Google AdWords or Overture.

choosing what's best.

[spud01]

I've noticed for our particular industry there a saturated banner campaign by many of our competitors on Google Adwords.

So been thinking if it's a good idea to still try out AdWords.

From prior experience I do know Overture have been in the PPC longer and supply their results to allot more search engines relaying on results from overture. In fact I have counted 7 Major search engines that rely on Overture to supply their searches.

So does anyone have any advice on what way to go if there is only a budget for one Ad solution?

Many thx.

[TomWaits]

AdWords doesn't have a minimum monthly, and Overture, for new accounts, it's like $20/month. If you have more than $240/year at your disposal, it's worth it to try out both. Many people are successful with AdWords ads only showing up on the second or third pages of results, how many competitors you have bidding shouldn't be a deterrent.

Overture min bid is 10 cents, AdWords is 5 cents. Not advertising on AdWords ignores the 40% or so searches that are done on Google.com and AOL.com, and not advertising on Overture ignores the 35% or so searches that are done on MSN.com, in the IE search box, and on Yahoo.

So you're throwing out at least a third of your potential customers by choosing only one.

[spud01]

hmm interesting figures there, although I'm not brave enough at the momemnt to venture in two ad networks when I'm only a first timer.

I'll give AdWords a world and see how things turn out.

[Andy_Reid]

I have continuing success with both methods. I must say that I prefer the hands-on administration and bid list that comes with Overture, as well as the specific keyword tracking that I can do there. The biggest problem with Overture IMO is that it takes forever to load the bids management page, but if you can be patient, it is a great way to advertise.

I still see some one page visits ('bounces') with them, but most of my clickthrus go on to take a real look at my products.

Google AdWords is not a resource to be ignored, but if I had to make a choice - it's Overture.

[too much information]

I would have to say that I would prefer AdWords over Overture simply because they do not show you your competing bids.

I know this does not seem convenient, but on Overture I have seen top bids go from 0.35 to 1.50 in a single month for terms that don't really return much traffic. Showing the bids only seems to cause a bidding war in most cases. (Plus the editorial review on Overture is a joke)

Nice thing about AdWords is if I choose a term I don't have to worry if someone is going to search the *exact* term. It will match for me which means there is less management to worry about. (at one time I had over 200 terms on Overture for ONE site! I'm now down to 50 well searched and less competative terms. Do your research!)

Nicest thing about AdWords is I can bid really low (per click) set my daily limit higher, write some great copy and appear above competators who bid higher (per click) because Google has enough sense to know that more cheap clicks pays better than one big click. (Unless it's a really BIG click of course)

<edit>One more thing, be sure to track your ads. Before I did this I thought my Overture ads were outdoing my AdWords but I have since proven that wrong. Know where your traffic is comming from, this will help you to target the audience you want.</edit>

[Andy_Reid]

<edit>One more thing, be sure to track your ads. Before I did this I thought my Overture ads were outdoing my AdWords but I have since proven that wrong. Know where your traffic is comming from, this will help you to target the audience you want.</edit>

I agree, tracking is critical. How are you tracking Google ads? My issue with tracking is that I cannot tell which keyword the search was for without matching to the logs, because all keywords are connected at a campaign level. With Overture, I can track each keywork like:

....com/?source=overture_keyphrase

so that I can quickly tell which keywords are turning into sales.

It is mostly this ability that causes me to favour Overture.

[roitracker]

With Overture, I can track each keywork like:

....com/?source=overture_keyphrase

You can do this with AdWords too (power posting).

Tracking is essential, but by puting your keywords into your links (whether on overture, adwords, or another PPC provider), you're making it pretty easy for your competitors to find out the exact keyword phrases you're targeting.

[Andy_Reid]

Tracking is essential, but by puting your keywords into your links (whether on overture, adwords, or another PPC provider), you're making it pretty easy for your competitors to find out the exact keyword phrases you're targeting.

Excellent point, which I had not considered. Probably immaterial in my own case, though.

Could you explain a little more about power posting with Google?

[roitracker]

[adwords.google.com...]

[Andy_Reid]

Thanks.

[Blue Gravity]

If you don't want to reveal your keywords to your competitors, and still track it using that URL method, just assign your keywords their own numbers. True it may seem a bit confusing at times, but at the end of the month, just calculate which terms did what, and if you can, see which ones resulted into conversions.

[spud01]

Am a bit unsure how u guys go about tracking the urls.

What process do u guys follow - step by step?

[Andy_Reid]

I do my tracking by link, and then follow up with our logs.

For instance:

If I am advertising for 'widgets' on Overture from mysite.com, I would enter the following for my click thru link:

www.mysite.com?source=overture_widgets

or as blue_gravity suggested:

www.mysite.com?source=1_1

knowing that the first 1=Overture and the second 1=widgets.

The second way is a little bit more difficult to track, but has the advantage that when my competitors stumble across my listings, they won't easily know my keywords/PPC combo.

(Although it wouldn't take a lot of work to figure it out IMHO).