RYP Marketing

Google may dominate the world of online search and pay per click advertising, but they certainly aren’t the only player in the game. There are alternatives to Google Adwords, and some of them can deliver excellent ROI for the right campaign. Some of these traffic sources may drive lower quality traffic than Google, but the lower bid prices sometimes mean you can achieve better overall ROI than with Google. Here are 7 of our favorite Google Adwords alternatives.

Bing Ads

Ads on this platform are primarily displayed on Bing and Yahoo searches. Advertisers can also target a small content/display network.

• Click cost: Click costs are about 30% lower than Google Adwords.
• Features: Avoid the Content Network, quality of Search traffic varies – may be better or worse than AdWords Search traffic
• Ideal for: Audiences that lean female, lower tech, more affluent, or older. Also great for high volume keywords when AdWords clicks are too much for your target CPA

Facebook Ads

Displays ads primarily in the right sidebar on Facebook.com to logged in Facebook users. Can provide excellent ROI for the right types of campaigns.

• Click cost: Usually from $0.50 to $1.25.
• Features: Supports targeting by age, gender, relationship status, employer, job title, and school. Supports Sponsored Stories (read featured updates), targeting page connections, friends of page connections, and displaying viewers connected friends
• Ideal for: Ad campaigns where your market can be targeted by persona (demographics, interests, and connections).

Outbrain

Designed for promoting blog posts and other content. Not suitable for driving traffic to sales or lead generation pages.

• Click cost: Minimum bid is 0.02, depending on the competition clicks might be anywhere in the 0.02 to 0.15 range.
• Features: Advertiser’s content is featured in a “related articles” section on relevant blogs, including top publishers such as WSJ.
• Ideal for: Blogs and other content sites to attract new readers at a lower cost per click than Google Adwords offers.

7Search

Small PPC search engine, which has partnership deals with 50+ other small search engines. Distribution partners include FinditQuick.com, Genieknows.com, and SurfCanyon.com.

• Click cost: Minimum bid is 0.01 on most keywords (some are 0.05). Bids are significantly lower than Google Adwords.
• Features: Simple management console, transparent competitor CPC bids, and good customer service. Traffic quality varies and is typically lower than AdWords.
• Ideal for: Testing as a source of cheaper and/or additional traffic with high traffic keywords.

LookSmart

Another smaller PPC search engine, Looksmart has a partner network that drives 2 billion queries a day.

• Click cost: Minimum bid is 0.01, and bids are significantly lower than Google Adwords.
• Features: Simple management console. Traffic quality varies and is generally lower than AdWords.
• Ideal for: Testing as a source of cheaper and/or additional traffic with high traffic keywords.

Traffic Vance

They operate a network of websites targeted toward game and app users. They have the ability to run both text and image based ads. The network has over 350 million targeted impressions per month.

• Click cost: Ranges from .15 to 25 cents per click. All advertisers must start with a minimum of $1,000 investment.
• Features: Conversion and campaign reporting are available. The ability to target non US traffic is also available.
• Ideal for: Companies targeting consumers particularly those who target women with children as a preferred customer.

nRelate

I just recently discovered this network and have not yet used it, but wanted to list it, as it is similar to OutBrain. Requires a minimum $500 per month budget.

• Click cost: No minimum bid, target click cost is 7-10 cents.
• Features: Displays “related articles” on 65,000 publishers, including CBS Interactive and The About Group.
• Ideal for: Blogs and other content sites to attract new readers at a lower cost per click than Google Adwords offers.

What are your favorite PPC traffic sources that I’ve left off the list?