Beginner's Guide to Pay Per Click Search Engines (Part 2)
By Kalena Jordan
In Part
1 of this article, we looked at the various
pay for performance advertising models offered
by Yahoo! Search Marketing. In this
article, we
will look at the remaining pay for performance
search engine models on our list, starting with
Google AdWords.
Google AdWords
Similar to Yahoo! Sponsored Search, Google
AdWords gives web site owners the ability to
promote their site when particular keyword or
key phrase searches are conducted at Google and
their partner sites.
Your ads usually appear on the right side of
results pages in a "call out" box under the
heading "Sponsored Links". Your AdWords text or
image ads appear on search result pages for the
keywords you buy, and can be targeted by
language and country.
With Google AdWords' cost-per-click (CPC)
pricing, you pay only when a customer clicks on
your ad, regardless of how many times it's
shown. Google adjusts your bids
automatically to keep you ahead of your
competition at the lowest
possible price. Google Adwords results
appear on
Google search results pages, Google's
distribution partner sites, Google Gmail, and
numerous content sites which are syndicated
through the Google Adsense program.
For more information on Google AdWords, Click Here.
Google AdSense
Google AdSense is a way for webmasters to
generate income from their sites by displaying
text or image advertisements from companies
participating in the Google AdWords program.
You can display targeted advertising for your
content pages or you can add a Google
search box to your site and show targeted ads on
search
results pages. When visitors click on these ads,
Google pays you a fee. The ads are
targeted to
the content already on your page so they are not
as intrusive to your visitors.
For more information on Google AdSense, Click
Here.
LookSmart LookListings
The LookSmart
Directory originally offered a Paid
Submission model and then transformed it into a
Pay For Performance model, removing their
Express Submit directory submission
service and
receiving a lot of criticism in the process.
To have your site included in
LookSmart.com, you must pay a per click
fee when visitors click on
your listing, similar to the Yahoo! Search
Submit Express model. The "relevancy keywords",
title and description chosen during the set up
of your listing determine when your site appears
for searches.
There is no free submission option to
Looksmart
and the only way to get your site into their
directory is to either pay for their
LookListings or submit your site via the Zeal Directory,
which is only an option available to non-profit
sites.
LookSmart LookListings work like this:
1) Create Your Listing which includes:
- site description & title
- relevancy keywords (for keyword targeted
listings)
- directory category
2) Set Your Monthly Budget:
- set your maximum monthly budget
- set your maximum click rates for each URL (for
keyword targeted listings)
- your account is debited USD 0.15 per click
(for inclusion-targeted listings)
- minimum account deposit totaling your maximum
monthly budget
- each campaign has a minimum monthly budget of
USD 15
3) Account Management
- traffic reporting
- automatic monthly account refills (from your
nominated credit card)
- adjust your budget
- update description, title and relevancy
keywords
- bids monitored automatically (for keyword
targeted listings)
LookListings appear on sites across the
LookSmart Network including LookSmart,
Lycos,Mamma.com and CNET Search.
For more information on LookSmart
LookListings, Click
Here.
Other Pay-Per-Click Providers
Apart from the big players, there are a large
number of other medium-sized search providers
selling pay-per-click search advertising. These
include:
FindWhat
Enhance (formerly
ah-ha)
Kanoodle
Espotting
7Search
GoClick
ePilot
Lycos Insite
AdBuyer
Mirago
Search123
Of course there are hundreds more PPC engines,
many of which can be found via the sites listed
in our Further Reading section below.
Don't be afraid to set-up some test pay per
click campaigns to dip your toes into the paid
advertising waters. You don't have to have a
large budget to reap rewards, just a willingness
to experiment and apply what you learn to
improve your campaigns. What you do with all
your extra traffic is up to you!
Further Reading
Pay
Per Click Search Engines (CPC / PPC)
Pay
Per Click Search Engines on Pandia
Pay
Per Click Search Engines on Search Engine Guide
PayPerClickSearchEngines.com
Buying
Your Way In: Search Engine Advertising Chart
Pay Per
Click Analyst
Pay Per
Click Guide
Pay
Per Click Universe
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The above article may be re-published as long
as the content remains unchanged and the
following paragraph is included at the end of
the article, including the link:
<>
As well as running her own SEO business, Kalena
Jordan manages and tutors at Search
Engine College, an online training
institution offering instructor-led short
courses and downloadable self-study courses in
Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine
Marketing subjects.
<>
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Greetings Readers!
They say blogging gets in your blood. Well it
might be true because after a year-long blogging
hiatus, I have burst back onto the blogging
scene with a new blog called Dear
Kalena....
