14 Little-Known Sources for PPC Traffic
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There’s a lot more to search marketing and PPC than just Google AdWords, Yahoo Panama, and MS adCenter. Even though these “Big 3″ account for a vast majority of the traffic available, there’s still plenty of traffic on 2nd tier engines and other programs that the big engines offer. For some reason many of the conversations I’ve had with other search marketers involves them talking down about these programs. I think to myself “fine…stay away from them! Less competition for me.” Less competition means lower costs per click. Lower click costs means lower costs per sales. Lower costs per sales means more money in the pocket, and isn’t that the entire point?
To help navigate the options out there I’ve created a list of 14 traffic sources that charge on a CPC basis that you might not be familiar with. Check them out. Do some research. Run some tests. If they work, great! If not, close the account and move on.
Full Disclosure: I was not compensated in any way for the mentioning of any of the listed platforms. Their mentioning in no way acts as a guarantee of performance, and any tests run should be done so with a separate test budget that won’t interfere with what is already working for you.
Now that the disclosure is out of the way, let’s get on with the list!
Paid Inclusion is one of the unintentionally best kept secrets of Yahoo. The service allows advertisers to have paid ads included in the natural organic listings. They look and feel exactly like organic listings, with only one way to detect them by a redirect link:
The only way to tell this Nextag link is sponsored is by looking for the RDRW1 seen after the double-asterisks toward the end of the link when you hover the mouse over the link. Another sign of an ad is the fact that the language in the description has a strong call to action and a bit too salesy for my taste. Regardless of my opinions, paid inclusion is an excellent way to get more SERP real estate on Yahoo to get traffic to your site. The upside is the CPC is flat-rate based on the category Yahoo assigns you. It varies from $0.10-$1.00. The biggest downsides are that there is no built-in tracking beyond simple clicks and cost figures, and not everyone can take part. Yahoo is looking for eCommerce sites with a deep catalog of products that can be included. For those who don’t qualify for paid inclusion, there is Search Submit Express. It’s free, but does little more than to tell Yahoo your website exists.
2nd Tier Engines
People write off lower-volume engines too quickly. Just as there is a long-tail with keywords, I think the there is a long tail with search engines and other media channels. Here are a couple of the engines that make up the larger part of the tail:
- Business.com: Primarily intended for business-to-business sales, I’ve had some success with using it for consumer sites targeting bulk purchasers
- Thomas.net: Ideal for industrial-based searches like machinery hardware, manufacturing, commodities, engineering, etc. If you sell to those types of companies, you should be here.
- Looksmart: It has a lot of the same features as the big 3, but less competition means cheaper CPCs. Their content network has always performed reasonably well for me.
Shopping Channels
If you sell products on your site, try submitting a limited feed of your highest margin and/or best selling products to some of the shopping feeds:
Each of the links above will take you to an account sign-up page or info page.
Content Advertising
Just as Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft all have content networks, there are companies that do nothing but targeted PPC content-based ads. Here are a couple good content networks that you can buy links from to get traffic from all corners of the web:
- Miva: It’s been around for quite a while, but Miva is a solid source of two content networks: One is the typical content network we’re all familiar with, and the other is a vertical network where you can limit the sites to specific industries or topics.
- Quigo: Quigo hosts AdSonar, which allows you to advertise on any number of special interest or local interest via paid links in local newspapers, online news sites, and many others. CTRs are typically very low, but it’s great if you’re building a TOMA campaign.
- Industry Brains: Industry Brains manages PPC links on hundreds of well known sites across the net. I love how their character limits allow for some detail, but refrain from the limit and keep it as brief as possible. Many of their other advertisers typically use all of the space, so by keeping your ads short, you’ll stand out due to a white space buffer.
Don’t be suckered into only going with Google because they have 70% of the PPC market. Even though Google is my largest source of traffic from a single site, I have been able to diversify my traffic using many of these sites and platforms. It increases volume, decreases risk, and often have less competition.
Popularity: 100% [?]
Nice article, I absolutely love the list!
Just one note: If you’re from Europe like me it’s a whole other story.
