So the real question here is what does Google offer PPC marketers that it’s competitors don’t? Well unless you have been in hiding for the last ten years you will know of the US giant’s dominance of search engines in the majority of the core markets across the world. Let us steer clear of the debate surrounding Google’s presence in China for now! This is a hugely competitive industry and with Microsoft’s new branding campaign, Bing , taking off in June last year, it was going to be an interesting few months for market share.
2009 saw a great year for Microsoft searches and the push for a larger chunk of the search volume. Yahoo! and Microsoft now control 28% of the search market in the US, however unsurprisingly Google’s team of bloggers have other ideas reporting a much smaller increase for their competitors. Historically Bing has always had a great ROI , but has been let down by low search volumes. So in terms of PPC campaigns and their global reach then in my opinion you should certainly consider using other avenues.
Here at 4PsMarketing we use an SEM orientated platform , which combines the major players in search engine marketing; however the individual platforms do offer very similar pros and cons. I personally find Yahoo! marketing solutions very comprehensive. It can go into some great detail when looking at the performance of keywords. Microsofts Adcentre has been much improved and can also cover the detail that Yahoo! now offers. From my experience here I would push my neck out and say that Yahoo! and Bing actually offer a better experience for their PPC advertisers.
Another huge difference, in the real world, between the three search engines is the support they offer their marketing clients, just like 4PsMarketing. Google is far more appealing for PPC advertisers with tools to check estimated search volumes and cost per clicks, analytics and predictions for the future interest for keywords available at a touch of a button. All this free information makes building campaigns far easier than its competitors, who only offer these services through contact with representatives.
I am just skimming the surface here, looking at the difference between the three major players in the PPC advertising , and I would really recommend using Yahoo! and Bing a great deal more in the future. You can still not get away from the dominance of Google, but 2010 will certainly be an interesting year for the fight of the search engine giants!
Tags: Bing, google, online advertising, Pay per click, PPC, Yahoo
About the author: Gerard Harris
SEO Manager – Gerard HarrisGerard is the SEO Manager of one of 4Ps Marketing’s search engine optimisation teams. He manages a team of 4 and a portfolio of 15 SEO clients. His day to day work involves managing client relationships to make sure they are getting the best ranking positions in search engines, leading to increases in relevant traffic to client websites.