CPC Part 6 – Alternate Search Engines – Can Anyone Compete with Google?

Challenge: Should I consider the time and effort involved to run a separate PPC campaign alongside of Google?

Running a PPC program takes time and effort to structure, optimize, manage, etc…  Is it worth the time to run with smaller search engines like Bing, Yahoo, Marchex, Business.com and others?  Of course, the answer is – it depends. Here is a quick list of many B2B search engines.

Google makes it relatively easy to export your program so you can import into another search engine.  In fact, other search engines may be motivated enough for your business to take this export and build your campaign for you.  In some cases I have seen some who are willing to even replicate the changes to the program over time.

However, even with this assistance, you need to test the search engine to see the comparative cost per lead and revenue generated.  You may find that despite a duplicated program, the source of traffic from other engines decreases the quality of leads acquired.  The only way to know for certain is to run a test.  Based on my experience with B2B enterprise IT products, I have not yet been successful with Yahoo or MSN/Bing.  While I tried several experiments and ongoing optimization, I could not ramp the quantity of the program as well as the quality of the programs I had run with Google to make this worth the effort.  On the other hand, I have been able to run successful programs with Marchex.  While not the same scale as my Google campaigns, the quality and volume justified their ongoing investment.

There are new search engines and innovations happening all the time.  So keep your eyes open.  I would also be open to hearing your experience!

Lesson:  Google is king – in terms of volume and quality.  Marchex is one of the only other PPC programs we have been able to successful run alongside Google.

Special thanks to Lindsey Walsh for her assistance with this post.  You can contact Lindsey at: contact@searchengineppc.com.

Author: Larry Stein at TechMarketingStrategies

For the last 20 years, I have led demand generation teams supporting high growth technology companies. Now working as an independent consultant, my responsibility is to apply best practices in the creation of these programs. My goal is to enable marketing teams to become self sufficient with a data driven culture of KPI's, test and measurement in service of achieving company revenue targets. My approach is to work with senior management identifying objectives and wildly important goals. With these in mind, we work together to build programs, processes and systems that will reach these goals along with the measurement KPI's to evaluate progress. Along the way we will enable the team to manage and maintain these systems so achieving these goals becomes a natural cadence of the marketing organization. View all posts by Larry Stein at TechMarketingStrategies