4 Reasons You Should Diversify Your PPC Advertising Reach Today: Part 2

Opening minds to the wider world of pay-per-click advertising – that’s my lofty goal this week! Yes, I’m talking to those advertisers out there who equate “PPC search engine” with “Google AdWords.” On the surface, this is correct, but it is a dangerously short-sighted view of the world. Tunnel vision if you will. Yesterday I kicked things off by talking about how different people use different search engines and why you need to diversify your PPC into vertical search to remain competitive.  Today I’ll dive head-first into why PPC diversification could mean low CPCs and higher ROI, followed closely by a big picture view regarding search engine market share.

3. Potentially Lower CPC and Increase ROI

Of all the benefits to expanding your PPC advertising beyond Google AdWords (and even Yahoo! and Bing), the one that stands to make you smile this most is this: Google naturally has a tremendous amount of advertiser competition which has increased bid prices and ultimately the cost-per-click (CPC) achieved. CPC increases and in some cases, ROI decreases.  BUT… Yahoo!, Bing (via adCenter) and especially niche search engines have the potential to provide relevant traffic at a much lower CPC.

Cheaper traffic translates into decrease cost-per-conversion and increased ROI (assuming a constant conversion rate, but that’s a conversation for another day!).  When you combine a reduced CPC with the use of a highly specialized vertical PPC search engine, it’s a match made in heaven.  Todd Mintz discussed this very same thought process in an article titled “PPC Is Rocket Science“:

Clearly, AdWords is the largest, most important PPC advertising network, but folks sometimes get so fixated on AdWords that they fail to consider using Yahoo & Bing, making those networks relative bargains for advertisers. In almost every campaign in many different verticals that I’ve worked with, the Cost Per Conversion for Yahoo is less than it is for AdWords.

4. Prepare for Potential Shifts in Search Market Share

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve likely heard of the new deal between Yahoo! and Microsoft. In short, it’s a 10-year deal that will combine the 2 companies’ search technology (well, dissolve most of Yahoo!’s) to compete with Google.  This isn’t new, per say. Microsoft tried to buy Yahoo! outright in 2008. Google and Yahoo! drafted an agreement later in ‘08 to share AdWords ads on the Yahoo! search engine.  Neither of these deals went through, but you get the picture.

What I’m driving at here is that while Google is the undisputed #1 in search and PPC, this may not be the picture in the near future.  Microsoft’s re-branded and well advertised Bing engine is actually gaining in market share.  That is big news! If you are only advertising on Google AdWords, you could be losing clicks and conversions to Bing.  Whereas if you were devoting time and money to targeting customers across Google, Yahoo! and Bing – you would be prepared to react to that type of change by shifting budgets and management time between campaigns.

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Thus endeth part 2. The whole point of this blog posting marathon is to broaden your PPC horizons. It is important to your advertising success to know that there are opportunities, big-potential opportunities, lying beyond Google AdWords! There’s one more day left in this PPC diversification series. Check back in tomorrow when I’ll be posting a mega-list of PPC search engines sorted by category/vertical.

Photo courtesy of Tommy Ellis via Flickr.

Have a question or think I’m full of it? Leave me a comment and let me know!