Keyword spy software has become extremely popular with marketers who run pay per click campaigns. The best services are generally expensive monthly subscriptions. But recently a new keyword spy application 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 pay per click 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 with 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 that you will only be able to view a small sample of only 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 application and started using it, it will not be long before you spot the tempting UPGRADE button at the bottom of the keyword popup screen - the one that encourages you to purchase the Platinum version of the tool and get up to 100 of the advertiser's best money-making keywords.

Is it truly worth upgrading? Well, if you can absorb the expensive monthly subscription rate of a service like Keyword Spy then I recommend you go with that. You'll get basically unlimited access to ALL the keywords that each advertiser is using to run 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 installed PPC Web Spy you will discover 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 will not be long before you feel strange viewing AdWords advertisements WITHOUT the PPC Web Spy program switched on (there is a toggle in the lower right portion of your Firefox browser which allows you to turn it off).

So how useful is the application?

Initially, when I first downloaded the PPC Web Spy program I noticed that the application would sometimes show the "now loading" icon but refuse to load any keywords. I suspected that the advertisers for these adverts had huge keyword lists. But it appears that the PPC Web Spy service goes through upgrades and when this takes place you will be prompted to re-download the software. This only takes a few seconds and you are back up again (though a browser restart is required). So the service is constantly getting better.

I find that I use the PPC Web Spy program virtually all the time now when initiating Google searches. Is it the BEST keyword spy application out there? No. But I think, for now, it is 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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