Most of the attention on PPC marketing is centred on Google, and that is where the majority of traffic still comes from. There are other routes though where rich pickings can be had. Shine Marketing talk you through some other options…

Four major search engines represent the bulk of UK online traffic:

• Google
• Yahoo (formerly Overture)
• Miva (Formerly eSpotting)
• Mirago

Each of these drives its traffic in different ways, we talk you through each one, and their pros and cons on this article.

Google

The big daddy of search also powers other major portals such as AOL. Part of its popularity lies in the simplicity of getting your first campaign set up. Just a credit card is needed and you’re away. Easily set maximum amounts to spend, test different ads against each other, and other useful features.
Google’s bidding system means that whatever you bid, you only pay 1c above the ad below you, so you will usually come in under budget on your spend, however the system is made more complex by the fact that Google will multiply your spend by your click-through rate to work out your position. i.e. a well written ad with big benefits can place higher than an ad spending more money if it means Google will earn more from a higher volume of traffic.

As well as the search network - the results you see when you search on Google itself - Google also runs its ads on a ‘content’ network. These are the ads you see on may sites with the words ‘Ads by Google’ above them. These ads are targeted based on the content of the page, so you should still find good tarffic from these routes, however, this network isalso the most susceptible to ‘click-fraud’ as site owners have an incentive to get the maximum amount of clicks they can from their site inventory.
www.google.co.uk

Yahoo!

Overture provided the ’sponsored search’ listings for many search sites until it was bought by Yahoo! in 2006. Like Google it also provides listings on other content sites, but these are more tightly controlled, with only high volume reputable sites included in their network.

Whilst Yahoo doesn’t provide the volume that Google does, relatively low competition means that better value traffic can often be gained through this network.
www.yahoo.co.uk

Miva

Formerly eSpotting, this network provides much of its traffic from syndication on other sites, as such the quality is comparable with Google & Yahoo’s content networks. With few of the large sites that Google and Yahoo provide listings on, only very high volume markets will find it worthwhile using this network.
www.miva.co.uk

Mirago

Another, newer netwok, relying on its content network, this is comparable to Miva in volumes and quality.
www.mirago.co.uk