What do you use for SEM documentation?

[GeorgeDavis]

I am looking for a more streamlined method of documenting our paid-search adjustments as we make changes over long periods of time.  Currently we're using a combination of Google Analytics annotations and a ridiculously unorganized shared excel sheet.  The sheet contains a list of some 100-200 keywords/ads that have not worked well in the past for us for whatever reason. i.e. :

Keyword : Basket Weaving

Date Ran : 3/1/11 - 9/7/11

Action : Paused

Reason : Conversions from this keyword had a 0% sale rate.

We generally reference this sheet if we are thinking about adding new keywords or doing some product research, just to make sure we aren't experimenting with stuff that failed miserably in the past.

Essentially I was hoping someone could recommend a plugin or piece of software that tracks notes on keyword or ad changes so that we can go back and reference those in the future.  If not an automated method, then perhaps if you feel your own tracking method would help me to be more organized, or quicker.

[Justin_Vanning]

That's a great question...I actually just rely on a trusty old spreadsheet like you've been using. I never delete ads or keywords unless they are super old. I will do an export after pausing a lot of ads/keywords and make sure I put notes next to each ad/keyword to say why I paused it. Then whenever I do keyword expansion or ad optimization, I reference this sheet and perform a "remove duplicates" search before uploading any new keywords.

Would be great if there was a plugin of some sort out there but I just don't know of any off the top of my head. If you find one, let me know. Thanks!

-Justin