The Google Analytics Keyword Sleuth (developed by Michael Harrison) is a third-party tool that "captures and displays an ongoing list of new keywords and phrases straight from your customer's
mind," says Mark Curtis. "We're often advised to 'imagine what your customers are typing before they see your ads, then bid on those keywords.' With the Keyword Sleuth in place, you don't have to
imagine anything. They've already told you."
Meanwhile, Google has its own makeshift query analysis report, the Search Query Performance Report (SQPR)--and while both tools were
developed with the same purpose, search marketers get vastly different benefits when using them.
For example, ROI Revolution found that Keyword Sleuth is more than 900 times faster
than the SQPR, and it offers 500 rows of data per page, in contrast to the SQPR's 100. Search queries on the SQPR are not matched to their corresponding bid term--it just reports the keyword match
type (like broad matching)--while Keyword Sleuth does. Google's SQPR shows AdWords click data like impressions, CTR and average position, while Keyword Sleuth shows site data like page views, bounce
rate and transactions.
"Google's Search Query Performance Report is a good report that can be very useful," Curtis says. "But, having used both, it clearly pales in comparison to the convenience and the flexibility that the Keyword Sleuth offers."