Most Cost Effective Search Engines Today

[jtouboul]

Withe the three big guys (Google, MSN, Yahoo) cost per keyword sky rocketing I wonder if anyone has a "preferred" list of search engines where to run an SEM campaign effectively and cost efficiently.

For example everyone is talking of MIVA. 7Search and search123 have also been around for quite some time. Kanoodle and Mama can be in turn tricky or very disappointing. One thing in common is that they seem to all lack the depth of a Google (for obvious reasons). I wonder if anyone has had some positive experience with any of these "second tier" search engines and if so in what particular area (for example mortgage or car sales leads with xyz search engine and how did it work).

Thanks,

[Monte1]

I have ran campaigns on Miva, not much traffic but conversion was much higher than Google or Yahoo Search....

I would use Miva as a supporting element to your main campaigns on Google and Yahoo.

[Waldo]

Is MIVA a search program or a group that manages PPC campaigns?

[Monte1]

miva is a search program. It used to be called FindWhat

[caugas]

Originally Posted by jtouboul

Withe the three big guys (Google, MSN, Yahoo) cost per keyword sky rocketing I wonder if anyone has a "preferred" list of search engines where to run an SEM campaign effectively and cost efficiently.

For example everyone is talking of MIVA. 7Search and search123 have also been around for quite some time. Kanoodle and Mama can be in turn tricky or very disappointing. One thing in common is that they seem to all lack the depth of a Google (for obvious reasons). I wonder if anyone has had some positive experience with any of these "second tier" search engines and if so in what particular area (for example mortgage or car sales leads with xyz search engine and how did it work).

Thanks,

Cost effective does not equal traffic or conversions. If you are only looking for cost effect engines and little conversions, and less traffic - sure go with the Tier 2 engines. But if you are intrested in immediate results, and high conversions, you need to market on the tier 1 engines.
It is also important to note, that setting up and maintaining tier 2 campaigns is time consuming. So before you invest lots of time into setting them up, make sure you lay your goals down? What more worth your time? Are you looking for conversions? Most bang for the buck?

[sdffa11]

Originally Posted by caugas

Cost effective does not equal traffic or conversions. If you are only looking for cost effect engines and little conversions, and less traffic - sure go with the Tier 2 engines. But if you are intrested in immediate results, and high conversions, you need to market on the tier 1 engines.
It is also important to note, that setting up and maintaining tier 2 campaigns is time consuming. So before you invest lots of time into setting them up, make sure you lay your goals down? What more worth your time? Are you looking for conversions? Most bang for the buck?

can you confirm what you would consider tier 1 and tier 2, etc? obviously, google yahoo and msn are considered tier 1 but can you provide a list of effective search engines to consider advertising on? i am currently setting up campaigns on the top 3 search engines but i could always use recommendations on which other search engines might be effective in SEM.

[caugas]

Originally Posted by sdffa11

can you confirm what you would consider tier 1 and tier 2, etc? obviously, google yahoo and msn are considered tier 1 but can you provide a list of effective search engines to consider advertising on? i am currently setting up campaigns on the top 3 search engines but i could always use recommendations on which other search engines might be effective in SEM.

If you have time, I might set up accounts on these engines.

tier 1
Google
Yahoo
MSN

tier 2
- Ask
- Looksmart
- Miva (aka FindWhat, Powers Excite)
- Kanoodle
- Search123

[sdffa11]

^thanks.

looksmart and search123 look promising. i will look into those 2 engines with more depth to see if i will start doing business with them.

PS: does anyone else experience slowdown when searching on looksmart? it seems as if the searches are slow compared to all the other search engines ive encountered.

[PPC Summit]

sdffa11,

You might also try:

GoClick
ABCSearch
Enhance
Industry Brains (B2B only)
FinditQuick
Findology

All of the smaller search engines have minimal amounts of traffic compared to the big three and all will be more time consuming to set up as they don't have many automated features, and their reps have to set up large keyword accounts for you.

With the smaller engines it's all about distribution. One advertiser could get good clicks because the engine's audience fits with the channel the advertiser is targeting, whereas another will get minimal or poor quality traffic, beacuse the engine doesn't have traffic that works.

You should be more careful with the smaller engines. In many cases you can get good conversions at a cheaper CPC but the smaller engines typically do not have the money or resoruces to invest in click fraud protection programs and so the incidence of click fraud can be higher. Make sure you have good tracking in place before you set up these campaigns, as that way if you see any questionable traffic you can request a refund from the engine.

Cheers, Mary

[SEM Man]

I have had success with Business.com and Enhance. I would recommend checking them out. Business.com works better with B2B but still may work with B2C.

You have to watch 2 and 3 tier engines closer because the conversion rate tends to be less stable. I set bids to target a CPA lower than my actual target to leave a cushion in case the traffic quality goes down.

[caugas]

Originally Posted by SEM Man

I have had success with Business.com and Enhance. I would recommend checking them out. Business.com works better with B2B but still may work with B2C.

You have to watch 2 and 3 tier engines closer because the conversion rate tends to be less stable. I set bids to target a CPA lower than my actual target to leave a cushion in case the traffic quality goes down.

I did not have sucess with business.com, just putting that out there.

[Webmaster T]

IdeaRC the old Verizon Superpages has worked very well from a conversion and traffic standpoint for me. Most second tier engines just don't provide the volumes of traffic needed to make the monitoring of and set up time seem like a good use of my clients budget and my time. You set it up with a $100 budget and some can take months to use up the initial spend.

I avoided Miva AKA findwhat because they were actively recruiting SEO's as partners. IMO, whether a scond tier PPC or a comparison price engine, you have to be vey wary of any provider that has these sorts of programs. IMO, where there's affiliates/partners there's a greater amount of invalid clicks (Google speak for fraud) and costs.

As secod tier engines go the comparison price engines generally have more traffic and better conversion then the general search sites. However, we generally only run these campaigns September to end of January. Almost all of these have partner programs. I am also very selective of what I include in the feed to comparison engines generally limiting it to products with higher margins.