower costs and raise rankings via a Kombat-oriented approach... basically a cute way of saying "it makes comparisons" of how well your site does in niche…

    $39

    per month

    Pricing
    Google AdsSpyFu
    Editions & Modules
    Offer A
    $500
    in Ads credit in the first 60 days
    Offer B
    $1500
    in Ads credit in the first 60 days
    Offer C
    $3000
    in Ads credit in the first 60 days
    Basic
    $39
    per month
    Professional
    $79
    per month
    Team
    $299
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Google AdsSpyFu
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Google AdsSpyFu
    Considered Both Products
    Google
    Chose Google Ads
    Google Ads can be more useful than LinkedIn & Facebook Ads because it is reaching a larger pool of users. Both platforms have even better/more targeting options, but they limit the amount of reach you will receive. Google Ads catches users at the top of the sales funnel.
    Incentivized
    SpyFu
    Chose SpyFu
    I was surprised to find I preferred Semrush when it comes to keyword research. SpyFu is great (and less expensive than Semrush), but I felt the data Semrush provided was vaster than SpyFu. I was able to get more competitors spending insights in Semrush than SpyFu. Overall, I …
    Incentivized
    Chose SpyFu
    I spent years exclusively using Semrush for this kind of competitor PPC data, and have used Moz in the past on several occasions. I feel that SpyFu is more well-rounded and provides deeper insights than these other products, and honestly, it's just more updated as well. Easier …
    Incentivized
    Chose SpyFu
    It is comparable with SEMRush and others
    Incentivized
    Chose SpyFu
    I've only used SpyFu.
    Incentivized
    Chose SpyFu
    SpyFu is a better choice for competitive intelligence. SEMRush is better for running advanced SEO reports on a domain.
    Incentivized
    Chose SpyFu
    There aren't a whole bunch of companies that does what spyfu does well. I believe Spyfu also has the cheapest paid version of the lot
    Incentivized
    Chose SpyFu
    SpyFu takes me much further with competitive analysis than AdWords!
    Incentivized
    Chose SpyFu
    Using both currently
    Incentivized
    Chose SpyFu
    SpyFu gives me more actionable insight than any other tool while helping me prove to my client the necessity of SEO and SEM. I just wish there was a component of this tool that had Bing and Yahoo insights as well.. It is priceless to see the traction my competitors get with …
    Chose SpyFu
    It's a key element to my Digital Marketing surveying efforts. Often it proves to have been more accurate, once I have access to Analytics tools such GA or SiteCatalyst, in comparison to its own competitor-set.
    Chose SpyFu
    I have not really used any other products. I would say it would be very difficult for something to compare and compete with Spyfu due to its ease of use, great data, and productivity levels. Fortunately I have never had any major problems and would not look for a competitive …
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    81%
    Would buy again
    42 Answers
    97%
    Would buy again
    28 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    76%
    Delivers good value for the price
    37 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    27 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    79%
    Happy with the feature set
    41 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    29 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    69%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    34 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    21 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    70%
    Implementation went as expected
    35 Answers
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    22 Answers
    Features
    Google AdsSpyFu
    Ad Campaigns
    Comparison of Ad Campaigns features of Google Ads and SpyFu
    Feature
    Google Ads
    7.3
    11 Ratings
    12% above category average
    SpyFu
    -
    Ratings
    Ad campaign creation7.911 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad deployment7.510 Ratings00 Ratings
    Display advertising7.410 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad display and retargeting segmentation7.511 Ratings00 Ratings
    Sequence targeting6.910 Ratings00 Ratings
    Contextual advertising7.210 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social advertising6.35 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Ad Reporting & Analytics features of Google Ads and SpyFu
    Feature
    Google Ads
    7.3
    11 Ratings
    6% above category average
    SpyFu
    -
    Ratings
    Ad dashboards7.511 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad performance reports7.911 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad conversion tracking7.311 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad attribution reporting7.211 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad forecasting and optimization6.911 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad Auctions
    Comparison of Ad Auctions features of Google Ads and SpyFu
    Feature
    Google Ads
    7.9
    10 Ratings
    6% below category average
    SpyFu
    -
    Ratings
    Ad bidding7.910 Ratings00 Ratings
    SEO
    Comparison of SEO features of Google Ads and SpyFu
    Feature
    Google Ads
    -
    Ratings
    SpyFu
    6.6
    52 Ratings
    15% below category average
    Keyword analysis00 Ratings7.052 Ratings
    Backlink management00 Ratings6.040 Ratings
    SERP ranking tracking00 Ratings6.044 Ratings
    Page grader00 Ratings7.829 Ratings
    Competitive analysis00 Ratings7.051 Ratings
    Site audit / diagnostics00 Ratings7.232 Ratings
    Site recommendations00 Ratings6.031 Ratings
    Task management00 Ratings6.120 Ratings
    SEO Channels
    Comparison of SEO Channels features of Google Ads and SpyFu
    Feature
    Google Ads
    -
    Ratings
    SpyFu
    5.8
    39 Ratings
    27% below category average
    Local SEO00 Ratings5.033 Ratings
    Social SEO00 Ratings5.028 Ratings
    Mobile SEO00 Ratings8.029 Ratings
    Global SEO00 Ratings5.035 Ratings
    SEO Platform & Account Management
    Comparison of SEO Platform & Account Management features of Google Ads and SpyFu
    Feature
    Google Ads
    -
    Ratings
    SpyFu
    7.2
    28 Ratings
    16% below category average
    Multi-domain support00 Ratings6.028 Ratings
    Integration with web analytics tools00 Ratings8.518 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Google AdsSpyFu
    Small Businesses
    WordStream
    Score6.9 out of 10
    Serpstat
    Score10 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    WordStream
    Score6.9 out of 10
    Yoast
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Google Trends
    Score8.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Google AdsSpyFu
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.7
    (126 ratings)
    7.0
    (62 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.6
    (21 ratings)
    10.0
    (10 ratings)
    Usability
    7.7
    (17 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (8 ratings)
    7.6
    (13 ratings)
    Online Training
