Opinions on Quepasa.com PPC for Hispanic Market?

[Phoenix]

Received a phone call (cold call) this morning from the Quepasa marketing department about the possibility of signing up to promote one of my sites in there pay per click vertical to effectively reach a hispanic demographic. Apparently the time is right to target this group. Cost per click is low, many competitors are unwise to this demographic, and they are willing to basically bend over backwards to get you to try a test campaign. They also provide free spanish language translations for your search ads. How cool is that?

What I am interested to know is anyone has had any recent experience with them? Effectiveness of the search traffic, conversions, good or bad?

While I plan to do a very small test campaign with them to see what the results will return I am curious as to any potential problems using them for PPC and if reaching the hispanic/spanish demographic is really worth my time? I already have spanish translated pages on the site, and this is doing well to bring in some traffic, but its poor to convert. Very poor in fact. Now that could be a caused by a variety of things. But how different is hispanic organic search traffic as opposed to traffic from a vertical like Quepasa?

Quepasa told me over the phone that many of the users to their site are 2nd and 3rd generation hispanic americans that are largely more educated about the internet. Most all speak both spanish and english, and over 45% of the estimated 14 million hispanic users make a purchase online last year as opposed to lower numbers for different groups. Golden demographic or a bunch of backwash nosense?

From my own experience having lived in a predominately hispanic area (South Texas) for most my life, I will agree to a good portion of what Quepasa told me but not all. I believe that its just part of a partial story told recently to hype this group. I have personally been working with this demographic for sometime on and off, originally working in real estate selling homes in primary spanish speaking areas of town. I only speak a little spanish. It was probably one of the most rewarding yet incredibly difficult jobs I have ever had. I found it very difficult to sell homes in this area. Relating that to what was said above from Quepasa they seem to only talk about a slice of the hispanic demographic that is web savvy but leave out the other 75% that aren't? Now I am not making any assumptions or anything as my experience is only limited. But it seems like they are promoting the frosting but leaving out the cake? Good or bad? What do you think?

[Nacho]

Ben,

Oh I wish I could just say "no comment" and everyone understand what I mean, but that wouldn't be fair to the community.

I've been testing QuePasa for a long time. No matter how much we try, it is unfortunate that conversions don't happen. So unbelievable that I had to talk to one of executives there to understand what's going on. Their problem has been and continues to be a poor distribution network. Most of their network is mostly associated with the general population with maybe a very few Hispanics (for example: Search123.com).

Their Standard advertising plan requires you to commit to $500 for 20 keywords. Why will they translate for free? Anyone will translate 20 ads for you for $499, but the question is will you ever see a dime's worth in ROI? Ask then for a full 100% money back guarantee. I'm not sure but it appears as if their business model is getting companies to do tests, tests and more tests. Ask around how many advertisers have stayed around longer than that. So far, neither my accounts or clients are recommended to participate until they change or significantly improve their distribution network.

Seriously, it's a bit disappointing to see a company take so much money from advertisers and investors only because they know the Hispanic market. But when it comes to SEARCH, it takes A LOT more to understand the Hispanic market.

Okay, so what can you do? Just spend those $500 bucks on Overture and Google. You will get at least 80% of the Hispanic market within those distribution networks. For example, Univison.com was signed up with Overture in January 2004. Now, that’s a true Hispanic market player.

I hope this helps you.

[Mel66]

As usual, Nacho is 100% right on. We got the same cold call you did. We ran a campaign for 5-6 of our Hispanic-oriented magazines, plus 3-4 of our overall top sellers. Blew through 1,000 clicks in about 3 days, with 0 conversions. (Actually, there was one conversion - for Playboy - that turned out to be fraud. )

Don't waste your time or money. I lump PPC cold-callers into the same category as SEO cold callers - if they were really offering a great product, they wouldn't need to cold call. Has OV or GO ever called you? I didn't think so.

