Should I decrease my Adword budget?

[ishir]

I heard from one of my webmaster friend that it is more profitable to run Ads on Overture than Adword if I am into selling some kind of products and not information...

He also told me that Google is rather an information portal, while Yahoo! is more business oriented. Commercial visitors know this, and therefore, I should decrease my Adword budget and proportionately increase budget on Overture.

I am in a fix... An advice will be great.

[mwoolgar]

Why don't you experiment a bit with a proportion of your budget rather than going the whole hog immediately.

[ishir]

You are right, Friend! I ought to try it out proportionately on both the SEs, see the primary results, and then tweak my strategy as per the situation.

[AussieWebmaster]

Testing is the best. Use your tracking program - you could find that some words work better at Yahoo while others have a higher ROI at Google.

If you have products you may want to use the shopping engines as well.

[Shmuel]

I can tell you that for us, Google is the better way to go. With Overture/Yahoo, for the same keywords, Google just flat out does better, both in overall volume and CPA.

That being said, we do use both. But yes, test, test, test.

[ishir]

I can tell you that for us, Google is the better way to go. With Overture/Yahoo, for the same keywords, Google just flat out does better, both in overall volume and CPA.

That being said, we do use both. But yes, test, test, test.

Thanks all for posting your valuable comments...

With regards to the above quote, my scenario is reverse that of yours.

I promote Web Consultancies through PPC, wherein the scnario is as follows:

Google: I bid less, receives more clicks, but the ROI is lower.
Yahoo!: I bid more, receive less clicks, yet my ROI here is better than Google.

P.S. I use the same landing page and target the same keywords fot both the SEs.

Am I missing out something?

[abbottsys]

I heard from one of my webmaster friend that it is more profitable to run Ads on Overture than Adword if I am into selling some kind of products and not information...

He also told me that Google is rather an information portal, while Yahoo! is more business oriented. Commercial visitors know this, and therefore, I should decrease my Adword budget and proportionately increase budget on Overture.

I am in a fix... An advice will be great.
It's impossible to answer this question in the general case. First get conversion tracking in place on both engines, so you have #conversions and cost/conversion. Then compare and decide what's producing for you. For us, we found that cost/conversion is about the same on both engines but that google does twice the volume (meaning twice the #conversions.) But, things will be different for different advertisers. SEM is an experimental science. Do the experiments.

[ishir]

It's impossible to answer this question in the general case. First get conversion tracking in place on both engines, so you have #conversions and cost/conversion. Then compare and decide what's producing for you. For us, we found that cost/conversion is about the same on both engines but that google does twice the volume (meaning twice the #conversions.) But, things will be different for different advertisers. SEM is an experimental science. Do the experiments.
May I ask further how we can possibly derive the strategy out of the dynamic ball game? Is there any specific process to be followed?

[AussieWebmaster]

May I ask further how we can possibly derive the strategy out of the dynamic ball game? Is there any specific process to be followed?

I have no idea what you mean by dynamic ball game......
plus you promote web consultancies via PPC??? what are you consulting on or do you provide outsource for others.... in which case you really need to learn this to improve your income and ability.

Is there a specific process - YES - pick your words and test them against a group of ads and landing pages... find the right mix where your CPA is acceptable.

[ishir]

I have no idea what you mean by dynamic ball game......
plus you promote web consultancies via PPC??? what are you consulting on or do you provide outsource for others.... in which case you really need to learn this to improve your income and ability.

Is there a specific process - YES - pick your words and test them against a group of ads and landing pages... find the right mix where your CPA is acceptable.
By 'dynamic ball game', I meant that (probably) the STP approach behind PPC is dynamic in nature and changes as and when required.

Yes, I promote my web consultancy services via PPC and SEO as well. My specialization is into Web solutions and Internet marketing.

In fine, thank you very much for your able guidance.