by :
Steve Nash
The days of free search engine traffic are over!
(And the reign of cheap search engine traffic has begun!)
Okay, that may not be quite the case *yet*, but you really do have to work hard (or pay someone to work hard), to even get close to guaranteeing a top 10 position on search engines like Google.
Pay-Per-Click search engines, however, offer the promise of guaranteed visitors, for the keywords of your choice.
Choose to pay per click wisely!
There are literally hundreds of pay-per-click search engines available for you to spend your money. Only a few can guarantee targeted visitors to your site, though. I've listed the best pay-per-click search engines below.
=> SIGN-UP WITH THESE POPULAR PAY-PER-CLICK SEARCH ENGINES
* OVERTURE
Overture (formerly GoTo) is the original (and most popular) pay-per-click search engine.
Overture is also one of the most expensive, and competitive. A quotation taken from their sign-up page:
"A $50 initial deposit is non-refundable and will be applied to click-throughs or to the minimum monthly spend. Each account has a $20 minimum monthly spend. There is a minimum bid requirement of $0.10 per click- through."
Overture do have tough anti-fraud measures in place - always evolving, obviously - so there is far less chance of receiving so-called 'bogus clicks' using Overture.
And Overture has an impressive search engine reach, with its results found in "Sponsored Listings" in many search engines.
You can currently choose from Fast Track or Self Serve sign-up options.
Verdict: If you're serious about generating targeted traffic to your site, but less bothered about minimum (or maximum!) bid amounts etc. then you should consider signing-up with Overture.
Overture -
Overture UK -
* ESPOTTING
Espotting is the self-proclaimed #1 pay-per-click search engine in Europe. Its results appear on many major search engines as well as well as thousands of relevant smaller sites too
This is what is says at Espotting UK's sign-up page:
"Espotting Media can help you access targeted leads from 72% of the UK's online population... By ensuring that your listings appear within our top 3-5 search results, you will benefit from highly targeted leads from Yahoo! Europe, Lycos, Kelkoo and Netscape and many more. "
It offers a Gold, Silver and Bronze service depending on how 'hands-on' you want to be with your pay-per-click campaign (and how much money you want to spend!).
Verdict: A serious contender in Europe, worth considering.
Espotting -
* GOOGLE ADWORDS
Even Google operate a pay-per-click search engine.
Called Google AdWords, results appear on the Google search engine itself, as part of the search engine listings (right hand side).
Results also appear as part of AOL and Yahoo!'s searches and other major content providers.
Though this might change soon.
And, with it's recent launch of Google AdSense, Google AdWords now appear on minor, but still relevant, content sites.
Unlike other pay-per-click search engines, Google AdWords doesn't always list the highest bidded term first (see BID, BID, BID below for details). In Google's words:
"Getting great results in AdWords doesn't necessarily mean spending a lot either. The AdWords system rewards the best-performing ads."
Verdict: Definitely consider signing-up to Google AdWords, but learn how to make the most of your AdWords campaign first via a suitable tutorial or learning resource!
Google AdWords -
=> OR VISIT THESE LINKS
There are other pay-per-click search engines worth considering. All of the pay per click search engines listed below have considerable reach, and can guarantee visitors to your site (often at a much cheaper cost than Overture etc.)
=> THEN BID, BID, BID!
Using Overture as an example here, making a bid is simply a matter of choosing the following:
And as Overture recommends on its site, always repeat the keyword in both the title and description to improve your chances of a click. Overture also comes with a keyword suggestion tool, available to Overture advertisers only.
Choosing your keywords, and the amount you are willing to bid is also simple, but can take a lot of time.
This is because you need to research suitable in-demand keywords, that cost little. Solutions to this problem include using the paid-for version of Wordtracker - the excellent keyword suggestion tool allows you to brainstorm good keywords, and determine the current cost of the top 20 bids. You might also want to use bid management software.
Wordtracker -
Example of bid management software for Overture -
=> BUT BID CAREFULLY!
Make sure you don't spend too much money.
Clicks can add up quickly. It's probably worth investing in some kind of bid management software, or at least worth using the in-built bid management provided by search engines like Overture.
Remember, you ONLY want your prospective customers to click. And you must know the value of your visitor! (A rough guide: Value = average earnings / average unique visitors .)
Try and make sure that the cost of a click never exceeds this 'value' of a visitor.
One successful strategy is to bid low on many listings.
=> READ MORE...
You can find out a great deal more about pay-per-click search engines from this excellent resource.
And the online version of this article contains a variety of sign-up offers for some of the search engines listed, as well as details of Google AdWords learning resources.