The point - it is hard to compare both in a true apple to apple test because of a variety of variables including how ads were determined to show (both companies have different methods to determine broad), page placement and text length.
My in the dark guess would be that maybe since Overture allows for a longer Title and text in the ad, that people are more qualified for your specific good/service.
M
First, are you comparing broad match on Google to advanced match on Overture? These allow very different exposure, and you need to make sure you're not just comparing the accounts as a whole - but doing a bit of keyword comparison by matching options as well.
Secondly, there are different ways that these two handle advanced match and broad match themes in longer query strings.
For example, if you used advanced match on Overture for 'real estate', you would show for the query 'real estate photography' on Yahoo. On Google, your keyword won't show as they only show photography related keywords, as the 'theme' real estate is trumped by photography.
So, the exposure of the keyword 'real estate' is very different between the two engines. This can be repeated in pretty much every market. By analyzing the additional themes your ads do or don't show for, you can start to add keywords to make sure you do or don't show for these additional themes.
Also is it logical to figure that if you have a campaign doing well in Adwords that it will do well in Overture?
Zeuss661, I clearly don't have much experience in G to O transitions. ;) However, I've talked with many advertiser who are expert with O, and want to start with G. My thoughts:
As eWhisper suggests, there are many differences between the two programs. So, I'd warn against assuming that what works well on one will automatically work well on the other.
Whichever way the transition is made, I'd recommend committing the time it takes to learn the 'new' program as deeply as the 'old' program has already been understood. And perhaps use what you've learned in one program as a jumping off place in the other. But then watch carefully, experiment, monitor, adjust, monitor, adjust, monitor...
(Privately, I call this 'Rinse and Repeat', and I think a few others on the Forum do as well!)
Just my $0.02, having had the conversation a few times - and sometimes with really frustrated advertisers who expected that G and O to be just about identical in both theory and practice.
AWA