Throughout this article I will compare and contrast the three giants Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and the freshly launched Microsoft adCenter in order to shed some light on the unique aspects and features of each platform. I will cover three main areas of each platform consisting of ad distribution, demographics and tools. When you have completed reading this article you will possess the knowledge required in order to make an informed decision on which of these marketing platforms is the most beneficial for your company to launch a successful PPC campaign.

Google AdWords

Google Adwords is currently the most popular of the three advertising platforms. They continue to develop new tools and features that secure their footing upon the top of the PPC Marketing podium.
Ad Distribution:

The Google Network consists of thousands of web properties including search sites, content pages, email services (Gmail), newsletters and discussion boards. According to Media Metrics Data 80% of internet users in the United States will view an AdWords ad within the next month. You may choose to show your ads on the search network the content network or perhaps both depending on your custom needs. A few of the search sites that your ads will appear on when utilizing the search network are Google network consist of Google, AOL, Ask (formerly Ask Jeeves), Amazon and Shopping.com. Several examples of where your ads will appear when advertising on the content network are HowStuffWorks, New York Times, Washington Post and Forbes.

Demographics:

The Google AdWords system allows you to target users in several different ways. You are able to target users by specific locations or by specific languages. This is achieved by determining a users IP address, search query location, internet domain or the users set language preference.

Tools:

Google AdWords comes equipped with a robust toolbox that can streamline your PPC campaign management.

The site exclusion tool allows you to block your ads from appearing on any sites that you feel may be irrelevant or inappropriate for your advertisement. The keyword tool grants you the ability to help you improve your keyword lists, estimate your individual keyword traffic or find new negative keywords. You may add your new keywords directly to your selected adgroup or download them to your computer.

You can best utilize the traffic estimator by utilizing it to estimate your position based on your max Cost-Per-Click (CPC), your daily spend, impressions and clicks as well as your keyword status. The My Chang History allows you to view any changes that have been made to your account within a particular time period.

Yahoo! Search Marketing

Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture) is the pioneer of PPC advertising and a global leader in commercial search services.

Ad Distribution:

The Yahoo Publishers Network is a collaboration of web properties consisting of search web sites, content publishers, email clients and more. Much the same as AdWords you may choose if you would like to show your ads on search or content sites. Several of the search sites that make up the Yahoo! Publishers Network are Yahoo!, Excite, iVillage and Sympatico. A few of the content sites include Advertising.com, CNN, ESPN and National Geographic.

Demographics:

The Yahoo! Search Marketing platform in my opinion trails the pack when talking about audience targeting demographics. The option available to you are very basic, however Yahoo! makes up for it with their Local Sponsored Search options.

Local Sponsored Search allows users who have a brick and mortar location to participate in gaining business from internet users who prefer to research online but purchase locally. Local Sponsored Search allows you to target visitors by a specific territory or service area up to a 100 mile radius.

Tools:

Conversion Counter is Yahoo! Search Marketing’s tool to help you measure the conversions of your advertising campaigns. Simply install a small segment of code onto the conversion page of your web site. Yahoo! breaks the stats down into information that is truly useful for your online marketing success.

Easy Track helps you in distinguishing web site and search engine traffic that result directly from your Yahoo! PPC Campaign.

Search Optimizer automates bidding strategies based on your keyword performance history. Yes, this tool does have it’s time and place but is still no substitute for manual optimization of your PPC campaign.

Microsoft adCenter

Microsoft adCenter is the newest competitor to the PPC advertising arena. Although there are still a few glitches that need to be ironed out adCenter has the potential to be a real competitor.

Ad Distribution:

Unlike the previous two PPC platforms we have gone over Microsoft adCenter only facilitates advertising throughout the MSN Search Engine. There is still potential that your ad will be viewed by a large audience, 40 million people per month to be precise. Out of the 40 million people who utilize MSN search 93% shopped and 81% of them made online purchases in the US. I feel that it is safe to say that we may also expect adCenter’s ad distribution network to expand over the next several months.

Demographics:

With the Microsoft adCenter you are able to find out who the searchers are, identify their geographic location as well as time of day information. adCenter takes the time of day information to the next level with targeting of ads by day of week as well as a precise time of day. The adCenter platform is the first of the PPC search engines that gives you the ability to target a select age group and even the gender of the searcher can be determined. The age and gender targeting feature could come in very handy depending on your product or services. MSN is able to provide such precise targeting demographics by pulling their information on individuals from Microsoft Passport accounts. What that means is anyone out there who has either a Hotmail account or a MSN Messenger account is easily trackable.

Tools:

adTracker is a mechanism used by Microsoft adCenter to track all clicks from ads served throughout MSN Search. adTracker measures the effectiveness of an ad by tracking which clicks result in a web site visit.

Bid Boost is a very interesting tool that is exclusive to Microsoft adCenter advertisers. The Bid Boost tool raises the value of a bid by a preset percentage after it recognizes that the individual is from your optimal user demographic.

In conclusion as you have read through this article you can see that there are pros and cons that come along with each one of these PPC advertising platforms discussed. The goal of this article was to arm you with a few facts that lend a hand in helping you to deciding on which PPC advertising platform is the most beneficial for you to launch a winning advertising campaign that produces highly qualified relevant traffic at an optimal return on investment.

