What is WordStream? And Other Frequently Asked Questions...

The following is a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ's) about WordStream. If you have a question that isn't answered here or if there is anything you feel should be added to the FAQs, please feel free to contact us.

Business FAQs

This section provides answers to questions pertaining to your business; specifically the various in which WordStream can impact and support it.

What is WordStream, in Layman's Terms?

WordStream is an integrated keyword management solution for addressing the complexities of efficiently optimizing and expanding PPC and SEO efforts involving large numbers of keywords, on an ongoing, continuous basis. Think of the software as your very own private, scalable online keyword workbench for conducting:

Keyword Discovery
Keyword Research
Keyword Analysis & Keyword Analytics
Keyword Grouping & Keyword Organization
Tools for Finding Negative Keywords
... and so many other integrated Keyword Tools

And beyond that, tools for actually taking action on your keyword research by providing integrated PPC tools and SEO Tools including:

Alternatively, some of our customers have told us that they think of our Keyword Management Solution as simply being the Next-Generation Keyword Tool, or essentially a way to do a lot of the time consuming keyword research tasks that they were already doing in Microsoft Excel.

Why WordStream and not other tools?

Why WordStream? Because no other PPC or SEO software available today offers the complete range of functionality and benefits that our keyword management solution provides in one powerful, integrated platform. Read more about our product design philosophy to see how WordStream facilitates search marketing best practices that other tools short-change or ignore.

What are the benefits of using WordStream?

The key benefits of using WordStream are:

Productivity — WordStream can handle most of the more redundant and repetitive (yet necessary) PPC and SEO tasks, particularly around working with large numbers of keywords. Additionally we provide PPC and SEO workflow tools so that you can better focus your limited time on the areas of greatest opportunity for optimization.
Relevance — By providing search marketers with a highly relevant, extensive, proprietary and continuous stream of keyword and negative keyword opportunities, and by providing integrated tools to help you keep your keyword research both up-to-date and highly organized, and by providing integrated tools to act on keyword data, you can better execute both PPC and SEO.
Value — Saving time and money while simultaneously improving relevancy and conversion rates results in greater value out of both your paid and natural search marketing efforts.

Find out more about how your business can benefit from using WordStream for Keyword Management by taking at look at our Search Marketing Solutions.

What kind of results do WordStream customers experience?

WordStream customers experience exceptional productivity gains in simplifying search marketing best practices, which results in steady and predictable results. WordStream is constantly learning and refining your campaigns such that you'll see consistent refinement and continual growth.

That said, not unlike any tool or service, WordStream isn't a no-hands panacea search solution. The most successful WordStream customers are generally those who:

Have read and follow our Best Practices Guide.
Consult our free collection of WordStream Tutorials when necessary.
Perform regular campaign maintenance (as outlined in the above materials).

Read about the kinds of results our customers are experiencing using WordStream by browsing through our customer case studies and user reviews.

What sort of companies use WordStream?

Companies large and small, from all sorts of different verticals utilize WordStream to grow their online businesses every day. Clients who tend to get the most out of our product offering include:

Advertisers that currently have an existing online advertising budget, and have defined website offers (such as online sign-ups, an online shop, a downloadable trial, request for more information forms, etc.)
Agencies who are looking to increase productivity and develop scalable solutions for their clients.

To get a better idea of the many different types of companies using WordStream for so many different usages, take a look at our customer case studies and user reviews.

How much do I need to know about Search Engine Marketing to be able to use WordStream effectively?

WordStream Keyword Management Solutions were designed to eliminate the guesswork out of Search Marketing and is a valuable tool for beginners and seasoned search marketers alike. A lot of important SEO and PPC tasks around keyword discovery, keyword research, keyword grouping, keyword organization, and prioritization are data-driven (as opposed to a black art) and WordStream makes this very easy and intuitive for any user.

WordStream is designed to automate the process of creating profitable search marketing campaigns. WordStream's robust set of keyword research and suggestion tools, ad text creation and editorial aids, and intuitive keyword grouping and visualization capabilities mean that the application can be used effectively by literally anyone.

How does WordStream help me Continuously create and grow optimized Pay-Per-Click marketing campaigns?

WordStream provides you with a number of tools that automate the most time and labor intensive tasks necessary for the creation and growth of pay-per-click campaigns including tools for keyword research, keyword suggestion, keyword organization and many other solutions.

But unlike static spreadsheets or keyword lists provided by 3rd party keyword tools, WordStream is a dynamic system that is constantly discovering new keyword opportunities and automatically updating your keyword research, and is learning about your taxonomy based on what newly discovered keywords you accept and reject. Furthermore, it makes that data actionable in such a way that you can exploit market inefficiencies and gain an advantage in search marketing over your competitors.

Why do I need WordStream?

