Adwords vs. Overture Impressions

[Nacho]

I ran my numbers for the month of May and we have over 200 keywords that are both listed on our Adwords and Overture accounts. The results for total number of impressions are:

Adwords 153,314 33%
Overture 317,992 67%
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Total 471,306 100%

If we take a look at direct search market share data (http://searchenginewatch.com/reports/article.php/2156431) from SEW's coverage, we see that in general terms Adwords has 51% (Google + AOL) and Overture (with partners) covers about 46% . . . more or less not to be exact. I also understand that these results come from searches in February, whereas my report has May results, but common guys market share has stayed about the same in the last 3 months.

What I would like to understand is, specially for those of you who have maxed out inventory in both accounts, to help me understand the big discrepancies of search volume for number of impressions, which does not correlate with search market share.

My first guess is the quality of the targeted user, where my type of customer might be most likely hanging out more at Yahoo!, MSN, AV, etc rather than Google and AOL. Could be?

Perhaps these portals have better content sections tied in with their search functions so that users are able to cruise around for content and then hop on search. This would be a very important missing link for Google in consideration of their growth plans.

When it comes to total search volume, Google is clearly the leader, but when it comes to measuring impressions from the two main PPC vendors on a case by case level (like mine), then numbers can be very different.

Is this the same case for you? is it different? Please discuss your examples of how one PPC vendor may bring higher impressions data than the other and why.

[Bernard]

Is your ad inventory ranked in the top 3 on both networks? You will not achieve top distribution through partner networks if not. Also, what are your daily spending caps? This could be limiting the # of impressions on AdWords.

[Nacho]

Yes, we do maintain top 3 positions for all our keywords (our average is #2.05 on both networks).

With Overture we are set to the "Non-Stop Traffic Plan", and we are not limited by daily budget on our Adwords campaign.

[Bernard]

Are you geo targeting with AdWords? All languages? All countries?

Syndication though Google, Google partners and content matching (AdSense) partners?

[Nacho]

No geo-targeting, United States, English and Spanish only.

Impressions are calculated for search only, not contextual ads.

[Bernard]

No geo-targeting, United States, English and Spanish only.

Umm... U.S only would be geo-targeting IMO. You are excluding distribution to most of the world.

I don't use Overture, so I'm not sure if it has the same options as AdWords. Do you have the same distribution options set for both systems?

[Nacho]

Umm... U.S only would be geo-targeting IMO.
I only sell in the U.S., so to me geo-targeting is local search (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/forum/showthread.php?t=366), but you're right.

Both accounts are set up to have same distribution options. I'm sure something will probably be different, because they are not exactly the same, but we've done an effort to be on the same page for both.

[Bernard]

OK. With all the variables you've mentioned, I'm guessing that your ads are targeted at a B2C demographic of older folks (who I suspect use MSN/Yahoo disproportionately as a group).

BTW, the market share data mentioned in the article does not limit search totals to the USA. So you cannot make a 1-1 comparison with your numbers.

[Nacho]

I'm guessing that your ads are targeted at a B2C demographic of older folks (who I suspect use MSN/Yahoo disproportionately as a group).
Our customers fall in all age categories (57% are between ages 26-45 and 21% are 46-55 = 78% mayority). We sell in over 7,000 cities nationwide in the U.S. Mainly where our products are hard to find. So, my guess would most likely be that many these customers have computers with their default browser homepage for MSN (just one guess), even if they have other email providers. When I analyze member's email subscriptions, I get:

AOL.com 16%
Hotmail 14%
Yahoo 13%
MSN 4%
Other 53%
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Total 100%
BTW, the market share data mentioned in the article does not limit search totals to the USA. So you cannot make a 1-1 comparison with your numbers.
Very good point! Would you say, my results are more similar to WebSideStory's numbers (http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3334881). But still, 33% for Adwrods is impressions is very low. Do you know of any other source that shows only U.S. numbers?

[Bernard]

I don't have a source of other studies. I can only offer that when Yahoo was still using Google results and MSN was still using Looksmart, listings that were ranked identical on Google/Yahoo and close to the same on MSN for our B2B vertical market industrial product were yielding almost 90% traffic from Google (collectively if you count all the country specific flavors). IMO, demographics of your target audience may have a different representation among search engine use than the average (or cross section) measured in any study.