They just make the data collection easier and quicker so you can spend more time implementing the intelligence you gain. Everything these tools do you could do on your own.. it would just take a lot longer and would be more tedious.

It would be like saying it’s not fair for an author to use a Microsoft Word to write his book rather than just pen and paper. Progress my friend.

-Matt Levenhagen

I agree with your assessment that where you are taking these visitors and what you are doing with them there is more important than monitoring everybody else’s campaign.

In any case, if you are in a heavyweight market you will be looking at the SERPS often enough to know what your competition are doing and what ad positions they are bidding on. And your competition will be doing the same thing.

People shouldn’t be buying these tools until they can make good money doing it manually. It’s not the skis, it’s the skier.