• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, July 17, 2011

Hoping to provide automated pay=per-click keyword bidding solutions for more small businesses, WordWatch just raised $1.4 million in Series A financing.

The company helps others monitor and optimize their Google Ad Words campaigns -- which can involve countless keywords -- by automating the PPC bidding process.

Small business owners just don't have the time, expertise or resources to be manaing thousands of keyword bids on their own, said Todd Wilkinson, WordWatch CEO.

The company's bidding engine is powered by algorithms that automatically find the best price bids and conversions -- the idea being that business owners should be able to "set and forget" such operations.

"It is exciting to see small businesses now able to compete head-to-head with big-budget corporate advertisers," said Wilkinson. WordWatch targets advertisers with monthly ad spends as low as $500.

Led by Credo Ventures, WordWatch plans to use the funds to scale its marketing and sales operations in the U.S. and Europe, as well as expands its algorithm operations.

"The costs of PPC advertising have been driven up by large advertisers and agency-managed campaigns," according to Jan Habermann, a partner at Credo Ventures. He says WordWatch is a "specially geared to give small business the technology boost they need to compete and win."