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    1.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Google AdsSpyFu
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Google
    Google Ads is a useful advertising tool to build brand exposure and generate lead volumes for your chosen product. Whilst it can be costly at times due to competitor bidding strategies and requires constant monitoring to ensure campaigns perform as expected, it typically provides the desired quality and quantity of leads for custom budgets.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SpyFu
    If you have a Google ads PPC campaign and then I would say this is more or less essential if you want to know what your competitors are doing. You can get very useful data out of it even if you subscribe for one month. And the pricing is very reasonable. Even if you don't use Google ads, I would say this is still useful for your SEO/SMO team since it gives you a great idea of what keywords and traffic your competitors are working on.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Google
    • Automated targeting via Smart Shopping campaign. It's one of the best campaign types in Google Ads. In the beginning, you may see lower revenue and ROAS, but once you give some meaningful time to your campaign, it is most likely to perform well.
    • Smart bidding strategies: Google Ads has developed some really great bidding strategies such as maximizing conversion and maximizing conversion with ROAS settings. Based on one's requirement and their goal with revenue and target ROAS, they can choose the appropriate bidding strategy.
    • Reporting: A business owner and advertising must know about their audiences, how their campaigns have been performing, what's working and what's not, and for that reason, powerful, effective reporting is needed, and Google Ads provides rich details reporting that covers almost every aspect of a business.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SpyFu
    • Keeping a tab on competitors organic and inorganic activities
    • Helps identify where the competitor is getting the backlinks from.
    • Identify competitors top content and the keywords that's bringing them traffic
    • Get proper information of their current and past ADS run on Google.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Google
    • If you don't know what you're doing, it will be a costly mistake. You need to target ads, and it is difficult the first time to do that.
    • There isn't a feature to run an add for a couple set date spans, just hours you want to run them or a single date span.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SpyFu
    • As with any database, their keyword database has limits, so the data returned is relative to their database, not necessarily the full picture.
    • When SpyFu database or scoring chances, the data provided can spike, thus causing confusion among stakeholders, we're reporting to.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Google
    I think Google Ads is good for getting your company out there and becoming more visible to potential customers in general. However, for specific product launches, social media advertising might be a better fit. Also, our user base is younger so social media is a better channel for our target audience.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SpyFu
    Love this tool but would like insights from all 3 major search engines not just Google. I would also like deeper understanding of the placement for local businesses on Google Places/Maps. Insight into mobile search rankings and best landing pages per industry would also help :) Overall, SpyFu is a necessity for serious search marketers.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Google
    This is more of a subjective rating, because I think it can be increased with how much our ad spend is. The more of an ad spend, the more visibility we can get, and therefore all features can climb. With an overall larger presence the usability is that where we can get messages out quick, and that's the main thing we try to do with our campaigns.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SpyFu
    SpyFu is an easy to use tool, and has a self -explanatroy dashborad to generate the data needed to provide insights into any B2B SEO and PPC campaign. It is not comprehensive, but it certainly provides good enough insight to make it a valuable part of any agency tool stack
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Google
    We have not yet had an account rep who hasn't tried to bully me or other employees to raise our budgets. At the same time, several years ago, one attempted to help refine our ads and ended up changing the ads to be something we were not affiliated with
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SpyFu
    SpyFu comes with a link to tutorial videos. I recommend you watch them. The software is capable of so much you really need to watch the videos and learn how to get the most out of it. When I have a question 90% of the time it's there. When it isn't, and I reach out to them, support is always quick and concise.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Google
    Daily use with advanced account structures. Familiarity with reporting/api and complex setups.
    Read full review
    SpyFu
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Google
    Our agency invests heavily in Google Ads (particularly paid search advertising) on behalf of our clients relative to competitors like Microsoft and Yahoo because Google is the top search engine in the world. Google collects the most search data which enables the company to improve its AI to drive better performance for agencies and brands. As such, our paid search and app install campaigns always start with Google. If a client has a large budget, we will allocate media dollars to other search engines, but in some cases, the entire search budget goes to Google because we see the best returns.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SpyFu
    I was surprised to find I preferred Semrush when it comes to keyword research. SpyFu is great (and less expensive than Semrush), but I felt the data Semrush provided was vaster than SpyFu. I was able to get more competitors spending insights in Semrush than SpyFu. Overall, I liked the ability to use both in our keyword research for both paid and organic marketing.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Google
    • Google Ads is often one of our highest ROI channels, especially when you factor in branded ads.
    • Depending on the stage your business is in, search ads can be really powerful from an ROI perspective, providing an investment with a very high spend cap.
    • If you do not manage the campaigns well though, you can quickly spend a lot of money on nothing. So make sure someone is keeping an eye on your account.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SpyFu
    • Helping us track our ranking.
    • It helps solve the problem of ambiguity when it comes to Google Ads. It makes the strategy more clear.
    • You can sift through lots of different online analytics to find the information, but it takes way too long. SpyFu has it all in one place!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots