Parameters for comparing PPC search engines

The following are some of the parameters that can help you figure out which search engine's PPC program is right for you:

Who can participate

Check if your country of domicile is eligible for the search engine's PPC program. For example, Yahoo's PPC is restricted to 20 countries, while Google accepts all international publishers provided they have an up and running site.

Ad distribution

Major search engines like Google and Yahoo have tie-ups with prominent search and content sites, which can run your campaign if you do not want to confine yourself to Google, or if you want to target specific consumer groups. For example, Google has tie-ups with AOL, Ask, About, Lycos, amongst others. Yahoo too has tied up with AltaVista, MSN, Juno, to name a few. If you are considering pay per click search engine advertising on search engines other than Google and Yahoo, then you must check where your ad can be distributed and whether the content partners are authentic. It is difficult to find free pay per click search engines

Affiliate program

Most search engines feature an affiliate program - if you have extra space on your website that is not covered by ads and you are looking to make money from this space, then you can sign up as an affiliate with the search engine on which you have advertised or with any other engine. However, do check if the affiliate program is valid in your country before signing up - the Yahoo affiliate program (Yahoo Publisher Network) is valid only for the US, while Google's affiliate program (Google AdSense) is valid internationally.

PPC search engine promotion

When you are advertising on a search engine other than Google or Yahoo, remember to check how these guys promote themselves because collectively they have only 2% share of the entire PPC advertising pie. However, if you are with Google or Yahoo, you can rest easy. Just a little addition here: Google is very innovative with its promotions. It has its email software, Gmail, where it runs its PPC ads, and that is a big plus.

Ad targeting

You may want to narrow down your PPC ad to a very select audience, say within some distance from your office, or just in some neighborhoods. Alternatively, you may want your PPC ad to be shown only in some countries. Check if your search engine gives you the options to carry out a narrow targeted search.

The cost of it all

Finally, the last and the most important parameter is cost. Remember that on Yahoo - because of its content (news, answers, features, games) and services (mail, briefcase, chat, messenger) - there is very high traffic and the charges are higher than on Google. If you are going with any other search engine that has rates close to Google or Yahoo, ditch it immediately and opt for either of the big two.

Can you make your own PPC search engine?

Of course, in principle you can, but only if you have massive resources, manpower in terms of programmers, and a foolproof plan that you will break either Google or Yahoo's monopoly. But before that you must first eat into the market share of big companies with less popular search engines such as MSN, AltaVista, Miva, among a score of others!

Well, on a more serious note, given the stakes today it may be possible to develop your own PPC search engine, but you will definitely need tremendous resources for your PPC search engine promotion, and lots of time to make it popular. One fine day you will realize that before you make it even remotely popular, your resources have dried up, and you don't know what to do next except put your hands in the air.

Instead of making your own PPC search engine, it will be better if you opt for an affiliation with an established search engine and plug that on your website. That way you will stand to gain.