Overture PPC: Advantages and disadvantages

The Overture PPC (in other words, the Yahoo pay per click) has its own pros and cons. Here is a brief review:

First, the advantages:

• Overture pay per click covers a whole lot of search engines such as Yahoo, Altavista, and MSN amongst others. So, the advertiser gets to choose from a variety of different audiences.
• It allows advertisers to see how many people are searching for a keyword.
• It gives you access to an easy-to-use keyword tool (called Search Term Tool) that saves loads of time on keyword research. It helps out with the phrases too.
• It is equipped with anti-click fraud software.
• It reaches out to a large population (over 80%) of active Internet users. In fact, statistics say that advertisers on Yahoo pay per click receive over 170 million targeted leads per month.
• Overture PPC gives you access to an online tool that calculates the conversion ratio (how many click-through visitors actually bought something at your website).
• You can set your monthly budget at the Overture PPC, allocating just how much you want to spend.
• Experts opine that the Overture PPC works well for consumer product companies, including products such as insurance and loans.

Now, the disadvantages

• Sometimes advertisers may deliberately misspell a word just because they know it is more likely to be misspelled. What happens is that they derive the twin benefits of getting visitors (because they did not spell right) as well as paying a lesser bid amount (because a vague word may even carry a ridiculous price of 1 cent per click). The Overture PPC search term Tool corrects spelling automatically, nullifying the advantage of this trick.
• Overture PPC claims that it reaches out to over 80% of the active Internet users. These guys may also be frequenting Google and clicking on their PPC ads. So, in reality, Overture PPC does not have any kind of exclusive audience.
• Overture PPC is less effective in getting leads for hi-tech and IT companies.
• Users opine that it is more time-consuming to use than Google.
• Lastly, it can be more expensive than any other PPC program. So, figure out the expenses that will come your way before you sign up.

Tips that will make your ads click on Overture PPC program

Here are some nifty tips that will help you fine-tune your Overture PPC campaign

Do not go over the TOP

T-O-P here stands for Top Overture Position. The top three rankings on Overture will cost you a bomb - they charge upwards of $ 4 per click! And if you start getting over 500-1000 clicks daily, you will lose money. Remember, for your ad to be effective you do not have to be at the top of Overture. Even a low place will do provided you write an effective ad. So, like in any PPC campaign, aim high and pay low.

Choose the type of your bids

There are two kinds of bids on Overture: AutoBid and FixedBid. In the AutoBid system you can set your maximum bid amount. Assume you have set $ 5 per click as the maximum bid amount, but are actually paying $ 3 because this is the price as per demand vs. supply criterion. Suddenly if a competitor comes along and bids $ 4 per click, then the AutoBid system will increase your bid amount by some cents so that you are within your maximum bid amount as well as ahead of your competitors. You may stay ahead of the competition using the AutoBid feature, but you will end up spending more because the price revision can only be upwards. In the FixedBid system, the amount you have bid does not change, irrespective of whatever the competitor is bidding. This may save you money, but push you down the ranking ladder if your competitor decides to pay more.

Avoiding click fraud on Overture

Overture carries a click protection system that analyzes each click to determine if it is fraudulent or genuine. If they figure out that the clicks are fraudulent then they will stop the spammers and protect you. But you have a duty to protect yourself too. So along with Overture's click protection system, you too must protect yourself from click fraud by monitoring and analyzing the click log files.

Use Bid Management software

If you have selected the Overture FixedBid solution from Overture, then y ou will be relegated downwards if your competitor bids higher. So to figure out where you stand, you must use different (other than Overture software) software to track your bids and the position you are featured in. You could get this third-party software from the Internet.

Check yahoo PPC and other PPC programs offered and following these tips which can make your any other or even your Overture PPC program successful.