When faced with a campaign involving a strict ROI or CPA goal, used to be that we’d rely on the big guns, Google and Yahoo!, to bring us the volume we needed at a cost that would allow us to garner incremental volume from the tier two engines, like Kanoodle, Enhance, Miva, or (the engine formerly known as) AskJeeves. As Media Managers, we weren’t left with many options when Google and Yahoo! failed to deliver the goods. The challenge then was to creatively work within the limits of the individual engines to make the best of any campaign situation.
Well, I am very glad to say that those days are over! No longer do we find that Google and Yahoo! have a monopoly on cost effective conversion-based campaigns. Of course, I would never go so far as to say that they are no longer integral to any SEM strategy, because of course they are; combined, they still touch more than 90% of the market space. What I am saying is that the competition is heating up. We now have reliable, cost effective options to bolster well-performing campaigns outside of G and Y!; I’ll even say to improve upon them.
When AskJeeves first came to our offices to announce that they were launching their own unique user interface and bidding platform, we were skeptical. Like everyone else, we had always found inclusion in the AskJeeves search results through our AdWords campaigns. It didn’t seem prudent to test a new beta product just to go direct. Our main concerns were: ‘what would be the benefit to our clients?’ and ‘would it take more or less effort to effectively manage a profitable campaign?’
Since that time the butler has been axed and we have run many test campaigns with both AskJeeves and Ask.com. At first we found some sticky spots, like CPCs that cost us more than the CPCs we were paying on Google for the same position. Our Ask.com representatives were always quick to remedy the situation (which was great), but that didn’t forestall the added task of constantly monitoring our CPCs to see where we could purchase a KW for less – Google or direct. We have also run into issues with reporting delays, inaccurate reporting, a clumsy user interface and hiccups in the API. However, strides have been made and it is becoming clear that Ask should have dumped that Jeeves guy ages ago.
The most exciting discovery is that in the past two months we have seen phenomenal improvement in our campaigns running directly on Ask. It has been some time since I have seen or heard of non-competitive CPCs. Our click through rates and conversion rates are rivaling those of Yahoo! We have seen CPAs and ROIs from Ask that far out-perform the same campaign metrics on Yahoo! – and in some cases even on Google (gasp!).
Of course we don’t see anywhere near the same volume coming from Ask that we see from Google or Yahoo!, but traffic has been steadily increasing. Their network is clean (none of those mysterious, weird syndicated pages a la Google) and their TV spots don’t hurt, either. And the buzz about those binoculars is getting louder and louder around many a water cooler.
What I’m saying is, it’s nice to have a choice; that’s what makes life interesting, and it’s putting the fun and challenge back into planning and managing an effective SEM campaign. Another up-and-comer that is showing tons of promise these past several weeks is MSN. Reluctant to draw any premature conclusions, I will wait until we have a few more weeks of clean MSN data to get up on my next soapbox. Until then, Ask away!
Nancy Adzentoivich is a Senior Media Manager at Reprise Media.
Are other people out there seeing the same results. I am getting tired dealing with Google adding/dropping indexed pages at the rate of about 500 per day. It’s crazy what you have to go through to get anything from them. Oh and ask for help! HA! Good luck. Any feedback appreciated
try to submit my resume in your advertised web. there was no provision yet
I surely do hope my search will be more easier then before, I need to find ont how to get my claimes on the stock snd bonds/ trades as well. I keep getting offers for loans/credit cards. the truth is I am NOT borrowing any of my own money. and as for as them credit card companies I don’t want to hear from them again
I’ve used Ask & Ask Jeeves for years. ExpertRank is superior to the old Jeeves system; however, there is still room for improvement. Here’s an example.
I’m a webmaster; I’m also a bicycling advocate. Last year, I created ridethisbike.com to promote great places to go cycling.
RideTHISbike.com has been indexed by the Ask robot; however, just 1% of the total search engine traffic to this site comes from Ask.com related sites. Why? Because ridethisbike.com is not listed in the ExpertRank generated search results for search terms that are highly relevant to the site (like “folding bikes”).
Until the ExpertRank results improve further, Ask will continue to place behind Google, MSN & Yahoo.
Always been a big fan of Ask. I think it delivers better search results than Google. I’d like to know if the Ask network PPC is available for specific countries, i.e. UK only.
Why is when I tried to contact ASK.com with the same idea 2 years ago to my news site no one would contact me back?
Via XML and ad box we run 1.5 million searches and over a million ad’s per month. Since I own the entire network there is zero fraud which makes me a power partner.
I will tell everyone what I told Google when i dropped them. I will not deliver more ad’s than what you can deliver in traffic. I already see the game of pushing traffic toward sites tyring to get their advertising then moving it once you have that traffic captured.
Ask delivers .5% of my traffic and has probablly indexed half the 80,000 news pages we have.
http://www.prnewsnow.com
I am having success with Ask but I have one big complaint! Some of their key word pricing is way out of wack and no matter what you contact ask about they send you a text book answer without helping or doing anything about it.
In fact many key words are far more expensive when compared to Google and related keywords can differ by several cents! eg. red bicycles and blue bicyles
In our recent review of client website analytics we are seeing a growing number of traffic from Ask. We now recommend that our clients consider utilizing the opportunites here. Ask is doing a good job for clients. Kudos!
Hi, Steve, who posted a comment on the 2nd May, 2006, regarding site submissions.
I am the Senior Editor In Chief for a free on-line e-periodical which was set up to highlight problems connected to cycber crime and counterfeit fraud. If you think search engine submissions are difficult then you should try asking microsoft for press information?
I’m a website editor and I’d like to know experts’ opinion about handling with websearch robots. If which of them are mostly effective for improving our ranking and performance towards popularuty.
http://www.sejajovem.com
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this has been on TV about No. 2111626100 as beeing bad-is this true?
Exotic Colored Contacts
Most of the teens attire colored contact lenses to change the very natural To beat the heat and to d
I have used ASK.COM for year and I am always pleased with the results.
http://edcgoldmentors.com
Baby Bedding Store
I think you have a really nice site.
Contacts Colored
Contact lenses, even if you don t wear glasses and just want to wear contacts to change eye co
Hello!
I have a question…I noticed that Ask Search Engine has picked up my blog at http://tickleberrytelegrams.spaces.live.com/
but it has no record of my actual site which is http://www.tickleberrytelegrams.com. I tried to contact them by email but both emails came back undeliverable…I emailed both: information@iacsam.com and Marketing@iacsam.com to see if they would add my site. Does anyone know what is happening with those links and who I talk to about adding my site to their search engine? Thanks! “Tickleberry”
I was glad to read this article. I will try out ask for my PPC advertising soon.
Wizzard Of Buzz
For years now I have been trying to get the folks at Ask.com to wake up to the reality that they could be the #1 most used search engine in the world if they would only develop a program that shares the wealth with the Blogosphere. Their response to that was to come up with silly creative writing contests as part of their efforts to increase their own Google page rank.
It really bothers me that the management at Ask would rather play us than pay us when in-fact a vast majority of bloggers and webmasters would love to help push Ask ahead of Google.
Why is it that with such a great product they can’t seem to understand how to get the world to use it?
And why won’t they discuss it with me?