How To Choose A Pay Per Click Search Engine

Which search engines are your ads displayer on? For example Overture (now called Yahoo Search) distributes ads to many of the big players like Yahoo, MSN, Sympatico.ca, Altavista, CNN, etc. Findwhat distributes to smaller niche directories as well as medium sized players like Dogpile and Excite.

If you have a large mainstream site you might want to go with the larger ppc engines, which naturally get more traffic. If you are on a limited budget and have a smaller, niche site you might want to choose a smaller ppc engine.

#2 What's The Minimum Cost Per Click

The larger engines like Overture have a higher minimum cost per click of $0.10 whereas smaller engines like 7search have bids starting at $0.01.

Again, however this can be a case of 'you get what you pay for'. Although you may have a higher cost per click - the quality of the traffic might be significantly better so your conversion rate is higher. The only real way to know is to test results.

#3 Do They Have An Affiliate Program

Many ppc engines have affiliate programs (where they pay affiliates a percentage of the ppc revenue to host ads on their site). This isn't necessarily a bad thing - and this 'context' advertising generally will cost you less than having your ads displayed on the search engine site itself.

However it can be a source of click fraud as affiliates click on your ad just to get paid. Look for a ppc engine that is large enough to monitor potential click fraud. It's also nice if they offer separate Context advertising and Keyword/Search Engine advertising. (Some ppc engines that offer this include Overture, Kanoodle and Google.)

#4 How Much Traffic Do They Generate

This can be a difficult question to answer as some ppc search engines say they get millions of searches - however your ads tend to get very few clicks.

While you can get a general idea of who are the big players and who are the smaller ppc players - the only real way to find out is through experience.

#5 How Much is the Initial Deposit

Look for initial deposits of $50 or less and be very cautious of smaller ppc engines that ask for $50 or more. I don't mind a large deposit with bigger ppc engines like Overture or Findwhat because I know they are trustworthy.

However if I've never heard of you before and I'm not sure you have the resources to deal with click fraud or deliver high quality traffic, I'm not handing you more than $25.

#6 What Kind Of Reports & Tracking Do They Offer

While the kind of reports and tracking you want will vary with your website needs, most serious web owners want to track their results. They want to find out what works and what doesn't work.

Most larger ppc engines offer solid reporting and tracking. Smaller ppc engines may not necessarily be able to offer as many options.

#7 How Fast Do Keywords & Changes Get Approved

This is sometimes very difficult to find out. You can try looking around the engine's website or visiting their FAQ pages. Some ppc engines will tell you their turnaround time and some won't.

You might have to find out for yourself. From my experience, I've found that Overture (now called Yahoo Search) is very fast to get keywords approved. Enhance and 7Search are also quite good.

So those are 7 areas to consider before choosing a pay per click provider. Just remember that it is a learning process - but the benefits will be worth it when you see those sales start to role in!

-----

Was this article helpful? This article on 'How To Choose A Pay Per Click Search Engine' is one of several articles to be found in our Pay Per Click Tips Section