PPC Updates: Overture Changes and Google AdWords Select
Web Marketing Today, Issue 112, May 14, 2002
Changes in Overture's Submission Rules
Recently Overture.com changed some of their policies (again), in ways that reduce the effectiveness of the "nickel strategy" I outlined in the article. Overture policy now:
- Limits bulk-submissions to advertisers spending over $1,000 per month with Overture.
- Rejects search terms unless they're searched on at least 25 times per month.
- Requires extreme relevancy of the ad to the search page.
I'm sorry I didn't become aware of the most recent changes before publishing that article. But I'm sending this note so you don't make investments based on a "nickel strategy" unless you can meet Overture's new submission criteria. However, you may find some great new approaches with ...
Google AdWords Select
Recently, AOL contracted to syndicate Google AdWords Select (http://adwords.google.com/select) on its search engine instead of Overture. Of course, AOL search traffic is big, so take a good look at this. Google is moving from its original CPM-based AdWords program to a bid-based PPC (pay-per-click) approach. In many ways it's similar to Overture, but has some unique features such as:
- Lowering your price automatically to one cent more than your closest competitor up to your stated maximum bid.
- Positioning your ad based on both user click-through rates and the cost-per-click. This prevents any one company from locking in the top position since the most relevant ads rise to the top.
- Targeting by country and for 5 languages: English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.
- Displaying multiple ads in rotation -- an easy way to test and improve upon ad copy effectiveness and landing page variations, among other uses.
- Broadening or restricting matching options depending upon your preferences.
- Capping your costs by allowing you to set a maximum daily budget for your ads.
- Allowing choice of displaying your ad on none, some, or all of Google's syndication partners, which currently include AOL, Earthlink, and Sympatico-Lycos.
But note that:
- Google can disable ads if the click-through rate isn't greater than 0.5% or that are deemed are irrelevant.
- Ads must meet Google's Editorial Guidelines (https://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=Doc&page=guidelines.html).
If you want to investigate these approaches further and really refine your strategy and results, I suggest you get a copy of a new e-book "Unleash Amazing Profits with Google AdWords Select," by Andrew Goodman. http://wilsonweb.com/go/to.cgi?l=pagezero
