In addition to big search engines, marketers should consider small and specialty search sites.
By now, paid search results programs such as Google AdWord's sponsored links and Yahoo!'s Overture SiteMatch sponsored results are quite familiar to online marketers. If a potential client in Houston enters a query for "ad agency" and "Houston" in the search box, several results will come up. For that category, each Yahoo!'s SiteMatch sponsored results advertiser pays an initial 30 cents per click. Google AdWord's sponsored links assesses them a minimum of 5 cents per mouse tap.
Yet are these programs so well-known and well-used that new customers run the risk of being lost in the clutter -- of becoming a small fish in a big pond? Some Internet search services, marketers and other experts believe this is the case. They counsel for an alternative strategy, which is to consider search-placement advertising options on lesser-known or specialty search engines.
"If advertisers receive a decent amount of traffic from the big players such as Google AdWords and Overture, then they should test the lesser-known ones," says Catherine Seda, author of the best-selling book "Search Engine Advertising." "Advertisers may be happy to find less competition, hence lower cost-per-click rates and less time spent managing listings."
Narrowing the field
Seda -- who is the owner of Internet marketing and training firm Seda Communication -- cites several examples of specialty search engines that marketers active in the vertical industries or market sectors covered by those resources would do well to consider working with.
"Many consumers begin their research at these sites instead of a general search engine," she says. "For many consumers, specialty search engines bring them closer to a purchasing decision because these sites may typically compare products/services or provide educational information about a type of product/service."
For these reasons, Seda recommends that advertisers consider content sponsorships on these sites as well as having a listing in that specialty site's search engine.
"Google AdWords and Overture are a great way to hit people who target general purpose search sites. However, people indeed go to specialty sites where Google and Overture don't have reach," says Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineWatch.
As examples, Seda cited two specialty search sites: KnowledgeStorm and the National Gardening Association's Garden.org.
KnowledgeStorm is a business technology search engine that helps the business community compare solutions and hardware. As can be inferred from its title, Garden.org is an information site for gardeners.
In KnowledgeStorm, the paid search program involves advertisers paying an undisclosed premium for placement at the top of the search results page that appears when a user generates a query. A recent KnowledgeStorm search for the term "advertising agency" yielded 216 results. These were preceded by three featured sponsors' listings, including online behavioral targeting service VIBE from Accipiter Solutions, and Siebel System's Siebel Marketing 7, a personalized, permissions-based design and management package for marketing campaigns.
Garden.org's premium listing service expands on its free listing option. Free listing (which actually costs $299 for 12 months) allows one 160x160 pixel GIF or JPEG image, no larger than12k in size, a 35-word description of products or catalog, and links to the advertiser's Web site and email.
For $100 more a year, premium listing participants get to run an image at least 240x400 in size, up to a 100-word description of their products or catalog, and promotion of their listing on NGA's home page for 30 days.
Additionally, Sullivan notes that many specialty search engines are advertising on general search engines. "So many advertisers can ride the wide of the site's expenditures and explore options to place their product/service marketing on the specialty site's landing pages."
Smaller ponds
When it comes to paid or sponsored search results on more standard search engines, lesser-known resources such as Teoma, Kanoodle and ePilot all offer programs they deem competitive with the big boys.
Owned by Ask Jeeves, Inc., Teoma's key search results program is (cost per click) CPC. Results appear as sponsored links. For the privilege, advertisers pay rates that can range from 15 cents to several dollars a click.
As with other lesser-known search utilities, Teoma positions itself as easier as and more nimble to work with than its larger rivals.
"One of the nicer things about dealing with a smaller competitor is that we have got a much more flexible buying process," says James Speer, director of product management for Jeeves Solutions. "As an example, when an advertiser buys [on] Google or Overture, there are real-time auction bids on keywords. The going rate changes minute by minute, based on the competition of how ad units and performing."
Teoma, on the other hand, stays away from the competitive auction environment and offers stable pricing for three-month periods.
Kanoodle's KeywordTarget and ContextTarget programs work on a bid-based, per-click model for placement within Kanoodle's own search results as well as on content pages throughout Kanoodle's network of partner sites. The minimum cost-per-click bid is five cents.
Results appear as sponsored links on the right hand side of the search results page. The advertiser only pays when a customer clicks on their listing. Partner sites include WebCrawler.com, MSNBC.com and CBS MarketWatch.
Search engine and search results syndicator ePilot, owned by paid search results solutions provider Interchange Corporation, works on a similar cost per click model. ePilot charges a minimum of a penny a click for listings on its own site, with a mandatory $100 fee due at sign-up.
Search Distribution Network, ePilot's syndicated arm, asks that bidders start at no less than seven cents a click. Partner sites include specialty sites such as Fitness.com, as well as business-to-business sites such as YellowPages.com and Index.com.
Search engine expert Danny Sullivan agrees with the "big fish in a small pond" value proposition that specialty and smaller general search engines offer for paid search and placement. Still, Sullivan views migrating to these resources as only a partial solution.
"I generally hear from marketers that these alternative second and third tier players can offer traffic at better prices, but there still remain concerns about how well this traffic can convert," he says. "So, my advice is, feel free to try them, but monitor everything carefully."