Go to Overture and type in a random term such as "mortgage" and you will get 100 different people willing to pay for that keyword. Then go to Google type in the same word and it is not uncommon to see a third to a half of the same number of people willing to pay. Where are the other 50 or 60 advertisers? Why are they not advertising on Google as well?
I typically find that there is far less competition on Google, but almost even more important is the fact that the minimum bid to be in first place on Google is Always cheaper than the minimum bid required for a similiar position on Overture?
So I guess my question to all the my fellow PPC veterans is " why aren't these advertisers advertising on Google as well as Overture?
Anyone...Bueller....Anyone?
This it total speculation, but it that many more people bid on google, but thier ads have been disabled because of low CTR. On overture if the human reviews find an ad relevent it stays up until the advertiser doesn't want it anymore. On google it disappears if the CTR is too low.
Not sure what the other reasons might be.
Regards
I have had some Overture keywords that have well over 10 bidders, up in the $10 per click range and those words have never received more than one or two clicks in months. So competition does not always show popularity.
If you want to really find out the truth, set up a mini campaign for each network and track the clickrates yourself with an independent tracker. Start with a mid to high ranged bid price and you will soon see if the word is successful. I usually only need to spend a few dollars to know if it will be profitable or not.
KG
My non-technical siblings don't use google at all. they all use yahoo & msn for their searches.
I, and every techie I know, uses google.
My suspicion is that for non-technical searches (like mortgages) the competition is going to be hotter on yahoo/msn than google and for technical searches the reverse will be true. It certainly is in my (technical) area of expertise.
Go to Overture and type in a random term such as "mortgage" and you will get 100 different people willing to pay for that keyword. Then go to Google type in the same word and it is not uncommon to see a third to a half of the same number of people willing to pay.
One thought that occurs to me, and it is certainly related to jim2003's point earlier:
If I take the example quoted above literally, I'd say it is quite possible that many advertisers on AdWords have learned from experience that very general keywords such as 'mortgage' don't deliver very qualified customers, and may become disabled as well.
I'd like to think that AdWords advertisers are using really targeted keywords like 'mortgage broker sf ca' instead.
Another possibility is that on Overture, ads are delivered full speed ahead until the funding has been used up - whereas, on AdWords, ads will be started and stopped over the course of the 24 hour day to align with the daily budget set by the advertiser.
Just a couple of thoughts. ;)
AWA
Spot-On Jack_Hughes. There was a time when Alta Vista was the SE of choice for techies so placement at AV was a must if you were selling a technical widget/service. Different SE's "tend" to generate different demographics. This is a point often over-looked when comparing traffic flows from one SE verses another.
Overture was first.
I've talked to a lot of people who say they advertise on Overture, but when asked why they don't use Google, the responses are usually:
1. Google has a PPC program?
2. We're spending our net budget, why should we expand?
3. Google is too complicated.
When Overture came out, a lot of smaller businesses jumped at it as they were looking for more exposure, and they just haven't had the same urge to go back and find more exposure as they figure 'they're already on the net'.
I suspect that has a lot to do with it, because Google is complicated. You never know exactly, ahead of time, exactly what position you are going hold on their list of ads and for what price. And you don't know what price you will have to pay and what daily budget you will have to agree to, to stay at whatever level you want to be at. It is a very dynamic system. And requires, probably, a mind like that of those who originated it, to fully understand it. Overture is simpler by a factor of 10.
I also am not sure about the whole Google users are more technical argument either since Google powers a lot of the ISP searches and most of all AOL! I get a large chunk of my better conversions from AOL.
