When most people talk about pay per click (PPC) search engine advertising, Google and Overture (Yahoo!) take center stage. But in reality, there are hundreds of smaller “Tier Two” search engines that offer compelling PPC opportunities.
Google’s network currently holds about 53% of the paid listings distribution on the Web, said Peter Hershberg, Managing Partner of Reprise Media, while Overture’s networks holds 45%. That leaves only a fractional remainder, which is split between hundreds of Tier Two providers.
“But,” he said, “that 2% represents hundreds of millions of queries. And with click prices up 25% in the last three years, many advertisers are looking to the second tier for affordable traffic. For people who are priced out of the big engines, or are looking for additional incremental traffic volume, it’s worth exploring.”
One value proposition that Hershberg said he found with the smaller networks is that they provide hands-on customer service, and lots of guidance for their customers. It’s a welcome relief for many smaller advertisers who are segmented into self-service mode on Google and Overture.
Generally, he said, “there may be a lower conversion rate on these engines, but the cost is so much lower that it makes up for it.”
“Prices are 1/10th or even 1/50th the amount you pay on the top networks,” he said. And, for international campaigns, alternative engines may actually have more volume than Overture and Google.
But, he warned, “you must track your ROI or you’re [potentially] wasting your money.“
Looksmart’s Smith said that the market share numbers are misleading. “This market is more than 100%”, he said, “since most people use multiple products. It’s not a winner-take-all game. There is increasing fragmentation as in the cable industry, and more verticals being made all the time.”
da: Searchenginewatch – Search Marketing Beyond Google and Overture
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