Overture "Search Advertising" (PPC)

[ViciousSummer]

I received a flyer in the mail for the Overture PPC program that is offering $100 free when you sign up and spend $50. I figured this may be a good way to try out their program, so if any one else is interested, here is the info:

www.moresales.overture.com , Promo Code: US1031B

Basically this will allow you to get the "sponsored results" listings (which are at the top :D ) in AltaVista, Excite, Go2Net, InfoSpace, MSN, Sympatico.ca, Yahoo!, Juno, Netzero, Dogpile, Metacrawler, Web Crawler, Microsoft Internet Explorer, AlltheWeb, Advertising.com, Away Network, CNN, ESPN, Edmunds, Knight Ridder, MyFamily Network, etc. etc.

I figured it's worth a try so I'll let you all know how it goes :D

[schlottke]

Nice post summer- thanks.

[ViciousSummer]

You're welcome.

Although, my overture account has burned through $50 in less then 24 hours...haha. :rolleyes:

[schlottke]

Any sales? My experience with them was less than great in the past, but Ill make a new account for $100 free advertising dollars.. lol

[ViciousSummer]

No more then usual, which is strange... :confused:

I've had WAY better results with adwords, but I guess we'll see if sales increase in the next week.

[schlottke]

Maybe their 'free' dollars are only worth a Peso? Then you could explain burning through it faster.

[tillies]

Signed up with them a few months ago when they had a promo for $50.00. My experience was the same, the $$ got used up very quickly. For some time I have monitored the overture visitors more closely and my observation is that compared with adwords or organic searches the overture visitors don’t go further than the landing page. Where other visitors take considerable time to explore my site. Makes me wonder. Anybody else observed similar?

[T0PS3O]

My experience with Overture is that you have to use really tightly targetted key phrases. Anything too broad and they will click just to have a peek. Also you do have a lot more text available in the ad so it is good practice to make sure that text scares away those who are not likely to buy. Mentioning price ranges is one scare tactic and leaves only those who can afford it.

Another tip is to turn off content match. A lot of those crappy 'all-I-have-as-content-is-a-list-of-search-results' sites use overture for their little money making scheme.

Negative keywords will save you a lot of money. Cheap is a word I cancelled over all few hundred G ads and 100 or so Overture ads. Use the Overture suggestion tool with your key phrase and see all the words you don't want to be found on and get rid of them!

Another thing that cut our Overure spend by over 50% is to settle for #3-5 instead of #1. With a well written ad your click index can be a lot higher than the #1 but for a fraction of the spend. Try it!

And finally, because of the higher lowest bid, only create ads for those words you know are similar or higher cost in AdWords. This will avoid expensive clicks for phrases that aren't really worth it. Look at how much a visitor is worth (average spend on your site vs. nukber of visitors), bring in the CTR to determine the price you are willing to pay for customer acquisition. If it less than the lowest bid, drop it!

Good luck!

[ViciousSummer]

Signed up with them a few months ago when they had a promo for $50.00. My experience was the same, the $$ got used up very quickly. For some time I have monitored the overture visitors more closely and my observation is that compared with adwords or organic searches the overture visitors don’t go further than the landing page. Where other visitors take considerable time to explore my site. Makes me wonder. Anybody else observed similar?

Yes, I do think that there is something "interesting" going on with overture's pay per click program. I used up $150 in advertising in less then 48 hours and sales did not increase at all. I think the program is a bit shady, quite honestly.

[digitalpoint]

Everyone I've ever heard talking about it had the exact same complaints. Tears through money really quickly and they don't actually make any sales/conversions. Personally, I would just stick with AdWords for PPC.

[ViciousSummer]

...I would just stick with AdWords for PPC.

I agree. I definately saw an increase in sales when I was using adwords for advertising.