I've been recently hired at my company to handle all of our pay per click and SEO efforts. I have concentrated on Google as we get a better response from highly technical search customers, but I'm now trying to start up an Overture "PrecisionMatch" account. I can't find a good place to learn how the heck they work, and I can't find any threads that list a tutorial.

Ideas? Sorry if you've answered this recently!

-Elizabeth

they are simiar to google except that

-the clickthrough rate does not currently directly feed into pricing
-the pricing is open (anyone can know what you are bidding)
-they allow slightly longer ad text
-it is a bit harder to a/b split test with overture
-the overture interface is slow and clunky
-you have to pay for your clickthroughs ahead of time with overture (or at least you do if you are a small advertiser like me)
-if you are in a competitive market you will want to use software to help you with some of your campaign management

here is the official overture advertiser workbook
http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/ac/tu/ebk.jhtml

I also wrote a free ppc guide which is ok, if you are looking to spend money for guidance Andrew Goodman and Perry Marshall both have good PPC info.

I believe their programs are mostly focused on AdWords though. As I understand it if you are good at using AdWords then Overture should not be hard to use. depending on your market the search volumes, cost, competition level, conversion rate, and ROI may vary widely between the two networks.

Thanks! Your ebook looks good, I'll check it out if i get permission from el boss woman. :)

Thanks! Your ebook looks good, I'll check it out if i get permission from el boss woman. :)
my stuff hits a bit on PPC, but if you are spending a large sums of money on PPC then I highly recommend the offerings of Andrew Goodman and Perry Marshall.

Here's a little taste of Andrew Goodman

http://www.e-marketing-news.co.uk/Dec04/PPC-Tips.html

Few impress me as much as Andrew does. His book is about AdWords not Overture, but some basic principles cross-apply for all.

He's got several dynamite posts here at SEW, and if you do a search at Google or Yahoo you can find lots of stuff he's written. I love articles that touch on a couple of major points, especially if they're printable; they're easy to digest and fast to read.

Thanks, I've already done a lot of research on AdWords and i'm implementing Singapore and Australia hopefully by next monday (Small background, I was just hired to replace a vendor who doesn't know I exist yet, working on Asia first, then taking over all accounts)

I'm interested to know if there are any comparisons of average ROI from Google and Overture for different industries. I work in computer networking and we seem to get much better results from Google, and it's a lot easier to play around with the numbers.

Do either of you know of any studies?

Thank you tons for all your help.

-Elizabeth

I'm interested to know if there are any comparisons of average ROI from Google and Overture for different industries. I work in computer networking and we seem to get much better results from Google, and it's a lot easier to play around with the numbers.

Do either of you know of any studies?
I think it changes not only sector to sector but word to word and nobody is going to be giving away that data on the cheap.

plus their results that they find out might be caused by how they bid and their ad copy & click through rates.

I do PPC for few sites, but I can think of at least one site that does way better on Google and at least one that does way better on Overture.