Where are these Smaller PPC Engines Getting their Traffic from?

I want some answers!

[Blue Gravity]

I'm getting pretty cross over here. Smaller PPC engines and directories were a great idea when they first started emerging. They were definitely an even better solution to try out once bidding wars on Overture saturated specific, broader keywords. But now, I'm in a bind. The traffic I get from them, is pure crap! Where the hell are these guys milking their traffic from? It seems like all of the "clicks" are either hitbotted, or gotten from some annoying exit console that tricks them into clicking, certainly not searched traffic like they advertise! Is that false advertisement, to us, the advertisers in general?

I want some answers, and I'm sure other webmasters/advertisers are in the same boat as me. If they want us to continue paying, or have our clients pay for the traffic, why can't they just be honest and tell us "well guys, we are so unpopular now that we are actually selling you crap asian traffic from pop-unders".

Some people also know of smaller PPC engines/directories that they swear by, well, what are they?

[robyn_99]

There's no question that the volume of traffic generated by these "Tier II" and "Tier III" engines is suspect. Google and Overture have locked up distribution across all of the major search engines, so I'm always a little surprised to see Ah-Ha deliver 5x as much traffic as Google does in a given day for the same set of keywords.

Bottomline is that most of these engines are, in fact, syndicating their listings in a variety of places -- pop-ups (mostly forced transfer, evidenced by the fact that users go no deeper than that first page), emails, etc. By and large, it's not search traffic.

Bottomline, tracking each keyword across each engine is the *only* way to ensure the quality of clicks. There's a reason why they clicks go for $.05 - $.10... the key is to find the few that actually work.

[Kaklz]

Well .. you should know that not only the PPC search engine owning is an industry of money making, but using PPC search engines is also a way to earn money .. so those smaller PPC engines are for people, who just want to earn money for doing searches .. so .. why should a person buy your products, if he's searching to earn money, not to spend? That's the reason of "crap-traffic" you're talking about

[LateNight]

I do not even bother with anything but AdWords now - not perfect - but not the outright theft and fraud found at these bottom feeding ppc's. Some say they see a positive roi from them but to me its like a needle in a haystack. Then you have to be constantly monitoring and chasing down refunds for RAMPANT fraudulent clicks.

[WebStart]

Late Night said it all. I have been using PPCs since the "PPC business" began about 3 years ago. I have settled on Google, Overture and FindWhat, and believe Google to be the least suspect to manipulation by fraud by competitors and suspect "partners."

[JuniorOptimizer]

I'm with LateNight also. I've dumped about 2 or 3 grand into "analyzing" these other PPC companies and straight rip off is what I've deduced. Save your money!