Do what Nacho suggests and promote your Hispanic products and services on the Big Two. We get lots of business from them on these types of products.

Melissa

[Phoenix]

Nacho right on! What I feared is evidentally true, poor conversions and lack of distribution. Fortunately I convinced them to give me the free translations for only a $100 deposit, which is fully refundable hopefully.

I lump PPC cold-callers into the same category as SEO cold callers - if they were really offering a great product, they wouldn't need to cold call. Has OV or GO ever called you? I didn't think so.

Agree totally, cold callers should not call me, cause I usually post a warning on the boards about them. However, Google did call me to join their Jumpstart program. I turned on a few clients to the program as well and then tweaked them all for better CTR. This worked out just fine. All the others forget it.

[nielsencl]

I have a client that asked me to try them. Spoke with a rep and someone in management. I think their heart is in the right place, but they are new at this and need to get educated fast.

They offered translations to us at no cost also, but in an interesting about face, also mentioned the 2nd/3rd generation idea and that most of them know and search in English anyway, so it was presented as no big deal...

For us, they didn't work. But the medical condition we were targeting is just about the hardest thing going these days...

I say give them a chance, but keep them on a tight leash. For some products and services they may work well. But they and all PPC systems need to have conversion tracking in place so you have at least a glimpse of a clue how things are really working.

[Phoenix]

I think their heart is in the right place, but they are new at this and need to get educated fast.

I think your right, they were pleasant to talk to and believers in what they had to offer. It was encouraging. One thing that avoided there knowledge was how organic listings worked along side the ads at the top. They are provided by a third party distribution network that seems similar to a "third party distribution network" a little spam here and there enough to effect relevancy not significantly matter enough to deal with it.

Well the good news is that I am getting a refund out of the whole deal, with not question asked besides the statement from them that "We just want to remind you that concerning to the US Hispanic Market we are Tier 1. If you do not wish to attract the Hispanic Community (the biggest minority in US) to your website, we will refund your money."

I guess I will let them find me instead. I will offer spanish translated pages and a welcome to the whole Hispanic community to visit. We'll even try to answer your emails in spanish if at all possible and serve a margarita now and then.

[Nacho]

Originally Posted by nielsencl

I say give them a chance, but keep them on a tight leash.

By all means all companies have the opportunity to improve. Like I said, "neither my accounts or clients are recommended to participate until they change or significantly improve their distribution network." However, from time to time I get a client that just want to go ahead and do a test with them (some at $500 and others at $5000). Unfortunately, the same story repeats itself.

Originally Posted by nielsencl

For some products and services they may work well. But they and all PPC systems need to have conversion tracking in place so you have at least a glimpse of a clue how things are really working.

This brings up a very interesting point. QuePasa from our perspective has NO click fraud tracking in their technology, so I highly recommend that you set up some 3rd party tracking with WhosClickingWho or similar and do yourself a favor. Did you know that Yahoo! Search Marketing Solutions (formerly Overture) tracks over 90 different factors that trigger click fraud alerts and send clicks over to editorial review? Oh yeah! Knowing search marketing takes a lot more than to just offering products to a specific ethnic group or niche market. In their website it says:

Quepasa.com is the premier provider of performance based advertising solutions for the U.S. Hispanic Market (in both English and Spanish) and worldwide Spanish-dominant language categories.

"Premier provider"? That needs to be defined a bit more. IMO, leadership in any playing field can only be earned with proven results.

[Nacho]

"We just want to remind you that concerning to the US Hispanic Market we are Tier 1. If you do not wish to attract the Hispanic Community (the biggest minority in US) to your website, we will refund your money."

WRONG wrong wrong!!! Concerning to the US Hispanic market Yahoo! Search Marketing Solutions and Google Adwords are Tier 1. Please guys, get the facts straight. QuePasa is Tier 2 and Tier 3, because they claim "reach millions of unique users each month" ("millions"???) but in reality that comes from their network of distribution partners (ohh "reach millions" through their parters perhaps??). To be Tier 1 they would have to be generating the traffic for themselves like Yahoo! and Google does, and their portal QuePasa.com doesn't even come up on the traffic radar screen with any of the reports from Nielsen//NetRatings, ComScore or Hitwise.

