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Some have survived, whilst others are History.
but whats going to happen in 2003, as more end users are shying away from Sponsored/Performance listings.
Joe Public is waking up, and I saw this today in an Internet Cafe where a middle age couple were using Google to search for "Travel Insurance"
although the Premium Listings were highly relevant and had excellent creatives (as did some Adwords),
they decided NOT to click on them and instead chose #2 in the serps (which was completely irrelevant).
I asked them the reason for their behaviour, and here is the answer:
"We dont want to click on those adverts, as those companies obviously are making lots of money and can afford to be up there."
"We didnt click the 1st result because its a .com domain name, and probably some big Amercian site"
"We clicked on #2 because its a .co.uk domain name"
so basically this couple clicked 1 of the worst sites in the Serps, because its:
a .co.uk Domain Name, and can not afford to buy advertising, and NOT run by some USA lot.
The bit that got me, was the fact they knew about domain names, PPC, but NOT about relavancy (strange).
So what does the future hold?
Shak
(btw, I dont usually ask strangers question in internet cafes, just happened that this couple were sitting next to me, and had been experiencing some difficulties connecting 5 minutes earlier, and I had let them use my terminal to search for "Travel Insurance")
There won't be a fall in demand for .com domain names just because certain users do not like "big American sites". I would use the same analogy for PPC ads too.
Coming back to the topic of PPCs in 2003, my crystal ball says -
1) The Big Three will strengthen their grip and will dominate the PPC market.
2) FWHT will be PPC company to watch out for.
3) More advertisers will realize that quantity/quality of traffic is more important the cost of listing (keyword CPC). You will probably see some smaller well known PPC players go belly up.
4) Overture's average CPC will jump to $0.6 per click :)
Seen a bit of noise about it here and there, I expect someone to be made an example of :)
Others click because if we can afford to put an ad up, we must be a good company (because we can afford it and we would only be able to afford it if we were good. ;) )
I think in the end, PPC is here to stay. The results are more accurate b/c most people won't pay for clicks unless they know there is a payoff, unlike SEO where you had a million people SEOing for whatever because what they did they care if the traffic wasn't targeted. They weren't really paying for it...
I have no doubt that paying for clicks, either through PPC, PPI or PPR will become the norm and not the exception for commercial sites. It will become an increasingly important component of advertising budgets and budgeted as costs. On the other hand G! will continue to dominate searches for informational and free content, which was the motivation which leads many to start using the Web, with some gains by Fast and Teoma etc. I really do think Y! will aggressively monetize their search listings with ink in house, effectively positioning itself as the "portal" search engine with its convenience helping its makret share for their newbie, casual, mainstram type customer. It is much too late to compete with G! head on for the mainstream accepted standard of full search, and they have, for now, waved the white flag.
Yep, not only in 2002, but in 2003 more so, it will the year of PPC and the realization that if you are selling or promoting commercial entities, you have to pay for it.
What meaningful portals have space left at the TOP of the RIGHT?
probably one of your most useful café visits ;)
Lesson learnt: you need .com, .local, the premium ad and the smallest ad.
I would love to see more of these type of Joe Public search engine usability comments.
Personally I wonder how many surfers already distinguish ads from SERP's.
Those that do, will they click less on ads in the future?
Certainly when the right hand side of Google Serps becomes one big kaleidoscope of ads.
Let's not write them off though. They make steal Yahoo from Overture :)
were you joking?
The question still is:
What meaningful portals have space left at the TOP and the RIGHT side?
The answer is none. All the big ones have been taken. Traffic from new additions (like CNN, for example) is negligible if not non-existant.
In 2003, is there a possiblity of big portals changing hands? (Lycos going to Google, AOL going back to Overture... and don't forget MSN)
So why would 2 guys be trying to bring out a new PPC? Where would the traffic come from.
There's always room for one more engine! Good luck to them
This month I'm increasing the budget for PPC for my commercial sites - will go up from u$ 300 that I was testing with, as I've found it satisfactory I've paid the U$ 200 fast track in overture and will enter 5 or 6 domains into LookSmart and Adwords.
Let's see where this goes!
Shak, I heard a slightly different variation of the above the day after Christmas, thought you'd be interested. This from a 65 yr-old professional person (state insurance commissioner) who is a long-time, heavy-duty online shopper, though not particularly interested in the nuances of search.
"Don't click on those advertisements, as those companies obviously have more overhead in the sale. They can't have the lowest price."
