Advertising on Google may singlehandedly build your online business, but it can also be exceedingly expensive, frustrating, and unpredictable. As many advertisers have discovered the hard way, the competition on Google is fierce and the always-present chance of a Quality Score smackdown make putting all your eggs in the Google basket a risky strategy.
Fortunately, the impressive success of cost-per-click (CPC) advertising on Google has spawned a slew of CPC alternatives waiting to take some of your marketing budget. The variety of CPC opportunities today is staggering – from mobile phones, to local newspaper websites, to industry magazines. For almost any advertiser, there are at least a few CPC sites out there that you should consider testing.
In some cases, a non-Google CPC campaign can turn into your single biggest profit driver. Because most advertisers focus their efforts on Google (and to a lesser extent, the other big search engines), it is possible to find highly effective inventory at rock-bottom prices on some CPC sites. On the other hand, there is also an increased risk of click fraud, limited user interfaces, and increased complexity when you add lesser-known CPC programs into your search engine marketing mix.
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