Pay Per Click Advertising

Internet Marketing is quite easily the fastest growing method of advertising for your business. With the world of the internet changing on a monthly basis it is becoming far more difficult for those in the know to not only keep up but be successful at promoting their products for sale online.

There are several ways you can market your business over the internet, such as Search Engine Optimisation, email marketing and Banner Advertising. Most of these forms of Internet Marketing are affected by the ever changing world of the internet. The only form advertising that is never likely to change is Pay Per Click, which is more commonly referred to as PPC.

In order for people to find your site there are several avenues you could take! Both of which revolve around traffic. Now obviously we mean website visitors not roadside traffic! Of which there are 2 types, paid traffic and free traffic. Initially before your site is optimized, paid is the only way to get buyers to your site.

Paid traffic is any form of paid advertising. The most obvious being ‘Pay Per Click’ also known as PPC. If you search anything on Google there are 2 listings on the page the thin column on the right and the other on the left. In a nutshell the right hand side is all about PPC advertising. This form of advertising is provided by all the major and minor search engines.

As with anything for people to know you exist, you need to get your name out there. PPC does this for you as you bid how much to pay per click for specific keywords related to your site in order to drive traffic there with the view of buying. This is far more effective than free classified advertising.

Although there a lot of seasoned pro’s making very good money from this method alone, it can be a mind field and has bankrupted many uneducated people.

The primary reason being people’s ignorance and lack of proper research, along with ‘Greedy Google’. Although Google are a household name doesn’t necessarily mean they are the best value!

They are widely renowned for having the best volume and quality of traffic but unfortunately for the uneducated marketer at the worst price!

Once you have mastered the art of profitable PPC campaigns it is essential for business survival to find other more cost effective alternatives. Although Google Adwords has a very user friendly interface, who cares if it’s raping your bottom line. If we are going to be honest with ourselves that’s the only reason we are all in this game!

In my search for reducing advertising cost whilst still maintaining effectiveness I have taken it upon myself to devise a list of what I would consider to be the top ten PPC programs. They are all ranked in terms of cost effectiveness, traffic quality and usability.

1) Yahoo Search marketing

The biggest Search Engine! Enough Said. Although ‘search’ has changed hands several times they still provide very high quality volumes with some deals still to be had.
• Cost Effectiveness 8/10
• Traffic Quality 9/10
• Usability 8/10
• Total 25/30
• Overall 8.3/10


2) Google Adwords

Widely referred to as the top dog! However as it stands not with Alexa Yahoo still rank higher! As Alexa monitor and rank sites on traffic volumes this says it all. Sorry ‘Greedy Google’ close but yet so far.
• Cost Effectiveness 5/10
• Traffic Quality 9/10
• Usability 9/10
• Total 23/30
• Overall 7.6/10

3) MSN Adcentre

One of the biggest Search Engines. A rapidly emerging big player with lots of leverage. Arguably the best quality traffic. Be sure to look out for the fantastic keyword research tool as part of the package.
• Cost Effectiveness 7/10
• Traffic Quality 9/10
• Usability 6.5/10
• Total 22.5/30
• Overall 7.5/10

4) Enhance

This one is a little gem! It gets straight into Yahoo Search engine due to it’s partners. Fantastically Cheap Quality Traffic at minimal prices. Enhance is quickly breaking through as one of the up and coming PPC providers. A must have in anyone’s arsenal
• Cost Effectiveness 10/10
• Traffic Quality 9/10
• Usability 3/10
• Total 22/30
• Overall 7.3/10

5) Miva

Probably one of the best but vastly underrated PPC provider
• Cost effectiveness 7/10
• Traffic Quality 7/10
• Usability 7/10
• Total 21/30
• Overall 7/10

6) GoClick

Reasonably cheap traffic with a growing following of users
• Cost Effectiveness 7/10
• Traffic Quality 7/10
• Usability 6/10
• Total 20/30
• Overall 6.6/10

7) Search123

One of the originals! Excellent customer support and ok traffic
• Cost effectiveness 7/10
• Traffic Quality 6/10
• Usability 6/10
• Total 19/30
• Overall 6.3/10

8) 7Search

A very small Search Engine with limited traffic. Although what traffic they do get is ok quality
• Cost Effective 5.5/10
• Traffic Quality 7/10
• Usability 6/10
• Total 18.5/30
• Overall 6.1/10

9) Searchfeed

Good value for money with regards to ROI, some good features such as limited geo-targeting but not masses of volume
• Cost Effective 7/10
• Traffic Quality 6/10
• Usability 5/10
• Total 18/30
• Overall 6/10

10) ABC Search

Decent traffic sources with some good customer service
• Cost Effectiveness 6/10
• Traffic Quality 5/10
• Usability 6/10
• Total 17/30
• Overall 5.6/10

In summary, I guess the point I am trying to make here is that there are other good quality options available to us. So, yes the big guns do send high quality targeted traffic! But at what price? Would you not be better to target some smaller niches with less competition and drastically improve your ROI.

An important factor to try and remember here is that most of our traffic will be coming via our optimisation and the PPC campaigns are purely as a top up and to ad some initial and ongoing credibility.

My preferred alternative to Greedy Google is Enhance. Although the user interface isn’t the best I put up with it for the level of quality, highly targeted traffic it delivers via it’s partners and mainly Yahoo. Enhance effectively acts as a cheeky little back door into Yahoo for under a third of the cost!!