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FAQs & WebXtras Why Only Google & Yahoo?
FAQs & WebXtras Why Only Google & Yahoo?
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We Place Great Importance on ROEAllTheWeb, AltaVista, AOL, Ask, MSN, Google, Yahoo, and on and on and on and on. If I asked you how many search engines there were, what kind of answer would you give me? Would you say 3? 5? 20? How about hundreds? Obviously there are the big 3, or 2 or 5 depending on who you ask, but there are hundreds of other search engines, that cover almost every possible idea you could have for a search engine.(check out altsearchengine.com if you REALLY want to discover them all) So why do WebXsposure Internet Marketing Consultants concentrate solely on Google and Yahoo? (and sometimes MSN/Live)  In March 08, nearly 10 billion "core" searches were conducted in the U.S. Core searches are defined as those searches performed on the five major engines: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, and Ask, plus across partner sites and channels.Google served 5.9 billion search queries, or 58.7% share of the searches. Yahoo served up 2.1 billion, or 18.1%. That equalling a little over 75%, leaving those last three to share the remaining 25% - is there really any ROE (Return On Effort) in developing an overall strategy for their audience? Our opinion is no, not really. In case you are wondering, MSN grabbed 12%, AOL held on to 4.1%, and Ask scrapped off 2.4% After Google Adwords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, MSN Adcenter, Ask.com Sponsored Listings, what will be the next PPC search engines to try? One of the major reasons we focus our efforts on the to 75% of searches conducted is that paid search is becoming so competitive with the top-tier PPC search engines. Also from time to time, I have always been approached by the so-called 2nd- and 3rd- tier PPC search engines. The sales representatives often came up with the selling pitch similar to below:
Uh Huh. Problem is, we have conducted extensive research and testing into those "other search engines", and most of them shared the problems below: Reason #1: DistributionAfter Google Adwords and Yahoo! Search Marketing, the distribution level of other PPC search engines fall off sharply. A good example is MSN Adcenter. Being recognized as the third paid search marketing platform, the distribution level of Adcenter is only a small fraction of Adwords and Yahoo!.With this data we easily conclude that the 2nd-tier search engines who have been maintaining high traffic quality are definitely not providing high traffic volume nor great reach regarding search network distributions. Reason #2: User ExperienceIt is the great reach of distribution that has helped the top-tier PPC search engines to collect more data about their users. With the data, they are then able to continuously improve the user experience by enhancing the reporting and all types of features in their paid search marketing platform. To mention a few enhancements by the top-tier search engines,
This is not something has been on the development boards for the lower-tier search engines. Reason #3: CostAdwords was the first PPC search engine to introduce Quality Score in ranking ads, and in the Quality Score a great portion of it is the Click Thru Rate[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click_Through_Rate]. This is one of the main reasons experienced search engine advertisers have been able to save hundreds of thousands of marketing budgets on Adwords.Only after a couple of years other top-tier search engines have followed. Adcenter, and Yahoo! are now using a similar calculation of the Quality Score to rank ads. The other search engines down the ranks have not been able to catch up with this technology and are mainly ranking ads based solely on pricing. Basically, they have offered no solution to save cost for their advertisers. This can only make them less attractive to major advertisers and less competitive to the major search engines. Reason #4: Traffic Quality and Click Fraud ConcernsTo increase traffic volume, some of the less known search engines sign up large amounts of distribution partners, without concerning themselves about their traffic quality. It is a way for the 2nd- and 3rd-tier PPC search engines to survive, but at the same time they are putting their reputations at risk.Click fraud detection is also another big concern for the lower-tier search engines, as they are often reluctant to offer technologies to detect possible click fraud. Much of the click fraud detection has to be performed by the advertisers. Reason #5: Return On Effort (ROE)Basically, the argument on ROE is that advertisers should spend their time and efforts on expanding and tuning their existing paid search campaigns. In doing this, the ROE will be higher than spending time and effort on the non-1st-tier PPC search engines.Major Conclusion:With a majority of users searching on Google, Yahoo, and MSN, the time you spend setting up and troubleshooting those smaller engines may have been better spent optimizing your engines that drive more qualified traffic. Also, most 2nd tier pay per click engines get their sponsored results from one of the bigger engines, so your ad will most likely already appear there.
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