First of all Google has an average market share of 90%:
http://www.afdeling18.dk/blog/soegemaskineandele-i-europa.aspx
(Sorry that the article is in Danish, but you should be able to read the figures just fine).
But here and there there’s some major local player thats giving Google a run for it’s money, fx. Jubii.dk in Denmark or Ilse.nl in the Netherlands.
[…] Don’t be suckered into only going with Google because they have 70% of the PPC market. Even though Google is my largest source of traffic from a single site, I have been able to diversify my traffic using many of these sites and platforms. It increases volume, decreases risk, and often have less competition. The SERPzone » 14 Little-Known Sources for PPC Traffic […]
@ Soren: Thanks Soren! Your feedback is always appreciated. I sometimes forget that outside of the US Google is often even more dominant than inside the US. Hopefully some of these sources will serve your readers and allow you to diversify some of that traffic. Let me know how they work out for you.
Don’s last blog post..14 Little-Known Sources for PPC Traffic
Don,
The reminder about Yahoo paid links is a good one and everyone should check that out.
2nd tier?
We have tested 2nd tier sites many times over the past 7-8 years. All with VERY Poor results. Click fraud and profiteering runs rampant.
Each SEM should look at SE’s and Portals that are in thier vertical and go after both PPC and Placement campaigns - be sure you dont have overlap from other SE campaigns. Outside of that you had better tap out Google, MSN and Yahoo before you put your money into junk bonds and advertise with the likes of Miva/Quigo/IB /looksmart and Kanoodle! Just do a bit of research and you will see they are full of suspect ad networks, partners and traffic generators.
Business.com has so few advertisers that their back fill from Google is larger than their ad contribution. Advertising through G is often less expensive and easier that going through a new interface at Business.com They also have a paid link option $199/year.
If you’re selling widgets then the shopping channels are a must.
i’ve tried a few of the second tier advertising companies in the past… some of them worked and some of them didn’t but then again the advertising game is win or lose.. overall good post topic though!
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@ Discovery: Thanks for adding some additional insights! You bring up excellent points about overlapping networks. If you or anyone else is interested in which engines serve to the other engines, check out the The Search Engine Decoder. As for 2nd tier engines, it’s often a challenge, but I’ve found if I implement best practices I can get decent results, but testing is certainly required.
@androo: The only way to know if something truly works or not is to test it and measure your results. What has worked for you?
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Hey Don,
Great post! There is much to be gained from trying second tier engines and alternative sources of traffic - IF you have excellent tracking in place on your site that tracks all the way down to the keyword level. Without tracking you are at the mercy of ad networks that haven’t invested in mechanisms to validate good traffic and no search engine will give you a refund it you suspect bogus traffic without reports to back you up.
Discovery is correct that there tends to be a lot more iffy traffic, particularly on some of the second tier engines, but you can also get some good results if you know what you are doing, and it’s a great place to test ad copy for pennies a click.
That said - search is all about distribution. If a second tier engine has distribution that is targeted at customers for your marketplace you can do well. Advertisers in other channels could deposit thousands and get very little traffic or a lot that is totally untargeted.
Most of the smaller engines have limited matching mechanisms and don’t allow you to exclude keywords so you have to be really careful what terms you are selecting.
I have seen advertisers have good success with second tier engines especially Business.com and Industry Brains, and also with the shopping engines, but maximize your opportunities on Google, Yahoo and especially Microsoft adCenter first.
I’m really surprised how many advertisers aren’t taking advantage of adCenter. You won’t get much traffic in some channels, but usually converts really well.
Thanks Don for the wonderful post..traffic is really important in doing PPC campaigns..the more traffic you generate the higher your ROI is..anyways these are great sources of traffic for your PPC campaigns..thanks again for sharing Don!
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Some numbers about the reach of all this services would be cool.
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Yahoo! Paid Inclusion is a great program. If only more people knew about it!
great ideas - I have a question about Yahoo paid inclusion. Is it a PPC link, ie if someone clicks on the link you are charged?
@ juliemarg: It is a PPC link. You will get charged a flat cost per click depending on your industry, which is determined by Yahoo’s rate card.
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fine list.
Industri Brains is now called Marchex.