Aori

Everyone who works with paid search day in, day out knows how labor-intensive it is. Additionally, we all know how paid search suffers from EOAE syndrome (Everyone's An Expert) courtesy of Google making it so accessible. I can't remember how I came across Aori just now I'm afraid (goes off to look at history) ah yes, I was looking for, ahem, a 'Google responsive display ads generator' (it's been a long day, leave me alone) and if any PPC headline has ever spoken to me it was 'The #1 Google Ads SKAG Tool | Stop Doing Tons Of Manual Work‎' The interface is pretty lovely, the entire concept is clearly built out by someone who actually understands search and the importance of it, rather than just making the right noises. That free / low price point entry is perfect for me, as I'm using it on my own thing right now, which is important as it's my PPC £££. It might well not be the first bit of tech I've come across that I use because it speaks to one of my issues and I then role out when client / agency side on a business slightly better-known than my own. Oh yes, that Aori Google ad headline spoke to me specifically as I spent some time last year explaining SKAGS to someone pretty senior in the digital team in a major business in Madrid - didn't know what I was talking about, then a few months later was explaining the concept to a Director of Search of one of those usual-suspect, global planning / buying agencies - didn't know what I was talking about. It's all looking good so far, but it is early days for me (about an hour) I'll get back to you on it kids. Right, yes, as expected I am having a lovely time using it. If you're only a simple fellow, like me, it helps to absolutely clearly see in front of you the relevance of your creative against each specific search term.There's enough work in Single Keyword Ad Groups as it stands, the way Aori is helping me manage workflow (I am sure proper grown-ups manage with Excel ya know, but come on, I have a lot to do here) is making life easier. +++ UPDATE +++ Wait a minute, those default settings are a bit of a problem. Any bids set up in Google are overwritten every time you upload updated SKAGs? It says these ‘Can be changed later in Google Ads’. Okay, *thanks* for that. The Sync is one way, I can’t Get any changes made in Google Ads prior to updating SKAGS and syncing again. This is absolutely a requirement as every day here starts updating negs to the shared library, adding more specific creative, tweaking bids, which is kinda the whole point of a SKAG approach. Aori does say to use Aori to manage campaigns. Right, that’s a long way off being feasible. The dashboard doesn’t appear to have the right numbers in it at all. That and Aori’s cavalier approach to actual bidding strategies (overwriting them every upload) means it’s a big old NO to that. <<< this might have been a glitch, it didn't do it this morning. I tried the Bing builder too. It looked like I did have to start from scratch, I couldn’t copy the Adwords work and have Aori convert and upload it to Bing. Additionally, the Finish screen for Bing still talks about Google. All in all making Aori look like an early Beta that has a way to go before being fit for market. The above being said, it does a damn fine job of building out the adgroups and creative, as long as you use the DKI properly. +++ Summary +++ I imagine some clever agency-side folk out there have built in-house proprietary tools to do this job. I’ve not much idea what the Marins and Kenshoos of the world do these days, I’m all hands-on and old school. There’s probably a big XLSX with macros and shiz floating about somewhere that does something similar. I’m going to continue to explore it while my 7 day trial lasts. I’ll try downloading instead of syncing later and see how Adwords Editor gets on with it. Aori clearly still has work to do too. <<< However, I want it to work ya know. I will most certainly be using it first thing tomorrow, undoubtedly to do something I should be doing with adwords editor or something else, but that's the whole point of something like this, it makes stuff easier / better and adwords editor does not really lend itself that well to SKAG management. I'd love to stay with it, but my low price point product at the mo doesn't justify the monthly cost. It's made me want to work harder on exploring other options / ways of doing stuff. Definitely one to keep an eye on though kids.

Been using this product for a month. TL;DR - Great platform and has potential but not worth spending money on right now. Pros: - UX is good, clean and neat. - The Campaign builder is great, saves time and is intuitive Cons: - Sync with Google AdWords is temperamental. Their support says it syncs every 30 minutes. Whereas, in reality it took over 1 hour (on average) for a successful sync. - Customer Support: It seems there are two people and usually not helpful if your questions are technical. - Autosaving - If you are busy creating variations of ads and refresh, you loose everything in the campaign except the keywords.

Been using Aori for over a year now. Great product, the team is very helpful if something goes wrong and quick to respond. Saves loads of time creating SKAGs. I used to do all this by myself using excel but the system Aori has seat up cuts down loads of time. Tried a few alternatives and always go back to Aori, they seem to be the industry standard when it comes to creating Single Keyword Ad Group Campaigns. Looking forward to the new product updates and features soon to be released. Keep up the good work!