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I'm fairly new at this game, making modest income. I'm looking for decent: low cost: pay-per-click search engines. I'm not going to the Google's and Overture's yet, and Enhance Interactive isn't working for my campaign. Can anybody make any suggestions for good pay-per-click search engines? Perferably ones, that don't review my listings? I don't need much traffic, just looking for 10-30 click-thrus a day on a popular internet search theme...
thanks,
Pat
If you diagram the sentence you quoted from my original post, you’ll find that “other leading PPC engines” references Overture and Google, not Enhance – although we’re bullish on getting there as we continue to improve ;-)
LuckyChucky,
Thanks for the kind words. As to the issue you’ve described: Certainly within the “focus group” approximated by this forum, it seems to be the case. All I can tell you is that we’re doing what we can. We have used numerous iterations of rule-sets and technology solutions to address the click fraud issue, and have seen gradual improvement. Over time, hopefully that improvement will become more tangible to members of this forum. As stated previously, it seems to be working for a large number (thousands) of advertisers in a wide array of vertical keyword markets…so something must be going right.
I will check back in with any news or updates on the issue. Thanks for being thoughtful advertisers, you keep us moving along the right path.
So it seems that only G & OV are the only 2 worth using.
The problem with the smaller ones is their source of traffic. Seems that lots of traffic are coming from parked-domains and fake clicks?
As somebody said earlier - it depends on industry and it is really not too expensive to try any of the mentioned PPCs for a while - there is only a handful of them.
Now a question - is there an overlap between the PPCs mentioned (i.e. are you running a risk of your ad showing up twice if a particular site chooses to show a combination of sponsored listings?)
I started $500 accounts with Kanoodle and Enhance for the company I work for and they burned through it in less than 3 days with 0! conversions (we get ~50 conversions on google for that much). K & E claimed no click fraud, but would not provide me with the traffic analysis they claimed to have done. It wasn't until I threatened an AMEX charge-back that they reluctantly gave me a refund. Beware of 2nd & 3rd tier engines!
I just found a lovely FindWhat click in the evening's logs.
The keyword is finance related, yet the click came from someone clicking on a porn thumbnail pic, presumably hoping to get a full size pic. The referring page had no other content aside from the 20 porn thumbs - no text, no links, nothing whatsoever.
I sent all the details to FindWhat, but having reported at least a dozen click fraud perpetrators to them in the past, I'm not holding my breath...
What I would love to see from all PPCs is, the ability to block specific network partner domains from referring traffic to any ads on my accounts. That doesn't seem like too much to ask?
What does this exactly mean?
Does this mean, that if I have AdSense on my web site my AdSense Account will be closed, if advertising via PPC whith this search engines?
On another note, it sounds like Google is sueing a magor click fraudster (they were heavily clicking their own adsense ads). That's great news for all of us!
You Need, to First Educate yourselves, on the 3rd/4th tiers!
I know that This, is going to be an Extremely Painful pill for Most Here, to swallow, but I really Do think, you'd do yourselves a Great Service, if you just, ummm, EEK, Signed Up, lol, to a couple of busy PaidToReadEmail Progs, for Just a couple of days. that's really all it takes, is a couple of days, then you can Gleefully, lol, Unsub.
Might be an idea, to have a 'chalenge' to the 2nd tier reps here, to sign up as Well, if you could talk them into doing so.
I Know, and I DO Respect, that people in forums such as This, have Far better things to do, than Join PTR Programs, lol, but it Will, I'll assert, be One of the Most Profitable 2nd tier ppc investments you've Likely Made, in 2004.
All you need do, is sign up to a busy ptr. Make Sure, During the signup Process, when you are Asked to ''Select your Catagories of Interest'', that you Choose, Both, 'Search', And 'Searches'. Tick Both those Boxes, Complete the signup process, and Wait, until you start to recieve your 'paid emails'. Than Wait 24 HRS. That will give you a 'daily' picture, of where your 2nd tier ppc budgets are going.
What you Want, to Walk Away With, from such an experiment, is This:
-You Want to Make Yourself Aware, of just how Vast the Problem actually Is:
-You Want to Make Yourself Aware, of How, to Avoid, at least Most, of those Blind Clicks. You Do This, by Avoiding, those Keywords/Keyword Phrases, in the 3rd tier directories, your InBox, has just become Infested with, lol.
That's really 'over-simplified', but Most here, are business people, and will be able to discern exactly what's going on with these programs pretty quickly, on their own.
If anyone here, takes me up on this suggestion, they, being in the 'Real Business world', likely may not have a paypal nor egold nor moneybookers account, to signup with. Just choose paypal as a payment method, during signup, and dump something in the way of an email addy in it's 'id' field, that'll get you through the signup process. Lol, not too likely you'll be sticking around to wait to get Paid.
Bear in mind, that Some of these 3rd tiers Do have a handfull of Advertisers, that bid directly, to their databases, but the Very Vast Majority, of the Results they display, are coming down from the 2nd tier feeds.
Remember, the Name of the Game, is Avoid, at ALL Cost, Those 3rd tier Directories! It's Costly, to the large advertiser, but for the small business, it can mean a Total Loss of their business.
Enhance Rep, you Write:
"" Second, I acknowledge that click fraud is an issue we in the PPC search space must address. Enhance Interactive - like Google, Overture, and other leading PPC engines - has a special technology team dedicated to identifying and removing offending affiliate sites. ""
- - -
I Too, have a Technologically Advanced Method, of VASTLY Improving 2nd tier ppc customer roi: It's Text placed on the tos pages of Feed Providers, that reads: ""We do NOT Permit, Paid To Read Email Program Traffic.""
That'll Work.
Please Note: I in NO Way, mean to single out, the Enhance Rep on this issue, and Commend them for posting in this thread, and hope they will Continue the discussion, to Everyones Benefit.
Well, I guess that about concludes my rant. I Sincerely hope, I've Not offended Anyone here. This, you'll note is but my 2nd post here, and I do Not mean to come accross as arrogant in any way.
My experience to date, in forums where advertising/marketing persons gather, is that ptr is looked upon as a 'non-factor', an assesment I'll assert to be based on a lack of understanding of the enormity of the problem, so sorta shootin from the hip, as it were.
If anyone wants a ptr to 'test-drive', I can furnish you with one of a couple thriving right now, in the 75-100 paid searches per day range, member bases in the 10K - 15K range, a good place to start.
Edited to add:
Greenleaves, I noted you didn't put much stock in Oy's article on click-fraud earlier on in this thread.
I don't know that the term 'click-fraud' is the right term to use, as there are so many players, all participating in the system, that it's difficult to know which donkey to pin the tail on, as it were, but I Do hope, you'll at least consider my above suggestion, for the benefit of a little 'hands on', before condemning the article as a total misrepresentation of a very real problem.