You need WordStream because building and optimizing PPC and SEO campaigns is labor and resource intensive. WordStream's monthly subscription fee more than pays for itself in the gains in productivity, relevancy and value the software offers.

Are WordStream technologies patented?

Yes. WordStream technologies are unique and are patented with the USPTO.

Does WordStream share or aggregate my keyword data with any third parties

No. We view your keywords are a valuable, proprietary marketing asset, much like a customer list. We do not share or aggregate any customer keyword data with any third party. Your keyword data is stored in a private keyword database accessible only by you, and users that are explicitly authorized by you, and even then, only via a secure HTTPS connection.

How can I try it out?

Just sign up for a risk-free, no obligation free trial of WordStream today.

Product FAQ's

Below is a list of technical questions, and a series of high-level descriptions of the technology behind WordStream. For more in-depth descriptions of how the product works, please see our Technical Support FAQ.

Technically speaking, what does WordStream do for me?

Technically speaking, WordStream is a highly scalable, private keyword database with a rich Web-Based user-interface for viewing and working with your keywords. To get started, you can populate your keyword database by aggregating keyword data from various data sources like Web Server Log files, Web analytics reports, search query reports, third party keyword tools, or dynamically via a JavaScript Tracker. Once you've loaded all your keyword data and made it dynamic, you can then work on that keyword data. What kind of work you ask? Probably a lot of tasks that you're currently doing manually in Microsoft Excel, but for which it clearly wasn't designed for. For example, using WordStream you can easily and continuously conduct:

Keyword Discovery & Negative Keyword Discovery
Keyword Research & Keyword Analytics
Keyword Grouping & Keyword Organization
Search Marketing Workflow & Prioritization

In addition to these keyword tools, WordStream also provides integrated, actionable tools that leverage your Keyword research to Build & Optimize PPC and SEO - for example, you can turn Keyword Groups into Ad Groups, and so much more.

WordStream believes that because SEO and PPC activities are such data-driven activities, that your keyword taxonomy is a valuable, proprietary company asset, and that the organizing, prioritizing, coordinating & executing of PPC and SEO efforts around a comprehensive, well-researched and up-to-date taxonomy is the key to achieving PPC and SEO success.

What are the key features of WordStream?

WordStream offers a number of features unique to the application that facilitate the development and growth of high performance pay-per-click search engine marketing campaigns. Key features of the software include:

Keyword Discovery Tools — Tools for discovering potentially millions of relevant keywords by mining Web Server Log Files, Web Analytics, third-party keyword tools, built-in Keyword Tools, or dynamically via a JavaScript Tracker.
Keyword Analytics and Keyword Research — Tools for visually analyzing keywords based such as Goal conversions, actual visits, Keyword Goal, length, and other keyword properties .
Keyword Workbench — WordStream offers an integrated workbench for working with keywords, including aggregating keywords, grouping and organizing keywords, de-duplicating, deleting, and many other keyword manipulation tools.
Pay Per Click Publishing Tools — Interface with the API of major search engines, so that you can instantly turn keyword research into live PPC ad groups on Google AdWords, Yahoo Search, or Microsoft AdCenter.
Keyword Workflow Tools — Prioritize PPC and SEO tasks and enable effective collaboration among a team of individual contributors.

The easiest way to learn about the many features of WordStream is to sign up for the free trial today.

How is WordStream different from traditional keyword research tools?

The most powerful advantage offered by WordStream over traditional keyword research tools is that it's a private keyword tool. Every keyword tool on the market today is a public keyword tool. This means if you buy the keyword tool or subscribe to their service (or if it's free), you get access to their keyword data; but everyone gets access to the same database. Same keyword suggestions, same keyword search query estimates, etc. But how are you supposed to get a competitive advantage if everyone is using the same public keyword suggestion tools?

WordStream on the other hand, is built on the idea that your keyword taxonomy is a proprietary and valuable asset. We provide you with the means to build your own private keyword database and conduct keyword research that is personalized to your market segment, which provides the following benefits:

Exclusivity — WordStream offers you a wholly unique list of keywords to bid on. Because these terms have been mined from your website's logs and WordStream's Web analytics tools, they are specific to your site. Your competitors couldn't possibly create or duplicate this list of terms (not true of traditional keyword research tools, which offer their entire customer base the same information).
Relevancy — Additionally, these exclusive terms are highly relevant; you know this because people have already searched on these terms to reach your Website. It's not a static list of vague terms that everyone else is already bidding on.

In addition to providing exclusive, relevant keyword opportunities, WordStream further surpasses the utility provided by conventional tools by providing a comprehensive, integrated suite for keyword management. As a result, your keyword data is far more:

Dynamic - WordStream the only the keyword research tool that automates the continuous process of discovering and organizing new keywords.
Actionable — WordStream doesn't just provide lists of keywords, we integrate keyword data with a powerful keyword workbench for conducting keyword analytics, keyword research, negative keyword discovery, keyword grouping & organization, PPC & SEO workflow tools, and tools for taking action on keyword research.