The blog is disguised as a search engine advice
column and is my attempt to become the search
industry's first "agony aunt". As I note in the
blog launch press
release, I spend a considerable amount of my
free time researching and answering questions
about search engines from SEC students and
confused webmasters, so I thought, why not share
this information? Why not blog it and become the
official agony aunt of the search industry?
But I have to admit it's not entirely selfless!
I plan on using a lot of the blog questions and
my answers as fodder for this newsletter. I know
it will make putting this thing together each
month a LOT easier and motivate me to publish it
more often. You might even recognize a few blog
entries in this issue. Also this month is Part 2
of our feature article Beginner's Guide to
Pay Per Click Search Engines.
Enjoy this issue and remember to visit Search
Engine College to check out our fun online
courses in various search engine marketing
subjects.
Till next time - wishing you high rankings...
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| FAQ1: Why doesn't Google show my backward links? | | |  Dear Kalena...
I have spent the past 3 months gathering high
quality inbound links to my site and am rather
proud of my efforts. However Google doesn't seem
to care and my PageRank bar hasn't increased at
all. In fact, Google doesn't even show the links
pointing to my site when I do a link search. Why
does Google hate me?
Linkless Wonder
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Hi Linkless
Don't let Google's behavior offend you.
She is just playing hard to get, as she does
with all initial suitors. According to the
Sandbox
Theory, it takes a long time for new sites
to get listed and ranked by Google and an
even longer time for all backward links pointing
to sites to be taken into account. At this stage
the sandboxed period is thought to be up to 6
months.
The Sandbox supposedly acts as a type of
probation period for new sites, possibly to
discourage spammers. If links pointing to your
site are on a page that doesn't meet
Google's quality guidelines, they may not
show up in a back link search. Keep in mind that
although you might not see all your back links
listed (particularly if you use the Google
Toolbar to check), Google does keep
count of these towards your link popularity
score and will show them when they eventually
reach a certain number or quality, based on
their PageRank algorithm and other factors. | | |
| FAQ2: Will adding my URL get my site listed faster in Google? | | |  Dear Kalena...
Just a quick one. Is it true that you'll get
your site listed in Google faster if you use
their add URL link? Some newsletters I read
(including yours) said that you don't even need
to submit but this add URL info comes from a
very reliable source.
thanks
Googlestumped
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Hi Googlestumped
Simple. Your source is BOLLOCKS :-). As long as your
site has a link pointing to it from a site
already in Google, it will be found, end of
story. I personally think the Add URL page is
there as
a kind of virtual placebo, provided by Google to
placate the masses whose sites haven't been
listed yet. Instead of bitching to Google, they
can enter their URL and feel better about
themselves. Brilliant. | | |
| Exclusive Discount Offer from SEC | | |  As a valued subscriber of The Search
Light, we
are pleased to provide you with an exclusive
discount
coupon for redemption towards the course/s of your
choice at Search Engine College.
The coupon will give you a 15% discount on
your next purchase at Search Engine College and is
valid until July 1st 2005.
CLICK HERE to receive your coupon! | | |
| FAQ3: Where can I find information on how your SERP converts to a traffic percentage? | | |  Dear Kalena...
I was hoping you may have some advice, the SEO
forums have had no answer to my problem.
I have been asked by a potential new client to
come up with this information for his board of
directors if at all possible. So I am asking for
help! Do you know of any papers / articles /
threads / info that discuss how your SERP (and
even more to the point your exact position in
the top 20 results, position 1 thru 20) converts
to # of visitors in a percentage basis?
For example. I have a search term that occurs
10,000 times per month as reported by Overture.
If I am the 20th result for this, what % of
those 10,000 searches would I get? If I am the
10th results for this, what %? and so on to If I
am the 1st result for this, what %? I realize
this isn't an exact science but if you know of
research results in this area it would be a HUGE
HELP to me.
Thanks!
Glenn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Hello Glenn
Your email was very timely as I knew I'd seen
something about this quite recently. I've
tracked it down here.
It's a study that shows organic ranking
visibility as opposed to PPC ad visibility.
So if you take the percentages applied to each
ranking (positions 1, 2 and 3 at 100%, position
4 at 85% etc) and apply those to each search
engine's relative market share and combine it
with some simple e-commerce ROI formulae, you
should be able to calculate the average rate of
return you could expect from holding those
positions.
Search Engine Watch has more info on search
engine market share here.
Future Now has more info on how to calculate ROI
based on conversions here.
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| Send Kalena Your Question! | | | Got a question about search engines? email
me and it might feature in my blog
or the next issue of The Search Light. | | |
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