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I wonder if this is due to the demographics or due to the fact that on overture "widgets" just targets "widgets" and not "buy widgets", "cheap widgets", "green widgets" etc.
(I know about bigmatch, but it seems not to work on AOL and Yahoo)
I advertise for a large number of keywords, so its impossible for me to track back all the variations on Google that might make me money. Maybe its "buy widgets" maybe "cool widgets" probably hundreds of combinations per keyword are money makers.
On OV however, "widgets" only is a looser.
Any opionions? Currently I tend to drop OV. Since they are on Yahoo germany now, I loose money *fast* now.
Oh, and any updates on OV+Gator? I think this is another reason for me to drop OV. I would love to sponsor Yahoo (cause they will need it for the Google/Yahoo/Msn searchengine war) but I definately do not want to sponsor spyware.
Ash
A campaign that needs a decent sized description to convert performs poorly on google since it is so much harder to prequalify clicks. Also, google's widely used broad matching can really kill geo targetted campaigns that typically get me low CPCs on overture.
Where I do well in Google is with the not so relevant, but relevant enough, keywords that Overture doesn't allow me to add to a campaign due to "Content".
As you rightly point out there will be variations of keywords if you use broad match, and if you are not tracking them then it's hard to put the two together.
To get as close to a true like for like comparison you need to :
1. Only do exact match on Google for the same keywords on Overture
2. Bid to the same position (average position on Google)
3. Spend an identical amount of money on both each day (You may need to add $50 to an Overture account and let that run)
4. Use the same creative for both (so no more than 25 in title and 70 in description)
5. Measure true ROI as sales value - expenditure
Even then there will be anomalies, they both serve different demographics, but ultimately your aim should be to track exactly the keywords that produce positive ROI and tweak the one's that don't until you run out of tweaks and then can the keyword.
My experience is that Overture is much better
than Google Adwords.
I mean track the Overture clicks.
These people click on average 5 - 7 pages and convert
to buyers at 5%.
In contrast my CTR in Google is 1% and my convert to sales
is about 0.3% or LESS! Plus the google visitors
click less than three pages before they leave.
The main problem Overture has is expensive keywords.
All high traffic keywords are over a dollar
and most are in the $2-5 range, too rich for
my blood.
Another problem is that they take 4-EVER to approve words,
and I have to re-submit the same word to them.
If you don't ride them like a horse, they never
get around to approving your keyword!
You get they worst excuses for why they do not admit a keyword, like "word not relevant." And the page 100%
about that WORD!
Google is pretty much on the ball.