How is WordStream different from traditional PPC automated bid management tools?

While traditional PPC tools focus on bid manipulation, WordStream is instead designed to increase the relevancy and organization of your keywords, ad groups, ad text and landing pages in such a way that maximizes Quality Score. Higher Quality Score results is lower minimum bids, lower first page bid estimates, better ad positions, and even better conversion rates.

Our software solutions are designed to simplify many of the tedious (yet critically important) keyword research and organization best practices associated with constructing effective PPC search marketing campaigns.

Furthermore, WordStream offers continuous keyword research, actionable Web analytics, and text ad creation and editing tools that will help you in the ongoing construction and building-out of a well-optimized pay-per-click ad campaign.

How is WordStream different from traditional Web Analytics Tools?

Web analytics tools typically provide historical visitor segmentation data allowing you to analyze (hence the "analytics") what people are doing on your website and where they came from. WordStream's marketing analytics tools are focused on providing highly actionable insights for search. Our software offers you integrated tools so that you can automatically act on those insights in order to continuously grow your search engine marketing campaigns.

How is WordStream different from Microsoft Excel

The vast majority of search marketers use Microsoft Excel to conduct some or all of their keyword research and campaign management tasks for PPC or SEO, to the point where Microsoft Excel is the world’s most popular search marketing tool. But Microsoft Excel wasn’t designed for search marketing, and so there are many ways where spreadsheets fall short, for example:

Not dynamic: You can create a spreadsheet to include a list of keywords, but the spreadsheet stays static, waiting for you to update it with new search queries, keywords to target, visit counts, etc.
No relationships: You can place keywords in different spreadsheet columns or tabs, but you can’t create smart hierarchical associations between families of keywords to more easily organize, classify and assign rules and settings across your keyword taxonomy.
Difficult to maintain: Every time you get a new set of data, you have to re-factor the new data into your old spreadsheet, or start again from scratch, restructuring your spreadsheet to synchronize the new insights, which is time-consuming and tedious.
Difficult to do keyword research work – You have to write your own macros to perform various tasks like de-duplication, grouping, etc.
Can't aggregate keyword data: If you have a list of keywords with associated visit totals from Google, some from a third party keyword, some from your web analytics, it’s very difficult to determine how I would scale and integrate all of these data points.
Not collaborative: If you have multiple people working on an account, it's very difficult to update the spreadsheet and ensure that everyone is both on the same page and adhering to internally agreed upon best practices.
Not secure: How do you manage access to your valuable keyword data in a secure way.
Not scalable: Excel is not designed to handle millions of keywords as is common for large scale PPC and SEO campaign management.

WordStream on the other hand, aims to fix all of the problems with working with spreadsheets for search marketing, for example:

Keyword discovery is continuous and dynamic
You can create hierarchical (tree-like) relationships between keyword groupings (keyword taxonomies)
You can easily manage potentially millions of keywords
Your private, keyword database is self organizing based on based on rules you create.
We provide integrated tools for working with your keywords, like keyword research, analysis, grouping, organization, finding negative keywords.
You can seamlessly act on keyword research using our integrated SEO tools and/or PPC tools
You have a central, secure, and up-to-date repository for all your keyword research.
You have a shared workspace for anyone working on all things related to search marketing and campaign management, enabling for better collaboration.

What does WordStream product workflow look like?

WordStream offers clear, concise work flow suggestions that you can act on with a single click. By utilizing these analytical and visualization tools, WordStream customers can identify bloated Ad Groups that need to be further segmented, and can determine which Ad Groups are over or under performing.

This functionality allows you to distinguish low-hanging fruit from superfluous over-optimization.

How much time should i dedicate to using WordStream each week?

While WordStream's automated search marketing solutions greatly increase productivity and perform tasks that render untold man-hours unnecessary, your accounts still require attention, and the more time you dedicate to their maintenance, the better your results will be.

What are the System Requirements for using WordStream?

WordStream is a hosted, Web-based application. The only system requirements to run WordStream are a Web browser that supports Flash 9.x (which is essentially any Web browser).

WordStream can optionally post keywords directly to Google AdWords; to use this feature, you'll need an existing Google AdWords account.

Additionally, WordStream offers log parsing functionality, which is compatible with most server log file types.

If I have a technical question that isn't answered here, where should I go to find the answer?

You'll likely be able to find the answers to technical questions in our technical support faq.

Misc FAQs

Any questions that don't qualify as being business, technical, or sales wind up here.

What's with the product name? Why is it called "WordStream"?

Search marketing is about words. You're attempting to have your message (another way of saying "words") show in response to a potential consumer's search (more words).