Microsoft’s adCenter is a new low cost pay-per-click method to get new customers to your website. Doing an adCenter campaign will allow your website to be found under the “sponsored site” section in MSN’s search engine. This means that when a customer does a search for a specific keyword your site will come up. The good news is that no matter what your business sells, your website will gain maximum exposure to new clients. However, after you decide to use an MSN adCenter campaign there are a few tips to remember to assure your success.

One of the most important parts of any adCenter or pay-per-click campaign is targeting your customer. It can be very easy, especially when first starting your campaign to lose sight of who and what your customer is searching for. Remember, that with any pay-per-click advertisement, the customers are directly searching for your business. This means that you must understand what keywords and phrases they are using to find you. Once you have figured out the best keywords to use, you can successfully begin your adCenter campaign.

3. Analyze Results

After starting your advertisements, do not forget to routinely check up on how your adCenter campaign is doing. Doing so is very easy because adCenter breaks down daily results of exactly how many customers are clicking on your ad and at the same time tell you how effective your keywords are working. Many companies forget to analyze these results and effectively waste time and money on a campaign that is not getting optimum results.

Using adCenter to increase traffic to your website can be a very easy and effective advertising vehicle. However, do not take it light heartedly, and make sure to plan your campaign ahead of time. Without the proper planning, your adCenter campaign will not obtain the results that you are looking for.

But is it strong enough to dethrone Googleâ„¢ AdWords as the king of on-line advertising?

It’s a loaded question. Answers definitely depend on an advertiser’s specific demographics, target audiences and PPC strategy. But based on reach, functionality and cost, it’s already clear, adCenter will be hard for any advertiser to ignore.

Since adCenter is new and still very much “in development,” to pass judgment would be premature. It already claims superiority over AdWords and Yahoo!® Search Marketing in targeting and analytics. Both of these features are a natural outgrowth of MSN’s potent database.

Targeting. Since MSN® stores accurate and detailed demographic information about its audience – obtained from subscriptions and registrations on its various Web sites – PPC advertisers can zero-in on highly qualified prospects. Targeting options are:

Geographic location;

Gender; and/or

Day part or day of the week.

Efficient targeting leads directly to more sales-per-ad-dollar spent. According to recent statistics, adCenter converts clicks to customers at a substantially higher rate than AdWords or Yahoo!®. Higher conversion rates stretch ad dollars because less money is wasted on click-throughs from unqualified traffic.

Analytics. Again, data sets adCenter apart. Because MSN® has so much of it, they can churn out reports and analysis to help advertisers evaluate and fine-tune PPC campaigns. Analytic tools include:

AdTracker, a system that measures ad effectiveness;

Conversion tracking;

Customizable campaign reports with a wide variety of sort options;

Invalid click identification; and

Ad, keyword, budget and Web site optimization.

These tools make it easy to achieve outstanding PPC results, in theory. Currently, feedback from advertisers and search marketers is mixed. Some complain that adCenter tools are counterintuitive, buggy and overly complex. For search engine marketing firms often managing hundreds of client campaigns, these drawbacks can make adCenter an inefficient and frustrating platform.

But Microsoft® hardly is standing still. In May, the company acquired DeepMatrix, a site-traffic measurement and analytics firm. When DeepMatrix is integrated fully by late 2007, Microsoft® expects better performance from existing reports and a host of new ones.

Time will tell whether Microsoft® can get ahead in the on-line advertising race. But whatever the outcome, the good news is advertisers can look forward to stronger PPC options and better return-on-investment in marketing.

1. Set a sustainable budget. Effective PPC takes time. Decide how much you can afford over a 12-month period, and stick with it. Start small and ramp up expenditures as you refine your campaign and achieve results.

2. Define your objectives. Some companies find PPC mysterious and think throwing money at it is a good way to test the waters. But there is no mystery to adCenter. Its back end is loaded with robust reporting and analysis tools. To use them, you must first calculate your desired click-through rate, conversion rate and return-on-investment metrics.

3. Profile your customer. A standout feature of adCenter is its ability to target customers by geography, gender and time of day or week. However, these capabilities are useful only if you define the who, where and when of your ideal audience. The clearer your target, the higher your conversions.

4. Select keywords carefully. adCenter offers a sophisticated keyword-selection tool called adLabs. Take advantage of it not only to find the right keywords, but also the best ways to combine them, and the best times to use them.

5. Do the splits. “Split testing” is a solid PPC technique of changing one or two variables (such as a keyword or time of day) in a campaign to see which works better. With adCenter’s ability to target and report, there is no excuse not to do it.

6. Use a landing page. After people click on your PPC ad, where they go next is crucial. Best is to create a specific landing page that fulfills the expectation of the ad and clearly explains the next action.

7. Track results. adCenter updates campaign statistics daily, and even hourly, in some cases. Without monitoring progress, companies tend to overspend, under spend or miss obvious ways to improve results.

8. Identify the weak links … Several things have to fall into place for maximum PPC efficiency. Analyze what is working— and what is not. Low click-throughs often indicate weak keyword choices. Low conversions might suggest a problem with the landing page.

9. … And make adjustments. PPC is all about continuous improvement. Keywords not working? More than likely, further research will uncover better ones. Interviewing a few customers might identify an easy fix to a flawed landing page.

10. Build relationships with adCenter support. Like any new software product, adCenter has its occasional glitches and inconveniences. Get to know the adCenter Client Center so you can keep your campaign rolling.

One reason PPC is so attractive is results can be predicted and then measured. Since adCenter brings a new level of analytics to the PPC arena, it has enormous potential for advertisers. Still, a tool is only as good as the person using it, so follow these tips and be the best you can be!