Issue 1 - January 2004

The TechnoPeasant Review
A primer to paid-inclusion advertising
By Jeff Pasternack

Most likely, the last time you searched the Web with Teoma, Google or Yahoo!, the search produced some sponsored links as part of the search result. Most search engines place a couple of these sponsored links on the top of the screen and some down the right and left sides. This type of advertising is called paid-inclusion advertising and it can be a great way to drive traffic to your site.

Two primary ad networks create, manage and place paid-inclusion ad campaigns: Overture and Google. Here’s the basic concept.

• You select a word or phrase that relates to the type of product or service you offer.

• You create an ad around your selection and determine how much you are willing to pay for it to be placed on the search results page when someone searches on your selection.

• In most circumstances, you pay only when someone clicks on your ad.

The words you choose will greatly affect the success of the advertising initiative. For example, if you are a chiropractor located in Bethesda, Md., you may be tempted to create an ad for the word “chiropractor.”

However, “chiropractor” is very generic and global: It probably would do you little good if someone from Houston were to click your ad and visit your site — and you would have to pay for the “hit.”

But, if you developed your ad on the phrase “chiropractor in Bethesda,” a greater likelihood occurs that the person clicking the link would actually be someone who is able to visit your office.

While providing the same basic service, Google and Overture differentiate their services when it comes to methodologies of campaign management. Google provides no way to see what other people are paying. It’s a guesstimate exercise in which you indicate the top dollar you are willing to pay for a top spot.

On Overture, you can see how much someone is paying for a particular ad, which makes it easy to set pricing. Overture also makes it easy to see the competing ads. This is helpful when it comes to creating my own ads as I can try and differentiate from my competitors. For example, if I’m going to localize my ads, I want my ad content to say “Maryland” or “Bethesda.”

Both systems also diverge when it comes to budgeting. Google allows you to set a monthly maximum; Overture requires you to spend at least $20 a month and if you don’t, they’ll charge you the difference between the charges you accrued and the $20. I prefer Google’s methodology because if my ads are wildly successful, I won’t be clicked into massive debt. Overture just keeps charging away and that scares me like crazy.

Online marketing and advertising should play a role in any organization’s marketing efforts. Paid-inclusion ads are highly relevant to the content on which a person is searching and produce automatically measurable results. u

Jeff Pasternack is the president of Dynamic Consulting Group and author of the TechnoPeasant Review. If you have questions about technology or comments about this column, please write to him at Jeff@TheDCG.com