Pay-Per-Click Search Engines: A Really Bad Investment

What was once such a good thing is now a rip-off and a sham!

I'm talking about pay-per-click search engines, and how they've become a really bad investment!

There are two reasons for the deterioration of pay-per-click search engines: high bid prices and out of control click fraud.

A few years back, you could get popular keywords at a halfway decent bid price. Nowadays, even moderately popular keywords are ridiculously high.

How high? Well, let me give you an example, using the most popular pay-per-click search engine: Overture.

Let's take the popular keyword phrase, "home business."

At the time this article was written, Overture's top bid for the keyword phrase "home business" was an exorbitantly high $2.28. Just to get on the first page, it would cost you $0.61, which would place you last at number forty.

Now let's just delve inside the numbers for a moment, shall we? I'm not going to even bother breaking down the number one bid price, because quite frankly, it's obvious the top spot is reserved for and controlled by the high-rollers.

So, let's break down bid number forty. The bid price of $0.61 means that for every 100 visitors Overture sends to your website, it's going to cost you $61.00. Now, here's where the numbers really get interesting.

According to the so-called experts, a decent conversion ratio is right around one percent. In other words, one out of every one hundred visitors to your website converts to a sale. I happen to know for a fact that most websites don't even come close to converting one percent. However, that's a subject for another day.

Using the very generous one percent conversion ratio, here's the problem. Unless you're selling a big-ticket item and making $100 or more per sale, it's impossible to make any real money with pay-per-click search engines. You just can't do it!

For example, if you're selling a $20 e-book and you're paying $61 to get one hundred visitors to your website, with a one percent conversion ratio, that means your website is making a measly $20 for every one hundred visitors. That leaves you $41 in the hole. Even, if you were selling a $50 product, you'd still be $11 in the negative.

And even if you cut the bid price in half and made it $0.30, there's still another problem. It's called click fraud and it's a major problem among all of the pay-per-click search engines.

In a nutshell, click fraud is what occurs when someone fraudently clicks on your ad over and over again, without any intention of responding to your offer. Click fraud hurts advertisers by driving up the cost of each click because many online advertising programs adjust the price of each click based on the popularity of a particular keyword and the number of competing advertisers.

And depending on how popular your keyword is, it can take just a few minutes to register hundreds or even thousands of clicks. Click fraud can quickly deplete your pay-per-click account and leave you with nothing to show for your expentiture.

At the present time, the pay-per-click search engines seem to be powerless to stop click fraud. To their credit, Google even admitted as such.

In a recent filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Google acknowledged, "We are exposed to the risk of fraudulent clicks on our ads. We have regularly paid refunds related to fraudulent clicks and expect to do so in the future. If we are unable to stop this fraudulent activity, these refunds may increase. If we find new evidence of past fraudulent clicks, we may have to issue refunds retroactively of amounts previously paid to our Google Network members."

In conclusion, because of unreasonably high bid prices and rampant, out of control click fraud, I consider pay-per- click search engines a really bad investment, and recommend you stay away from them!

About The Author

Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer, publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can be reached at mailto: dean@lets-make-money.net.

Visit his website at: http://www.lets-make-money.net

---

What They Never Told You About Adsense!

That's right! Many webmasters are getting suckered into joining adsense... Read More

The Truth About Why People Search!

Why do people search on search engines? Let's confess this... Read More

Googles AdWords Select(tm) Groundbreaking Program

One of the absolute best online marketing processes available to... Read More

Choosing the Right Keywords for Your Pay Per Click Advertising Campaign

Introduction:Of all the important decisions that go into a successful... Read More

Relevant Ads Increase Adsense Profits

If you've started using Adsense as a way to increase... Read More

Effective Keyword Bidding Strategies

When doing Pay Per Click Advertising you'll often see "Bid... Read More

Cost Per Click Bid Management

Cost per click or pay per click is a common... Read More

Is Click Fraud Really a Problem?

Click fraud is currently a major topic in online advertising.... Read More

Pay Per Click Search Engine Marketing - Starting A Campaign

Pay per click advertising is an on-going and growing arsenal... Read More

How Do You Make Money From Google Adwords?

Can you really make money from this?Late 2003, I think... Read More

Adsense ? The Powerful Passive Income Generator

Webmasters have a revolutionary new method of collecting income from... Read More

Pay Per Click Search Engines - A Fundamental Overview

Forbes magazine reported that pay per click ads accounted for... Read More

Five Steps to Profit from Google Adwords

Although I was marketing online since 1997 and was making... Read More

Determining Keywords

Determining keywords is a critical step in web design. If... Read More

Advertising And Generate New WebSite Traffic

Here's a simple way to use "No Results, No Pay"... Read More

How to Increase Your Adsense Revenue

If you're a webmaster, you've probably heard about Google's Adsense.... Read More

How to Beat Your Rivals on Google AdWords

Google AdWords is a great tool for driving traffic to... Read More

Earning from PPC Search Engine Affiliate Programs

What are PPC Search Engines?PPC Search Engines are search engines... Read More

Pay-Per-Click Search Engines: A Really Bad Investment

What was once such a good thing is now a... Read More

Pay Per Click 2005: Very Expensive Without Expert Help

Despite being online using email since 1995, at the start... Read More

99 High Paying Keywords: The Secret Is Out!

Incorporating high paying keywords into your site is critical to... Read More

Adlink Success - A New Advertising Style From Google Adsense

There is a new advertising style from Google Adsense that... Read More

Is Adsense Going To Turn Associate Programs Obsolete

When Google introduced their new Adsense revenue sharing program, people... Read More

Know Which Keywords Provide The Best Return

Is it wise only to reley on traffic from the... Read More

3 Adsense Tips To Dramatically Increase CTR

Here are three Adsense Tips, together with the required HTML... Read More

AdWords Campaign Set Up Tips

It's easy to overlook the basics of a strong AdWords... Read More

What The Adsense Top Earners Are Doing To Constantly Increase Their Earnings

It is really frustrating, is it not, to log into... Read More

Buying Your Way to the Top with Pay Per Click Advertising

Imagine if you could advertise ONLY to people who have... Read More

Pay-Per-Click Fraud Exposed

Has anyone else noticed a disturbing pattern in your pay-per-click... Read More

Google Adwords: Higher Traffic and Sales in 2 Hours or Less!

There are various ways to purchase highly targeted advertising at... Read More

5 Top Tips for Maximizing Your Adsense Profits

1: The ideal Google AdSense page should have great content... Read More

Expand Your Horizons - Sell Your Professional Services Through ClickBank

ClickBank allows its merchants to sell many different types of... Read More

Irresistible Click-Me Tools for Marketing

Never mind the irritating, but effective, pop-up window. There is... Read More