I’m sure there will be many articles written on this topic that
will be far more in-depth and perhaps even more up-to-date than
what I’m providing here. My objective is to address some of the
common questions I receive from clients and prospects, and to
provide some interesting distinctions. If you are interested in
a side-by-side feature comparison, you will find this
article helpful.
At the time I’m writing this (3/11), Google and their
syndicated partners control about 63% of the search market,
Yahoo and Bing along with their partners, about 32%. With that
said, I find it is highly dependent on the market (what you’re
looking for) and the searching demographic (who is doing the
searching). Generally speaking, Google is mostly used by men and
business people, whereas Yahoo & Bing attract more consumers and
female users. Depending on your product or service, this could
be an important factor.
Both AdWords and adCenter use a quality score, which is based
on several factors that they will not completely divulge. This
quality score is so significant that it will place an ad from
one advertiser above another advertiser who is spending twice
the click charge amount! Trying to figure out how the quality
score actually works is like trying to hit a moving target when
it comes to creating and managing campaigns. However, following
a few simple rules, like having tightly themed ad groups,
relevant ad copy and implementing basic SEO techniques on your
landing pages, can make a noticeable difference in your keyword
quality score and how much you pay per click.
As more and more advertisers enter the market, there is
naturally increased competition for keywords, which results in
higher click charges. But there is another factor, which lies
embedded in the search algorithms, that accounts for the
fundamental difference between AdWords and adCenter. It’s the
part that matches a user’s search query to the advertiser’s
keyword.
The challenge we as advertisers face, is that both algorithms
are evolving to force more advertisers to compete for fewer
keywords. They basically recognize fewer keywords for what is
essentially an infinite number of search queries. Generally
speaking, Google gives you more options and provides better
tools for managing keywords. This is why you can’t simply copy
an AdWords campaign into adCenter and expect it to perform
efficiently.
When I am asked about advertising on Yahoo & Bing verses
Google, I almost always say “get it right on Google first, then
if you want more traffic, take it to adCenter”.
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