Google AdWords

Most ridiculous of all the ppc engines. Sure, you can get lots of traffic from Google "IF" you can get your ads to stay active. The disabling of relevant keywords that get 10% plus CTR will be the death of Google. Well, maybe not the death, but they will lose their number one PPC status. I can get twice the traffic from Yahoo at half the price, without all the arbitrary google-slap nonsense. Boo, Google, boo!

In response to kevins comment. Wrong kevin wrong. Human nature as it is, dictates that google will stay on top forever and why is that you may ask, because they have been around to long and its the customer that requires google more than the person displaying the add. Now come on your not a silly man, if your site is a good one and if you you have built an excellent and trusting relationship with your customer then you must surely understand that google provides first and foremost a service for the likes of the person searching not for the person hoping he will be found.

Like Google\'s results, the PPC engine is really irrelevant for anyone but big media now. Google has made it so easy for big media to dominate both the organic and PPC positions that it is in danger of making itself irrelevant for he common web user. That means that traditional media has taken over, or new media with big budgets can pretty much dominate and squeeze out the small players. No matter what the Guru\'s want to sell you, Google is irrelevant for 99% of PPC advertisers who\'s sites are small to medium and who\'s budgets are small to medium as well.

I have used Google. As everyone said ROI is a joke! Google kind of bidding is not good small companies. It gulps our money! I was with them 2 months and lost around $500! I then switched over to another (not yahoo or MSN) and got 100 clicks daily at $5, and my visitor base is increased from 50 to 400 over two months. Nowadays, I do not even need PPC, as I established well in market. The main point is "do not rely on google" unless you have more money and volume.

I think Google provides one of the best CTR and less bounce rate as compared to yahoo and miva. if you dont want to go for google you can opt for some ppc management companies offering the same with High CTR and lowest bounce rate

Recommended by us even though we dislike them. - http://www.thagodz.com

Adwords is good but the competition is stiff and you end up paying quite a lot.

I agree with kevin googles deactivation of relevant ads and asking for $1 per click to activate for only three competing ads is RIDICULOUS! Arrogant show pony!

AdWords drives TONS of traffic. They may not provide the best return, but AdWords is essential to keep an edge on your competitors. The AdWords platform is by far the best in terms of usability. They offer a desktop application called AdWords Editor that saves a lot of time. However, they are the most expensive. I recommend using AdWords.

Very, very expensive. Better ROI with yahoo, and miva. We do PPC on goggle because they get the highest CTR, and lowest bounce rate of any. Sometimes I think Google is the best way to get our name out there, even with a low ROI.

I am relatively new to online Advertising, I have only been doing it for about a month now. However, I have a university background in both Computer Engineering and Finance. I can tell all the newbies that trying to set up a Google AdWords campaign is a WASTE OF TIME. You will be getting small and big slapped by Google and I totally agree with Kevin on top there. This will ultimately be the downfall of Google. Why? Because the majority of their revenue comes from Advertising. As soon as its backbone of small advertisers (who comprise the core of Googles business believe it or not) switch over to other PPC simply because Google is charging extravagant rates, their revenues will subsequently diminish. For new initiates to the world of online advertising, I strongly recommend the other PPC engines on this list first. Once you get a grip on how all this works, then try your luck with Google, if you can get any that is.

Gotta agree with Kevin and the others, an arrogant greedy google is squeezing out the small advertisers with its deactivating of keywords (with high CTR & landing page performance) to extort a higher bid from you.

Google RIO is a joke..key words are so expensive, even if you did get on the first two pages, you will spend so much, you will actually spend more then what you make. This program, like yahoo and Microsoft is expensive, and the cost out weighs the crt. I currently receive 20K hits through other search engines, and my CRT is good compared to the cost. If I paid for 20K visitors to my site from Google, I would pay over 9K per month even with a 2K Keyword list. So not worth the money! I spend 2K per month on advertising, and my CTR is just under 2%. Even if Googles was at 3% the cost of advertising would eat up your profits!

It has its up and downs here. Can give good profit but have to watch like hawk.

I used google for three years. I have finually given up an discontinued with them. Ads will stop showing and it is impossible to contact or get e mail support. I have tried to get a e-mail reply from google for months. It can't be done. Go to the google adwords web site yourself and try to e-mail them. You will have to go through 100 form pages until you find a true support e-mail link and then you will not get a reply back. I am still waiting after many trys. I went to their forum site and found many others with the same problem. In useing the google adwords program, they have a terrific page showing where your traffic is coming from. On that page I learned most of my trafic was coming from yahoo search anyway. PS this sites PPC search engine rank is useless because it doens\'t say wheather number 1 or 12 is good or bad, so what do you click on? I will rank google site set up great. Its support zero.

So - it sounds like many of you guys think NOBODY has figured out how to make money with Google PPC traffic... WRONG! Those of us who track conversions know exactly what we\'re doing :\'> The prices are often high because there are folks earning a return and are willing to pay for the traffic that converts... for the most part only novice marketers and lazy employees with large company wallets actually throw money away - now - true that a lot of BIG SHOTS are taking over and increasing competition in greater numbers - but there are still fantastic opportunities for those of us using PPC to bring prospects to offers and close them. It may not be as easy as it once was in the old days - you simply need to be savvy and in the know and thank goodness that most people are too lazy to learn the ropes and they use Google the wrong way. YES other PPC sources also have merits but if you want sheer volume of traffic - it\'s hard to match Google\'s search AND partner search and Content Network numbers.

I read a bundle of books on Google pay per click, all these marketing pros chat about getting several 1000 hits at 8 cents/click. These books are 2-3 years old. I have never gotten listed at anything less that 1 dollar per click and the good keywords are like 3-6 dollars. Which is nuts. An associate of mine who was very successful online said that Google change their platform to push all the small spenders out of the market and now focuses on the big guys with deep pockets who have the budget for a 6 dollar click. I am just disappointed because the foundation in which Google has been build on and their code to ethics slogan \"don\'t be evil\" has fallen. Google always said they were their for the little guy...I guess ultimate power does ultimately corrupt!