Pay-Per-Click Advertising Providers
For online businesses operating in the UK marketplace, there are three main pay-per-click providers to choose from, Google AdWords, Overture and Miva, formerly known as Espotting. All three main providers offer a similar form of pay-per-click advertising, with the bid amount determining an advertisement’s placement and the frequency with which it is served for a particular keyword. The advertiser is charged a fee when an advertisement is clicked through, not each time it is shown, making pay-per-click a cost-effective form of targeted online advertising. There are, however, major differences between the coverage, charges and levels of sophistication of the three main pay-per-click programmes. As the result of detailed ongoing evaluation of the pay-per-click providers, Optillion has concluded that Google AdWords is currently the most effective and economical pay-per-click advertising programme for our clients.
Google AdWords
Adwords is the pay-per-click (or as Google prefers it cost-per-click) advertising programme operated by Google. Google has used its dominant position in search engine technology to develop AdWords, the most wide reaching and configurable pay-per-click programme. For the experienced pay-per-click campaign manager, AdWords combines the advantages of sophisticated targeting and matching options with higher penetration and lower costs.
- AdWords advertisements are served on the Google search engine results pages (SERPs) and on search sites in the Google network, including AOL, Netscape and Ask Jeeves.
- There is an option to run AdWords on the Google content network, a series of additional sites which include Lycos, iVillage and the Food Network, together with an enormous number of smaller sites participating in the Adsense programme.
- AdWords can be geo-targeted so that advertisements are only shown in
a specified country or countries (or states in the case of the US).
- Using the language selection option in conjunction with geo-targeting allows advertisements to be filtered by both country and language. A campaign could be targeted to show advertisements in Japan, but only associate them with English language websites or search terms.
- AdWords provides options as to how close a match is required between the trigger keyphrase and the search term (or site content) in order for the advertisement to be shown.
- The AdWords site exclusion feature can be used to prevent adverts appearing on specific sites on the content network.
- Adwords keyword bid prices start at four pence, 60% lower than either Overture or Miva, and there is no monthly minimum spend with AdWords.
- The AdWords discounter provides protection against over-bidding for keywords – the actual cost-per-click paid will be discounted to just above the price bid by the next highest bidder. In simple terms, if you bid £11.00 for a keyword and the next bidder only bids £3.50, the AdWords discounter means you only pay £3.51 for the number one spot. The reality is slightly more complex, as clickthrough rates are also brought into the equation so that high clickthrough ad/keyword combinations have more bidding power than lower clickthrough rivals, if bidding the same amount of money for a keyword.
Pay-Per-Click Evolution
Pay-per-click advertising is evolving rapidly, with Yahoo and MSN set to enter the market over the coming months, and Overture and Miva making continual enhancements to their programmes. Optillion constantly monitors changes made by all the pay-per-click providers to ensure that it continues to offer its clients the most effective and economical managed pay-per-click advertising.
