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80/20 Principle Squanders Paid Search
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About the Author
Kevin Gold (78 Posts)
Kevin Gold is Director of Internet Marketing at iNET Interactive, a social media company operating prominent online communities for technology professionals and technology enthusiasts. Kevin is a frequent contributing author to multiple publications including Search Marketing Standard, Practical eCommerce, DIRECT, Entrepreneur.com, ConversionChronicles.com, About.com, and On Target (Yahoo! Search Marketing newsletter).
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I agree wholeheartedly. I use GGL, YHO, MSN and ASK, and 99% of my conversions come from GGL. It is interesting that MSN just scored Digg’s business.
Truthfully, I could cut out the other three and not hurt my lead stream.
I maintain them because of the overall web visibility it brings.
I would agree but add that in my experience the results can be tilted towards the other SE’s depending on what you are trying to promote via PPC. I have seen certain trends that I can only attribute to certain SE’s have different audiences and sometimes this shows through in the results of a PPC campaign.
Great comments! Brent I would agree with you although I am not seeing as large of a difference as I once had especially between Google and Yahoo Search. I actually wrote an article for HighRankings.com’s newsletter in October 2004 (High Rankings® Advisor Issue 118: Using Demographics To Increase Conversions ) about accessing different demographics via the SEs.
Although demographics and psychographic differences certainly still exist I am seeing a pattern where Google’s sheer search volume attributes to a greater opportunity to close more leads or sales. At the same time though, home-based business and franchise opportunity search volume does appear to be greater from Yahoo Search than Google indicating potential demographic and psychographic differences playing out.
Either way – thanks for the comments. I recommend that every web business at least tests and measures the results from the top three PPCSEs (Google AdWords, Yahoo Search and MSN AdCenter) as well as some of the vertical search engines. It’s the only accurate way to see what works most effectively.
Great topic. Kevin, you’re absolutely right based on volume. I also couldn’t agree with you more on your comment about testing the different engines. We see very different results based on the particular client and industry in terms of conversions. We always start off budgeting more for Google, and more for Yahoo! than MSN, usually based on current market share. And save for entertainment, we always get more conversions by volume from Google. Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) varies, though, seemingly with every client. Sometimes sheer volume outweighs ROAS as a determining factor because of time and effort, but many times it does not.