In the world of pay-per-click advertising, there are three well-known players: Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter. However, there are several other interesting pay-per-click sites you may not be familiar with, which you might find useful.
Clickriver
Clickriver.com is owned and operated by Amazon.com. All ads are circulated on Amazon, and advertisers running ads through Clickriver are therefore able to reach an audience that is looking to shop online.
The pay-per-click interface is very intuitive and should seem familiar to anybody using Google, Yahoo! or MSN. Additionally, you have complete budget flexibility and easy-to-understand reporting, but no internal conversion tracking is provided (you’ll need to use a third-party solution to track results, such as Google Analytics). Clickriver could be an interesting test for your ecommerce website. No set up fee is required to sign up.
Business.com
Don’t let the name throw you off. It seems as if Business.com would be strictly for business owners, but it has attracted thousands of consumers looking for businesses that sell products or offer services. Additionally, Business.com has recently rolled out an interesting filter search that allows an advertiser to deliver ads to the users looking for specific products.
Its interface is based on categories and keywords, making the initial set up a bit tricky. And it doesn’t provide any internal conversion tracking, but does offer very flexible budget controls (daily budget cap, monthly budget cap, total budget cap). This could be an interesting test for service-based businesses.
Facebook
The famous social network has recently released its own pay-per-click program with cost-per-click and cost-per-impression pricing structures. The beauty of advertising on a social network is being able to select specific target demographics. If you have no idea who your target demographics are, you can use Facebook to figure out an audience that is most likely to click on your ads.
Facebook’s interface is intuitive and easy to understand. Reporting includes demographic data, clicks, ad performance and trends. No internal conversion tracking is available. It could be a great traffic channel for an ecommerce business.
Friday, December 14, 2007 · 11:38 AM
Hi Ferdinand,
Thanks for your comment.
I agree that ClickRiver is really in its infancy and that is exactly why it might be a great time to hop in. Run some tests and see if this network makes business sense for you - before it's flooded with thousands of advertisers.
I would disagree with you on Business.com. I've had mixed results with that network but it was often an external issue (price competitiveness, demographic mismatch, etc). I still think it's worth a test. If you're worried about click fraud - sign up for a 3rd party tool such as http://www.adwatcher.com/ and analyze your traffic.
You're right about Facebook users not being a buying mode. But, more often than not, branding aspect is just as important in search marketing as the bottom line ROI. Consider running an add on facebook and see if that boosts your regular search campaigns. It's all about reach and frequency.
Thanks for your input. Keep us posted on your successes.
Greg
-- Greg
Wednesday, December 19, 2007 · 01:35 PM
On the point about searching and researching products, Enquiro Search Marketing did a fantastic study of how business buyers use the internet, including search engines, during multiple phases of the purchase process. You can download the study here - http://www.enquiroresearch.com/b2b-research-2007.aspx - and see a graph of the most interesting finding.
With over 1,000 business buyers in the study, they found that general search engine use is reasonably high throughout the purchasing process, but is highest at the early awareness stages (e.g., I know I need to better organize my business contacts, but don't quite know what products or vendors are most relevant). As buyers proceed through phases, general search engine usage drops, while use of B2B vertical search (like Business.com) and vendor sites increases. Makes sense. General seach engines provide a broad range of information to get you oriented around a general need. At some point, business buyers want to see just a list of relevant vendors, and turn to more specialized sites to easily create this shortlist.
If you market products or services to other businesses, the Enquiro study is definitely worth reviewing to make sure you have a presence in front of buyers throughout the purchase cycle.
-- Ben Hanna
Monday, January 07, 2008 · 05:02 PM
I've closely watched my performance with the big three. There is no question that conversions are lowest (i.e., non-existent) when searches are performed on any of the big three's 'affiliates' sites (a.k.a., little Jim Bob who has set up some kind of typo.com website as a vehicle to land PPC traffic). And I believe this is true because search engine users trust the results on Google/Yahoo/MSN over a site that is unfamiliar to them as a web-searching tool.
In my opinion, that's all that clickeriver (through Amazon), facebook and business.com would be to these people. They might see an ad (and click on it) on any of these alternate PPC sites, but they would (at best) 'verify' their results through any of the big 3 search engines before buying anything.
My logic is a bit tangental, but I think (hope) it makes sense.
Greg S.
www.TheTieBar.com
-- Greg S.
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