PPC search engines
Although there are a large number of PPC Search Engines, the UK pay per click market is dominated by AdWords, then Yahoo! Search with other pay per click providers offering benefits in some markets. The major UK PPC search engines include:
- Google AdWords
- Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture)
- MSN Adcentre search engines
- MIVA search engine
- GoClick PPC search engine
- Enhance PPC search engine
- 7search PPC search engine
- SearchFeed PPC search engine
- abcsearch PPC search engine
- search123.com PPC search engine#search123
- Mirago UK PPC search engine
- eSpotting PPC search engine
This page gives a summary of some of these PPC search engines with a focus on the UK market but including other countries as well. Cornish Webservices have experience in providing PPC marketing services on search engines in the UK, US, Australia, South Africa, other English speaking countries, France, Holland, Germany, Russia and various other European countries. Contact us for a quote to make your PPC campaigns more cost effective and generate more revenue.
Google AdWords
Google AdWords is our recommended initial pay per click advertising provider for most UK businesses - and certainly those who target a business market. Cornish WebServices only use Qualified AdWords Professionals to manage client pay per click budgets, ensuring we can provide a quality service.
Google launched its AdWords scheme in 2002 and it has grown very rapidly, partly at least due to the dominance of the Google search engine. AdWords also provides advertising to Ask Jeeves and other search engines, and to a network of content sites via Google’s AdSense program.
Yahoo! Search Marketing
Yahoo! Search Marketing took over the Overture brand name in 2006.
Yahoo! Search Marketing pay per click ads show up on some major UK search engines such as MSN and Yahoo. Also AOL, Altavista, Tiscali and Wanadoo. The biggest disadvantage is they do not show up on Google, the dominant UK business search engine. Yahoo is almost always the second choice pay per click provider in the UK market, being slightly stronger in the consumer market. But in non UK markets the situation is different with Yahoo being a strong second place to Google in much of the US and Europe.
For International markets, Yahoo! requires multiple accounts, with different ones required for the US, UK and each European country. This can make it harder to manage European wide campaigns across many countries.
The old Overture name itself came from GoTo.com.
Yandex Russian PPC search engine
In some countries such as Russia, Google is not the dominant PPC search engine.. In the Russian paid search market Yandex is the most important PPC search engine (in Russian) . Cornish WebServices can provide pay per click management in Russian on Yandex if required. When marketing into Russia payment can often be a greater barrier than the language difference, but Yandex Direct makes is easy for businesses outside of Russia to market into Russia using the Yandex PPC search engine.
Miva PPC search engine
Miva acquired FindWhat in 2006. FindWhat has merged with the old eSpotting pay per click provider. Miva can now be a good source of traffic and has the advantage that the MIVA pay per click costs are usually lower than those in AdWords or Yahoo! for the same keywords. The Miva PPC search engines is worth considering for highly competitive keywords.
Mirago UK
Mirago Pay per Click advertising operates through a network of search partners, many of whom are exclusive to Mirago. These include names such as InfoSpace, Holiday Watchdog, MoneyFacts and Lycos.
Mirago were the first pay per click provider to offer 'day parting' - the ability to show your ad differently at different times of the day. A good 2nd tier PPC search engine in the UK market,
WebFinder.com UK PPC search engine
WebFinder.com is another UK specific PPC search engine, and for UK target markets is more important than other International (or US based) PPC search engines listed below which generate more US centred traffic.
In 2008, Cornish WebServices would rank WebFinder.com as more useful than MSN AdCenter in generating useful UK traffic, showing how the MSN Adcenter PPC search engine has declined in importance in the last few years.
MSN AdCenter
MSN launched their PPC product in competition with AdWords and Yahoo in summer 2006. The planned launch was predicted to be early in 2007 but this was brought forward. After initial good results traffic from this pay per click provider is usually poor and small in quantity in UK based markets.