Originally Posted by Phoenix

I guess I will let them find me instead. I will offer spanish translated pages and a welcome to the whole Hispanic community to visit. We'll even try to answer your emails in spanish if at all possible and serve a margarita now and then.

That's the spirit Ben!! Please take your $500 to the right Tier 1 PPC engines, get a good set of keywords with nice landing pages and find yourself some descent ROI. I'm positive you will be pleased with those results.

[Ahorre Hispanic Marketing]

Quepasa still needs some time. They have a unique format for content, but not for search. If you want the latest gossip / picture / articles go to Quepasa.

As far as PPC campaigns, Nope Not yet. Drive your presence via Overture and Google. Yahoo and Google search relevancy is what differentiates these two plus MSN from Quepasa. Despite monthly volume, a fairly high percent is from Non-U.S. destinations.

[Phoenix]

Well I asked them about their click-fraud technology. I have been emailing with someone from corporate who I think was offended I asked for a refund, and is persistant on making sure I got the "facts" straight. Give me a break.

Here is what they said in regards to their technology.

Thank you for reply. I would like to advise you that we do provide a Fraud Technology here at Quepasa. The way that it works is the following: It would only charge you 1 click every 4 hours per IP address means that if a user is clicking on your listing for a period of time (same IP address), it would only charge the 1st click during the time above.

The above from what I understand can be easily foiled, and its just one factor (IP) they are looking at.

[Nacho]

Good post Geoffrey! I agree completely. They do have great content, but seems like low traffic on their portal according to the reports. Therefore, most of their PPC search volume must come from other places.

Every time I've talk to a sales rep they usually flash right out Batanga.com and LaOpinion.com, however at one point I was told that partners like these only make up 15-20% of their traffic and 80-85% of their partners are really just general market.

Despite monthly volume, a fairly high percent is from Non-U.S. destinations.

That's another great point. This is the same case to Terra.com (U.S.), where most of their true visiting traffic comes from outside the United States rather than from the true U.S. Hispanic market. We were able to verify that with with our Urchin Software.

[Nacho]

Originally Posted by Phoenix

The above from what I understand can be easily foiled, and its just one factor (IP) they are looking at.

That was really the point that I was trying to make and hope to not confuse anyone by saying "NO click fraud tracking in their technology". To me one factor in today's world is just as worth as NONE. The IP Address can be so easily gamed by the spammers behind click fraud. That's why even Overture thinks that 90 factors are probably not enough and keep on doing R&D to find better ways to approach click fraud. Come'on let's be realistic.

[Nacho]

I just got an email that says:

Quepasa rolled out its new Contextual Ad Program designed to give your campaigns more targeted exposure with no additional effort required on your part! Contextual ads are served on pages existing throughout our distribution network that display content that is relevant to your ad, and you are only billed for actual valid clicks to your website.

I went to the ad manager and there is no way to track any contextual traffic or design keyword campaigns targeted only for contextual ads. So I went to many of their primary distribution partners and could not find any contextual ads that would relate to Quepasa. Perhaps I did not look well enough. Has anyone found any trace contextual ads from this PPC engine as they claim?

[Ahorre Hispanic Marketing]

Zero Contextual ads at Batanga.com either in Spanish or English.

I was wondering if I can kick life into an old thread. Can anyone offer any current information on QuePasa's PPC network. Do they produce a reasonable number of clicks? Are the ads placed on quality pages? Does the context match? Do the clicks convert any better than they used to?

For the record, I'm interested in this from the perspective of an affiliate marketer - I generate leads for my clients. Clearly margins are tighter than for someone selling their own product.