Lower cost cpc options than Google, Yahoo, MS adCenter to promote a new online business

[htenbyslide]

I've seen other posts on this forum, but have not found any current advice.

We all know that using Google, Yahoo, Microsoft adCenter are expensive for cost per click adwords or banner ads as their costs for key words are very expensive.

Like most of us on this forum, I need to promote my online service in the most cost effective way I can.

Apparently there are other paid ad networks (like Casale, Adbrite etc) that are one notch under the big boys, and they're just as expensive, and in many cases they won't even do business with small businesses that cannot afford their minimum monthly spend limits.

Can anyone on this forum share their experience and suggestions in using much smaller ad networks that actually have brought excellent results without breaking the bank.

If one does a search for ad networks there seems to be an endless supply. I've seen other posts on this forum where people respond "You have to experiment and see what works for you" ... which may be correct to a certain extent.

But for the most part I think we're all pretty much targetting people that are actively involved in an online e-commerce business in one form or another. We're all trying to sell a service to help people improve their bottom lines from their online sales.

So we're all trying to reach website owners and online sellers.

And there must be certain adworks that do a better job at delivering cost effective ads (lower cost than the big boys) than others.

For example .. here is a list of the top 20 e-business websites:
Top 20 Most Popular eBusiness Websites

You need a massive budget to advertise on any single one of these websites. So personally, I cannot consider any of these for my ad campaign.

But there must be other smaller scale ad network opportunities out there that little guys like me can afford, that are effective in delivering ads to website owners, online sellers, and people involved in ebusiness.

If you have specific recommendations, please let me know.

(NOTE: I cannot respond to PM messages as I do not have 50 posts on this website. If you have coments, please reply below instead of sending me a PM. Thank you.)

[ChrisSTX]

Look into Social media PPC advertising - Facebook or LinkedIn for starters.

If you are going for brand-recognition, bidding CPM is probably your best bet, although be advised your demographic might not be "as-targeted" with CPM bidding - but usually cheaper.

[htenbyslide]

A few months ago I did try Facebook, and you're right ... it is not as targetted. I spent about $80 for a four week period but it really did not bring much so I stopped.

I never thought of Linked In but will most certainly look into that. Good recommendation.. thank you!

[htenbyslide]

I just checked my last week of advertising on several avenues and here are the results:

1) LinkedIn:
24,487 impressions
5 clicks
total cost $75.03
average cost per click $15.
Conclusion: I won't be continuing ads on LinkedIn.

2) Facebook:
423,266 impressions
36 clicks
total cost $30
average cost per click 86 cents
Conclusion: I will continue my Facebook ads.

3) Google:
34,057 impressions
50 clicks
total cost $1.10
average cost per click 2 cents
Conclusion: I will continue my Google ads.

[stackman]

I have tried a number of the smaller PPC networks and have always been disappointed. The cost is low, but so is the resulting traffic. It's simply not worth the trouble. I have also tried Facebook ads with similar disappointing results.

Yahoo works for me. It's the best and lowest cost compromise between Google and the small networks.

[JoshBrown]

Originally Posted by htenbyslide

I just checked my last week of advertising on several avenues and here are the results:

1) LinkedIn:
24,487 impressions
5 clicks
total cost $75.03
average cost per click $15.
Conclusion: I won't be continuing ads on LinkedIn.

2) Facebook:
423,266 impressions
36 clicks
total cost $30
average cost per click 86 cents
Conclusion: I will continue my Facebook ads.

3) Google:
34,057 impressions
50 clicks
total cost $1.10
average cost per click 2 cents
Conclusion: I will continue my Google ads.

Try adjusting your headline and photograph on FBAds. Do several variants, and test out various demo's until you hit the sweet spot. If you can tell us more about your campaign--what your selling, what your site is, etc--I'll be happy to help you out further.

Another tip is to consider paying via CPM for FBAds.

Also look into POF.com if it'll fit your niche.

Best,
Josh

[peterdavid]

Your Google ad really cheap, you do it on Display Network?

[OrganicSeoGuru]

I have never really had any luck with linkedin, but I have had a decent amount of success with facebook, it just takes a hell of a lot of work to get it right, you will need to do a lot of testing, and typically just when things seem to be going great it's like it peaks and falls off again, and the process of split testing starts all over.

But the one thing I like about facebook compared to the others, the more effort I put into it the better my actual conversions are on my landing pages.

I was not able to get that same kind of cross over effect with google content, but again I didn't put in as much effort and didn't really filter all that closely where sites my ads were showing up on.