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Pay Per Click (PPC) Ad – Which One
Should You Choose?
last updated: october 26, 2009
Pay-Per-Click or PPC in short, is an
effective marketing scheme for the
Internet. If you have a personal
blog/site that attracts moderate to
high traffic, and you want to
generate some revenue from it then
PPC is a very good option for you.
There are many companies,
including the major search engines
such as Google, Yahoo! etc. that
offer PPC ad-serving applications for
webmasters and publishers. After
registering with the company, all
you have to do is put some
Javascript code or HTML in your
pages and activate the
advertisement. The company tracks
how many times the ads have been
viewed and clicked and makes your
payment at the end of the month.
In this article we will take a look at
some PPC ad serving applications
and try to help you decide which
one could be the best option for
you.
Google Adsense
Google AdSense is the current
leader in content-sensitive web-
based marketing. Webmasters can
place Google AdSense JavaScript
code on their web pages in order to
allow Google’s servers to show
context sensitive advertisements
(Google Adwords). Google uses their
search engine ranking technology to
decide what ads to show on your
site, and on specific pages on your
site. On a post about photography
on your site, for example, Google
might show ads for digital cameras.
This type of targeting is very
effective and results in good click-
through rates in most circumstances.
How much you can make with Google
Adsense depends entirely upon the
niche of your website. The more
competitive is your niche, the higher
the CPM. However, many web
publishers have complained about
Google’s terms and conditions of
being too restrictive. As a Web site
owner participating in AdSense, you
are fully prevented from knowing
which ads were clicked and how
much each click brings to you. They
have $100 payout policy, which
means you’ll receive their payment
only after the your revenue exceeds
$100. Many publishers have found
their Adsense account suspended by
Google out of the blue, for reasons
beyond their control. In spite all of
these, for relative ease in use and
targeting strategy, Adsense is the
pioneer in PPC ad serving area.
If you have a WordPress blog then
you can use the Simple Adsense
Integration plugin that will make
your ad management a little bit
easier on your blog.
Microsoft PubCenter
Microsoft PubCenter is Microsoft’s
answer to Google’s AdSense and
Yahoo’s Publisher Network. I have
heard that some users of PubCenter
are receiving three times more in
revenue from Microsoft than Google
AdSense. PubCenter also allows the
publishers to be able to set
background images for ads.
Yahoo Publisher Network(YPN)
Yahoo!, in an attempt to catch up
with its rival Google, has stepped
into the contextual ad serving game
with Yahoo Publisher Network. As of
this writing, it’s in beta phase and
only available to US-based sites. The
best thing that can be said about
YPN is that it allows other Yahoo!
services to be integrated into your
web site, including Add to My Yahoo!
(RSS), Y!Q etc. They are as strict
with terms and conditions as
Adsense and very selective about
who they accept to use the service.
AdBrite
AdBrite is considered one of the best
alternative to Google Adsense. They
offer most commonly use ad formats,
including interstitial full page ads
which offer an excellent way to
monetize all your incoming traffic,
not just traffic that clicks on your
ads. Through a small snippet of
HTML placed on your site, they
handle serving, scheduling, billing,
customer service, and sales. Their
payouts are smaller($20) and
revenue is typically split 75/25 in
your favor. They have more relaxed
terms and conditions than Adsense
and are much more accepting of
smaller publishers including
bloggers. The weakness of AdBrite is
it’s lack of variety in the ad formats
offered.
Clicksor
Clicksor provides excellent context
sensitive ad serving similar to
Adsense, plus you have option to
put in some keywords yourself. They
have payouts upto a market leading
85% and unlike a number of
alternatives the cost per click bid
values are high enough that you can
earn a decent income. They also
allow you to add as many sites /
domains as you want under a single
account. In any pay period in which
your earnings exceed $50($20.00
with PayPal), payments are made
either by check or instantly through
PayPal. Revenue totaling less than
the minimum will be rolled into the
next period.
Bidvertiser
The coolest thing about Bidvertiser,
another contextual ad server, is that
they let you design their ad formats.
They offer a simple point-and-click
tool to help you customize the
layout of the ads to fit your site’s
look and feel, in order to retain the
quality of your website. It pays you
either in $25.00 increments by check
or $10.00 increments by PayPal.
However, the ad pool seems a little
limited and it can be picky with who
they accept into its program.
Chitika
Chitika has an innovative ad serving
application name ‘eMinimalls’,
something they refer to as ‘impulse
merchandising technique’. How it
works? Let’s say you have written a
review for a new digital camera in
your blog. Chitika ad widgets will
display ‘interactive’ ad boxes,
showing links for this camera and
other competitor cameras. If people
purchase these cameras you get a
paid a commission. It also allows
you to display targeted products
based on what people searched for
to get to your page and you get paid
for clicks. You are paid 60% of ad
revenue generated. Payment is made
to your PayPal account once the
balance reaches $50.
WidgetBucks
WidgetBucks claim to be the
Internet’s fastest growing ad
network. Widgetbucks allows you to
insert ‘dynamic’ ads that cycle
through a handful of products in
real-time. One thing to keep in mind
is that the ads are very colorful so if
you are looking for something that
blends in with you site then
Widgetbucks is probably not your
best bet. WidgetBucks performs very
good on a product review site.
AdToll
AdToll pays on CPC(Cost-per-Click)
basis. It has introduced the
innovative ‘Peel Away Ad’ technology
that shows a peel on the top right
hand side of a page. When the
mouse moves over the peel it opens
smoothly to reveal the advert within.
This new ad format allows you to
make use of the lesser used, yet
highly visible top corners of
websites, saving valuable space in
the content area. Also it is very non
intrusive to the visitor and most
likely to draw her curious clicks!
AdToll likes to boast their 75%
payout, which is indeed more than
the majority of ad networks pay.
Payments are made via cheque,
paypal, wire/bank transfer or to your
AdToll Account Credit if you are also
an advertiser. Cheques require a
minimum of $40 in earnings, $20 for
PayPal and $1,000 for wire transfers.
Payments to your AdToll Account
Credit have no minimum.
ExitJunction
ExitJunction offers a unique
approach to advertising. They focus
on showing ads to users as they
leave your site rather than as they
arrive. By adding a small piece of
their code to the header section of
your site, visitors are shown an ad as
they hit the back button. If someone
came to your site from a Google
search and then immediately hit the
back button to return, she would be
shown an Exit Junction Ad in
between your page and the Google
search page, and you get paid for
this impression. The ad is directly
targeted to the search term that
brought the visitor to your site in
the first place. It’s an ideal way of
complimenting your existing ad
services and increasing your revenue
without having to switch from your
current ad provider. Also they cover
all countries so you get paid for all
traffic exiting you site regardless of
its origin. They offer fee free payout
via Check or PayPal with earnings of
as little as $25 on a monthly basis.
ClickThruTraffic
Not the best option, but if nobody
else picks your site, you can always
rely on ClickThruTraffic . They claim
to pay 6 to 20 cents each time a
surfer clicks on the ad on your site.
They offer textual links, buttons and
banners.
There you go. We have covered 10
PPC ad serving options, from the big
players to small timers. If you have
any other suggestions, feel free to
share in the comments section.