Pay-Per-Click or PPC is perhaps the most popular
advertising model in the Net today. Its used for general Net advertising
such as banner advertisement as well as in search engine marketing.
Nevertheless, there are other paid advertising models that can deliver
high potential customers to any web-site at a cost cheaper than
PPC. Let us explore other advertising models and list useful resources.
PPC is ideally suited for web-sites looking
for buyers. Its skillful use can drive quality traffic to any web-site
almost instantaneously. Even with a modest conversion ratio - web-site
owners can recover advertising cost and make decent profit. For
many web-sites, acquiring a client means repeat purchase and consequently
long term business
However, it is also the most expensive type of advertising and perhaps
most susceptible to frauds. Here fraud means clicking at ads for
earning money. Some Net experts have suggested that click-fraud
might be as high as 20 to 25% in PPC model.
The two top PPC providers in the world are:
The process of advertising in both of them is more or less same
(please see earlier article for step by step illustration). While
Google attracts more traffic than any other search engine - advantage
of Yahoo! is its high profile search partner network that includes
heavyweights such as Overture, AlltheWeb, AltaVista, InfoSpace,
Dogpile, MetaCrawler, Excite etc. Sponsored search in Yahoo! runs
in all these search engines
Other not-so-well-known providers of PPC traffic, in alphabetical
order, include:
Featured Listing model works mostly the same
way as PPC based search engine marketing - except that there is
no fee to be paid per click. That way - it successfully circumvents
the click-fraud menace.
In this model of search engine marketing, advertisers pay a fixed
amount per keyword for display of their ad alongside search result.
The payment is for a fixed period (say 3 month) during which ad
copy will be displayed alongside search result every time someone
uses that keyword for search.
The most notable example of this model is
The Independent Search Engine & Directory Network' (ISEDN)
The ISEDN offers a program (powered by ExactSeek.com) that allows
you to purchase Top Ten exposure for your website(s) across their
network of 200+ member websites.
The network consists of search engines, directories, e-zine article
publishers, blog searches etc. Ad copy for specific keywords are
displayed across the entire ISEDN system.
The cost of a keyword (the word or phrase associated with the listing)
is $12 for three months or $36 for 12 months. The price gets lower
for each additional 5 listings you purchase. If you are buying in
volume, discounts can be significant. For example, the cost for
16 to 100 listings is $6 per listing for 3 months and $18 per listing
for 12 months.
ISEDN is an effective advertising model that is yet to evolve fully.
Though the network is large - its traffic volume is much lower compared
to industry leaders Yahoo! or Google.
The major benefit, of course, is its inexpensive and fraud-proof
way of functioning. You can buy lot more bang for your advertising
budget than is normally available in AdWords or Overture. Besides,
you need not worry about propping your ad with higher CPC every
time it falls in rank.
So, which advertising model is right for you
? It actually depends upon your business model, click-through averages
and conversion rates. Your advertisement cost should be well below
what you earn from your web-site. You must device ways of measuring
ad effectiveness before selecting any model. What looks impressive
on paper may not work out the same in practice. Hard data on ad
effectiveness helps you select the right model or change an existing
one.
Dr. Amit K Chatterjee
