In my experience on the internet I have found that it is usually best to work directly with a search engine whenever possible. I have had bad experiences with a lot of smaller companies that simply syndicate my PPC ads on the popular networks and mark up the cost-per-click - thus it is typically to my advantage to cut out the middleman (who very seldom adds value).

I have seen an anomaly lately, however, with Google and Ask Jeeves. It appears that I actually have a lower average cost-per-click when Google syndicates my ads to Ask Jeeves rather than working directly with Ask. I'm guessing that the reason is because google has a tremendous amount of pricing power and can make a decent margin while dropping my average PPC.

Has anybody noticed the same thing? Is this unique to my industry or niche?

I think you are right in broad terms, but at the end of the day it's best to try it out and see(like you seem to have done :) ). It would depend on the industry you're in, the selection of kwds you're running and the type of traffic for the search engine.

I use the standard 'big boys' in search and have tried numerous smaller ones directly - some have worked out to be cheaper others not. One thing i find hard to separate/define though, is the effect of having a listing with the larger SE(Yahoo!) and a listing directly with the smaller engine. When you have two listings for the same kwd and same engine it's hard to decide if the presence of the one is making the other one perform better? I think even harder to measure the creative effectiveness.

I hadn't really considered the approach of using Google syndication on Ask Jeeves and Ask Jeeves (directly) at the same time - I figured that they would just filter out the lower-paying ad (which in this case would be google) - am I wrong about this?

I think I have read that Google does filter the results - I would like to hear from someone that can confirm that :confused: , but the rest of the search engines and their smaller counterparts are not that through - at least not yet...

If you have the same keyword directly and through syndication does anyone know which one is taken and where your money goes to?