Best Ways to Test 2nd and 3rd tier PPC search engines
I previously warned advertisers to avoid using 2nd- and 3rd-tier PPC search engines. However, certain advertisers who work as PPC managers in the in-house environment may not entirely agree. When you are one of those advertisers who must try out (and stick with) the smaller paid search engines, below are the ways (and attitudes) to test them.
Set Expectations
Never expect the lower-tier PPC search engines to perform better or even similar to the top search engines. The best is to initially set lower expectations. The top tier PPC platforms are just too powerful regarding click volume and demographics, user experience (with platform functionalities), bid-gap reduction (or discounter), and click fraud protection.
Set Priorities
Test the 2nd-tier search engines before the 3rd-tiers. It is certain that there is no way you are going to try out a search engine which is totally unknown before a better known second-tier PPC search engine (such as Miva.com).
If your products (or services) are in a specific industry (or niche), you may want to first consider spending on PPC search engines that are in your industry. For example, advertisers who have websites that are of B2B nature may want to first test Business.com or Gowholesale.com.
Also, if your strength is on search targeting but not on content targeting, you should first test on other search engines that have search targeting platforms, rather than jumping into contextual advertising (e.g. Adbrite).
Get the Data
If the PPC search engine ranks your ads by using a metric such as Clickthrough rate (CTR = Click / Impression), then it makes sense for the search engine to provide the data so that you can analyze the performance on all levels (campaign, adgroup, keyword and even ad).
Some PPC search engines (such as Ask.com Sponsored Listings, with its new platform) do apply CTR when ranking ads, but unfortunately do not provide Impression in any of the reports. This causes performing basic analysis and advanced optimization very difficult. Advertisers may well be wasting their marketing budgets.
Test the Best Keywords and Ads (Only and No More)
First test the 2nd- and 3rd- PPC search engines with the best keywords and best ads from your top-tier PPC search engines (e.g. Adwords). If your best ads and keywords cannot do well on a search engine, the chance for other keywords and ads that go down the best performing list to perform well is slim.
You may be wasting your valuable time by dumping your entire Adwords keyword list into a smaller search engine, unless there is a simple mass migration solution across different PPC platforms.
Detect Click Fraud
Use a click fraud detection system if possible. Either sign up for one or use your own (if you have developed one). Simply Google ‘Click Fraud Detection’ and you should find loads of related results or even a system that will suit your need.
Make Tough Decisions
You can only test before you find out. However, if nothing works well for you, you will have to decide whether you should spend your marketing budgets and time somewhere else.
Posted on October 21, 2007
Filed Under Search Engines | 10 Comments
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[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerptI previously warned advertisers to avoid using 2nd- and 3rd-tier PPC search engines. However, certain advertisers who work as PPC managers in the in-house environment may not entirely agree. When you are one of those advertisers who … [...]
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[...] Choi lays out some solid guidelines for testing 2nd and 3rd tier PPC search engines in this post. His advice ranges from setting expectations and priorities, researching before [...]
Don’t count on much click volume from the 2nd & 3rd tier search engines.
Large advertisers looking to capture a greater “share of voice” will want to expand into this territory. These are the same advertisers that Google & Yahoo and MSN can’t deliver the amount of clicks for the amount of their Insertion Orders.
But, for the average advertiser, it probably would behoove them with the limited budget, to shoot for a greater “Share of Voice” in Google/Yahoo/MSN, instead of spreading themselves thin by using 2nd & 3rd tier Search Engines.
While Ask (which uses Looksmart’s plattform, so same deal with Looksmart reports) does not offer impressions in its reports. It does offer CTR and clicks, which makes it easy to figure impressions.
clicks/ctr=impressions.
I have a few years experience working for a third tier search engine, and it may border on incredibly obvious, but BEWARE the search platform that limits your access to their information – namely, conversion rates.
If you have the ability to track your metrics on your back end, by all means experiment with some of the less storied PPC platforms, however the average advertiser should be wary about search platforms that limit the information advertisers can easily obtain.
You definitely want to use conversion tracking outside of the engine’s own tracking systems. You don’t want multiple different tracking scripts on your site and the more engines/scripts, the more over-reporting you’ll have. Each engine that has delivered a click to your site from an individual user will take credit for a sale from that user (if you use their scripts)…..
[...] Certainly, the more experienced the team the more revenues you are likely to get out of your campaigns. The responsibilities of the PPC team will be to set up overall paid search strategies, and continuously manage and optimize campaigns. The team will also be responsible for growing the campaigns by looking for other paid search related opportunities. This may include expanding into multiple PPC search engines. [...]
[...] Using Google Adwords to buy your ppc can be expensive and might only yield you a small profit. One way to ensure some success with arbitrage is to use Second Tier PPC engines. [...]
[...] After tested a few 2nd and 3rd tier PPC search engines that have worked well according to your expected ROI, you may want to continue with them. However, [...]