| Internet
Advertisement Explained : Part 6
Resources for Search
Engine Marketing
Pay-Pesr-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 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 - An Alternative to PPC
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.
Conclusion
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.
** Brands mentioned above are registered trademarks
of respective owners ** AdWords and AdSense are registered
trademarks of Google Inc.
Happy and Productive Surfing
Dr. Amit K Chatterjee
Related Links:
Author
: Dr.
Amit K. Chatterjee
(Amit worked in blue-chip Indian and MNCs for 15
years in various capacities like Research and Information
Analysis, Market Development, MIS, R&D Information
Systems etc. before starting his e-commerce venture
in 1997. The views expressed in this columns are
of his own. |
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