Are tools like SpyFu very accurate for keyword research?

[Unique]

SpyFu promotes itself as being able to slice keyword research time quickly by typing in competitor information and instantly seeing which keywords have been most profitable for them by looking at how long they've been running ads, CTRs etc.

But I've also read that most of the "spy tools" are using scraped data that is several months old...

So are Spy Tools worth investing into as tools for CPA or are they mostly hype?

Have any of you found any of them to be accurate in their CPC / Clicks-per-Day etc. data?

 

[Dreo13]

A lot of the data is old, but can give you a decent starting list of keywords... But if you really want up to date stats etc, use Erect's service - Campaign Sniper.

 

[scubaslick]

I've tried a few of these services and the results are always skewed. My guess is that it's because they buy data from ISPs to get their information. Since the ISPs willing to sell the data are mostly regional, they don't have particularly accurate national/international information to work with.

As Dreo13 said, it can be great for saving time in finding base keywords since very few advertisers bother to geographically segment their keyword selection, you can get a good idea of the overall keywords being bid on by an advertiser with these tools. But as far as positioning, profitability etc goes... not so much.

I haven't used Erect's service, so I can't speak about it directly, but I've been here a couple years (even with the low post count - I read a lot here), and Erect is a smart sumbitch, so you probably can't go wrong there.

And don't forget google. They'll actually give you pretty damned good insight into what people are looking for and willing to pay for keywords.