The art and science of successful search engine marketing is largely reliant upon:

Word Selection - Finding the right keywords so that your message is being delivered to an audience that is not just receptive, but eager to hear it; searchers are by definition seeking something, after all.
Word Valuation - Paying the right price for the right words is central to reaching your business goals.
The Way You Organize Your Words - Formatting your content properly and finding the perfect message is a central part of creating awareness and generating sales through search.

Ultimately, marketing products via search is a highly complex Q and A. A series of searchers ask a multitude of questions. Meanwhile you're tasked with not only identifying the questions that pertain to you or your client (a pretty big task in and of itself) but also with coming up with relevant, compelling answers.

The central, unifying fact through all of this seeking and finding is that the vehicle for discovery is words.

At WordStream, we arm you with tools that will help you to:

Discover relevant keywords while weeding irrelevant or ineffective words and phrases.
Determine relative values for the keywords you keep.
Generate content and ad text that will effectively respond to the specific search queries you are advertising against or trying to rank for.

Our products create an unending flow of words and offer you tools for their continuous cultivation.

You guys talk a lot about "actalytics". What is that, exactly?

"Actalytics" is Web analytics you can act on.

A good actalytics platform will make both your analysis and your optimization efforts more effective. It should:

Automate Analysis - A full-featured actalytics platform will provide you with the ability to create settings so that you can generate custom reports that provide you with the exact information you'll need to build-out and maintain successful search marketing campaigns.
Fuse Analytic Data with Productivity Enhancing Tools - Having created such an environment, actalytics software then introduces these specially crafted reports into the very tool-set you are using to do the work associated with successful pay-per-click and organic search engine marketing campaigns.

Basically, actalytics means strategically marrying the information that you collect with the work that you do to make you a more efficient and effective marketer.

Why Should I Care About Actalytics?

Because you shouldn't be separating the ideas telling you what you should be doing from the tools that let you do it. This melding of the things you know with the things you do provides you with two key advantages:

Improved Efficiency - You can make better decisions faster by integrating streamlined, search-focused insights into the platform on which you are actually structuring and editing your paid search campaigns.
Better Results - This unique design eliminates latency in implementation and allows you to swiftly and properly respond to the activity surrounding your PPC campaigns and your overall website traffic. This ensures that you're able to "get to" each of the tasks in question. Couple this with intelligent management and workflow suggestions, and you're in a position to do more work in the same amount of time (since analysis can be pivoted and instantly turned into action) and to have that work be more impactful and beneficial to your bottom line.

Why is it so important to combine analytics with optimization efforts within a software platform?

Because when you can pull together analytics, automation, and action, you improve the performance of each:

Analytics -You ensure that your analytics are targeted to the activities you perform and will directly benefit your optimization process. Additionally, you can apply rules that allow you to automate the analysis of data; so that you'll be delivered real time, customized reporting that you can act on.
Automation - Automation without the benefit of information has the capacity to do as much harm as good to your advertising campaigns. Leveraging analytic insights you deem particularly relevant to your campaigns in the automation of processes makes your automation that much more efficient.
& Action - The power of advertising via the Web is that interaction with your site is incredibly trackable. You can use this fact to ensure that the actions you take are informed and help you achieve your goals.

Thus, the actalytics platform whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

What does your actalytics platform do that others can't?

WordStream is the only search marketing tool of its kind. Beyond being the first and only keyword management platform, however, we also offer a unique opportunity to create settings for:

Automation
Analysis
Work

By utilizing our paid search management, SEO management, and other workflow tools, you are able to customize the way you recieve analytic reports, and the way you optimize your campaigns. This enables you to go even further than the basic tenants of combining analytics with action by folding automation into the bargain.

What do people say about WordStream?

Here's what people are saying:

WordStream is awesome! - Casey, Amphibian.com
It helps with content topic selections and on-page SEO - Rebecca, The Mommy Saver

So there you have it - helpful and awesome! read more reviews here

What is the difference between the Free Keyword Tool and WordStream Keyword Management Solutions

We make an important distinction between our free keyword tool and our subscription-based keyword management solution:

The Free Keyword Tool is better than anything else out there. If you're currently paying for a keyword discovery tool, there's really no longer any reason to do so. We'll give you more relevant keyword suggestions (over a billion of them), and it's also faster and free.
If you're interested in doing more with your keywords, our keyword management solution that allows search marketers to efficiently and profitably understand, organize and act on their own keywords and analytics, the most precise and valuable data source an advertiser or optimizer has.

For more information about our Free Keyword Tool, please see the Free Keyword Tool FAQ.

Sales FAQs

Learn more about licensing WordStream's keyword management solutions:

Can I try before I buy?

Yes. We're confident that after having actually used the product you're sure to find the service invaluable. You can sign up for a risk-free, no obligation free trial today.

How is WordStream licensed?

WordStream is licensed for a monthly service fee. Please see our pricing page for more information.

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