Are there any good alternatives for Adwords? It's just to spread the risk of operating with only 1 company.
Turbo
Shak
though conversion wise it is poor.
6 of one
1/2 a dozen of the other
different sectors convert differently on Google and Overture
Shak
my adwords' keywords keeps on getting disabled.. right now the campaign is costing me about $20-50/day, and my conversion is way way down... I wanted to spend $100/day but a lot of my keywords is consistently being disabled.. I'm a little tired of it this week.. maybe I'll add more keywords next week..
but for now, I transferred the converting keywords to overture and walah! it has been converting well for me... I'm spending about $100/day with overture since I started with them...
the thing with overture is their website and their process is a little hard to use and slow to respond... this discourages a lot of people to advertise with them... but there is gold to be mined in overture... after all there's a ton users using msn and yahoo...
good luck!
-ER
But obviously from a scientific mktg perspective, you should try both.
tsinoy- comments like yours, given that I'm an adsense publisher whose revenues are way down, make me wonder if this is confirmation that whatever they've changed in the adwords/adsense selection criteria (for where they place ads) is indeed a bad move.
what does disabled mean, and why do they do it?
ovt/yahoo displays ads on well known highly credible sites, so this may be an advantage in one sense - but then, google's way of placing ads all over the web on adsense publishers' pages gives you the advantage of getting into niches and having 'everyday people' credibility.
But obviously from a scientific mktg perspective, you should try both.
I may be an odd person to be saying it, but it just makes a lot of sense to at least try both. If nothing else, it'll broaden your reach.
One word of caution though, for either an AW > YSM or YSM > AW transitions: be prepared for the two programs to work differently, even though both deliver the same thing (that being CPC advertising).
Lots of differences between one and the other. And expecting one to work just like the other is a recipe for frustration. At least according to a lot of advertisers that I've talked with over the years. ;)
AWA
what does disabled mean, and why do they do it?
It all breaks down into their algorithm and it equates. I'm not certain of the exact format, but I do know the reason they do this is because if they didn't then advertisers could run rampant over their network and place keywords for any type advertisement...even unrelated. My keywords rarely become disabled because for one I use completely relevant keywords, but also I check my account daily...at least 4 times a day...and if I see a keyword in trial, on hold, or any other negative status...I immediately delete it myself.
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Another alternative to Adwords (and Overture) is FindWhat...which does a good job. All three (as well as others) have there place and help with different needs. Like right now, for one of my sites I mainly use FindWhat over the other two because it converts better...the click-thru is about the same as the other two...well Overture CTR is fairly low..with any campaign...but their conversion is always good or balanced. Anyway, for other sites Adwords may bring better CTR and Conversion...so they each have a need.
Another reason I use FindWhat for one of my sites is the keyword cost. For one of my most popular keywords the FW cost is only .07 cent a click for #1 spot...while on AdWords the cost is .89 cent a click for #1 spot. In a budgeting standpoint it is much better for me to choose FindWhat for this site. The keyword has only lately became popular because before I had #1 spot for only .14 cent a click on AW...but some competitor must have made it jump...to discourage small-timers like myself.