GoClick PPC search engine
GoClick PPC search engine appears to be growing in popularity. Cornish WebServices reckon this is one of the minor PPC search engines which are worth considering. The geotargetting in the US/Canada is good, the GoClick PPC search engine does include some European geotargetting as well. Generally bid prices are much lower than on AdWords or Yahoo.
Enhance PPC search engine
Enhance PPC search engine was previously knows as ah-ha.com. The Enhance network include search engine partners such as Dogpile and Snap.com. The Enhance PPC search engine is similar to Miva in that bid prices tend to be lower than those on Google and Yahoo.
Searchfeed PPC search engine
Searchfeed PPC search engine is another 2nd or 3rd tier PPC search engine, and as such prices tend to be lower than those on Google and Yahoo. Major concerns with such PPC search engines can be click fraud but this is not yet a reported problem with the SearchFeed PPC search engine.
abcsearch PPC search engine
abcsearch PPC search engine is a useful 2nd/3rd tier search engine in the US/Canadian markets as it has good geotargetting. Submissions are usually fast and bid prices low, and in some US based markets this can be a good option..
7search PPC search engine
The 7search PPC search engine has some useful account features which include emailing the PPC account manager when a keyword is outbid. Traffic quality is good (they have strict policies on this) but volume is low. More cantered on US markets, and only English language.
search123 PPC search engine
The search123 PPC search engine was actually one of the early PPC search engine but it never developed as fast as some other.
The search123 PPC search engine is different from other PPC search engines in that is has a relevancy guide. This means there are rules about the sites that are listed and whether they will list a site or not.
Overture PPC search engine
Overture PPC search engine no longer exists, but the information is left here as historically this was such an important brand in PPC search engine marketing. See Yahoo! for current details.
Overture Search started out with the brand name "Go To" but changed to Overture Search in 2001. In the UK, Overture had a much smaller market share than Google AdWords, but the relative difference in other countries (e.g. the us) is smaller).
Overture pay per click ads showed up on some major UK search engines such as MSN and Yahoo. Also AOL, Altavista, Tiscali and Wanadoo. The biggest disadvantage is they do not show up on Google, the dominant UK business search engine.
Overture has now re-branded to Yahoo! Search Marketing, but the Overture details have been left here as old brand names take a time to be forgotten.
eSpotting PPC search engine
The eSpotting European based PPC search engine no longer exists, but the information is left here as historically this was such an important brand in PPC search engine marketing. See MIVA for current details.
eSpotting Pay Per Click Advertising was founded in 2000 and initially was a successful brand name in Europe.
By 2003 eSpotting had lost significant market share, particularly in the UK compared to AdWords and Overture. eSpotting relied on a network of smaller affiliates to display its advertising merged with FindWhat (a US pay-per-click provider). In 2006 this was acquired by Miva.
Which PPC search engines are best for your website?
Cornish WebServices have worked with many different PPC search engines and when appropriate suggest starting new campaigns with some providers (or withdrawing from PPC search engines which are not producing a good ROI).
It is also important to consider which country you are targeting, as this can affect the best PPC search engines to use. Cornish WebServices have experience managing pay per click campaigns on search engines in the UK and other countries. This is in English and other languages as required.
Contact us for advice on selecting the most appropriate PPC search engines. Other factors we consider are how well your website is already doing on the natural search engine listings that show the pay per click ads.
Looking for advice on which PPC search engines to use?
Cornish WebServices have extensive experience in both B2B and B2C type markets (based in both the UK and non UK markets) on all the major PPC search engines. We also provide natural search engine optimisation services and often offer a combination of services where we gradually decrease pay per click spend as the client website gains top rankings.
Contact us for a realistic assessment of the benefits of PPC (pay per click) advertising for your business. We only use qualified Google AdWords Professionals to handle client budgets. We were probably the 1st UK pay per click management company to do, and are still one of a very small number that do not allow 'unqualified staff' to manage client pay per click campaigns.