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I sent an email to Overture asking why, and they sent me a "standard" answer:
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Overture's search results can be found on selected terms in the following
general categories: Computing, Entertainment, Finance, Health, Homelife,
Shopping, and Travel.
Due to restrictions to the implementations of our search results with MSN,
only selected terms relating the categories detailed above will be
included in this implementation.
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I have some terms related to travel, but they do not show on MSN!
There are MANY Overture bids even over .40 a click that don't show up on MSN.
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Example:
"Guess Perfume" $.42 Overture Bid.
Not showing ANY Overture results for "Guess Perfume" search on MSN. Only one sponsored listing followed by web page results.
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I fail to comprehend why anyone would just throw their money at something without knowing what they're going to get for it. Perhaps it's not their money but the customer's. That would explain why there are so many disgruntled clients served by "so-called" SEO's.
SmallTime & angiolo are right, the algo is puzzling and there is msn's restrictions on Overture usage. We do have bids on travel related keywords, but msn's algo does not know that it's travel related! One thing for sure, it's no use overbidding in Overture to get msn to start using Overture on certain keywords.
We have been working with a perfume distrbutor for nearly 2 years now. Out of some 1200 different brands, perhaps 400 are active sellers. We can optimize product pages for INK that will rank 1/2/3 in both MSN and AOL. Now for the "not so obvious".
Certain brands of perfumes consistently get more referrers from AOL than MSN. Others consistently get more referrers from MSN than AOL. Equally, different brands are purchased by Google/Yahoo people and same/different brands via Overture bid listings. To maximize ROI we need to promote the right brands in the right place.
Another "not so obvious" is the description given to the brand itself. For example, a description that pulls traffic from AOL may not pull so well from the same brand on Google/Yahoo.
Conclusion: Perhaps MSN have found that certain terms are NOT searched that much with them and, regardless of the Overture bid price, do not include those Overture results. That doesn't mean the Overture bid is invalid. The $.42 Overture bid is based on ROI from the other Overture partners. That search term may not be popular with MSN but very popular at AOL or Lycos.
No, the bid price is based solely on the mindset of the company placing the bid, not on the value of the traffic. Most people have no idea if their strategy is correct, and have no idea about ROI for Overture bids. They just want traffic. That's how so many SEO companies stay in business by winning top ranking for irrelevant keywords - call it CEO vanity or ignorance. Just don't call it ROI.
Well said okedoke
okedokeseo sounds like someone who doesn't yet know how to get a ROI and explains failure by claiming that the bid prices are artificial driven by blind ignorance and vanity. Mike Mackin seems to agree.
Don't give up, guys. You may just get it yet. ROI requires more effort than posting on a webmaster forum.
If you are ever curious about the advice you are given in these forums, click on the user's profile.
1. I tried looking at the amount of advertisers in Overture: some search terms only have five advertisers and still get in. Others with over ten do not.
2. I tried looking at the advertising amount - as mentioned above - top listings of $ 0.25 can get in whereas $ 0.40 plus do not.
3. I tried looking at the amount of searches at Overture's search term suggestion tool, you can have search term counts of over 1500 in march that are not included whilst lower occurences do get listed.
4. MSN search result numbers also do not play a factor.
Furthermore, for some search terms, MSN does not even show the "Most popular sites" linking to the Overture advertisers, even if there are e.g four Overture advertisers up to more than $ 0.40.
Other search terms with only one $ 0.05 Overture advertiser do get the "most popular site" link at MSN. However only if they are English words (at least that is what I found).
Last question: how do you get into the "featured sites"?
I'm losing interest in Overture, anyway. My costs, clicks and conversions are better with Google Adwords Select, I just wasn't getting enough clicks.
Because of the Google/AOL deal announced today, and because a I have a good share of AOL users, I think I'll focus my click money on Google for awhile.
Adwords Select reminds me of GoTo.com in 2000... before the prices were bidded up and most of my keywords became too expensive.
I disagree in loosing interest with Overture. OK, its not SEO - its advertising but it is because Google is becoming the absolute number one (Yahoo/AOL etc), with MSN as a medium contender that I think it is most important to focus an any alternatives to Google should something go wrong with your listings within Google.
Do not forget the folks who buy a computer with MSN as default searcher and who barely look elswhere for searching.
Also do not forget people who use metasearch engines such as Copernic and Ixquick. Overtures listings help with these search engines!
Getting a good listing within MSN (that is above Looksmarts input) looks like paying for Overture for the moment - at least for competitive search phrases. The only problem is it remains unclear when MSN decides to display the Overture adverts.
For getting into "featured sites"
[webmasterworld.com...]
