Pay Per Click (PPC) Ad – Which One Should You Choose?

Pay-Per-Click or PPC in short, is an effective marketing scheme for the Internet. If you have a personal blog/site that attracts moderate to high traffic, and you want to generate some revenue from it then PPC is a very good option for you. There are many companies, including the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo! etc. that offer PPC ad-serving applications for webmasters and publishers. After registering with the company, all you have to do is put some Javascript code or HTML in your pages and activate the advertisement. The company tracks how many times the ads have been viewed and clicked and makes your payment at the end of the month.

In this article we will take a look at some PPC ad serving applications and try to help you decide which one could be the best option for you.

Google Adsense

Google AdSense is the current leader in content-sensitive web-based marketing. Webmasters can place Google AdSense JavaScript code on their web pages in order to allow Google’s servers to show context sensitive advertisements (Google Adwords). Google uses their search engine ranking technology to decide what ads to show on your site, and on specific pages on your site. On a post about photography on your site, for example, Google might show ads for digital cameras. This type of targeting is very effective and results in good click-through rates in most circumstances. How much you can make with Google Adsense depends entirely upon the niche of your website. The more competitive is your niche, the higher the CPM. However, many web publishers have complained about Google’s terms and conditions of being too restrictive. As a Web site owner participating in AdSense, you are fully prevented from knowing which ads were clicked and how much each click brings to you. They have $100 payout policy, which means you’ll receive their payment only after the your revenue exceeds $100. Many publishers have found their Adsense account suspended by Google out of the blue, for reasons beyond their control. In spite all of these, for relative ease in use and targeting strategy, Adsense is the pioneer in PPC ad serving area.
If you have a WordPress blog then you can use the Simple Adsense Integration plugin that will make your ad management a little bit easier on your blog.

Microsoft PubCenter

Microsoft PubCenter is Microsoft’s answer to Google’s AdSense and Yahoo’s Publisher Network. I have heard that some users of PubCenter are receiving three times more in revenue from Microsoft than Google AdSense. PubCenter also allows the publishers to be able to set background images for ads.

Yahoo Publisher Network(YPN)

Yahoo!, in an attempt to catch up with its rival Google, has stepped into the contextual ad serving game with Yahoo Publisher Network. As of this writing, it’s in beta phase and only available to US-based sites. The best thing that can be said about YPN is that it allows other Yahoo! services to be integrated into your web site, including Add to My Yahoo! (RSS), Y!Q etc. They are as strict with terms and conditions as Adsense and very selective about who they accept to use the service.

AdBrite

AdBrite is considered one of the best alternative to Google Adsense. They offer most commonly use ad formats, including interstitial full page ads which offer an excellent way to monetize all your incoming traffic, not just traffic that clicks on your ads. Through a small snippet of HTML placed on your site, they handle serving, scheduling, billing, customer service, and sales. Their payouts are smaller($20) and revenue is typically split 75/25 in your favor. They have more relaxed terms and conditions than Adsense and are much more accepting of smaller publishers including bloggers. The weakness of AdBrite is it’s lack of variety in the ad formats offered.

Clicksor

Clicksor provides excellent context sensitive ad serving similar to Adsense, plus you have option to put in some keywords yourself. They have payouts upto a market leading 85% and unlike a number of alternatives the cost per click bid values are high enough that you can earn a decent income. They also allow you to add as many sites / domains as you want under a single account. In any pay period in which your earnings exceed $50($20.00 with PayPal), payments are made either by check or instantly through PayPal. Revenue totaling less than the minimum will be rolled into the next period.
Bidvertiser
The coolest thing about Bidvertiser, another contextual ad server, is that they let you design their ad formats. They offer a simple point-and-click tool to help you customize the layout of the ads to fit your site’s look and feel, in order to retain the quality of your website. It pays you either in $25.00 increments by check or $10.00 increments by PayPal. However, the ad pool seems a little limited and it can be picky with who they accept into its program.

Chitika

Chitika has an innovative ad serving application name ‘eMinimalls’, something they refer to as ‘impulse merchandising technique’. How it works? Let’s say you have written a review for a new digital camera in your blog. Chitika ad widgets will display ‘interactive’ ad boxes, showing links for this camera and other competitor cameras. If people purchase these cameras you get a paid a commission. It also allows you to display targeted products based on what people searched for to get to your page and you get paid for clicks. You are paid 60% of ad revenue generated. Payment is made to your PayPal account once the balance reaches $50.

WidgetBucks

WidgetBucks claim to be the Internet’s fastest growing ad network. Widgetbucks allows you to insert ‘dynamic’ ads that cycle through a handful of products in real-time. One thing to keep in mind is that the ads are very colorful so if you are looking for something that blends in with you site then Widgetbucks is probably not your best bet. WidgetBucks performs very good on a product review site.

AdToll

AdToll pays on CPC(Cost-per-Click) basis. It has introduced the innovative ‘Peel Away Ad’ technology that shows a peel on the top right hand side of a page. When the mouse moves over the peel it opens smoothly to reveal the advert within. This new ad format allows you to make use of the lesser used, yet highly visible top corners of websites, saving valuable space in the content area. Also it is very non intrusive to the visitor and most likely to draw her curious clicks! AdToll likes to boast their 75% payout, which is indeed more than the majority of ad networks pay. Payments are made via cheque, paypal, wire/bank transfer or to your AdToll Account Credit if you are also an advertiser. Cheques require a minimum of $40 in earnings, $20 for PayPal and $1,000 for wire transfers. Payments to your AdToll Account Credit have no minimum.

ExitJunction

ExitJunction offers a unique approach to advertising. They focus on showing ads to users as they leave your site rather than as they arrive. By adding a small piece of their code to the header section of your site, visitors are shown an ad as they hit the back button. If someone came to your site from a Google search and then immediately hit the back button to return, she would be shown an Exit Junction Ad in between your page and the Google search page, and you get paid for this impression. The ad is directly targeted to the search term that brought the visitor to your site in the first place. It’s an ideal way of complimenting your existing ad services and increasing your revenue without having to switch from your current ad provider. Also they cover all countries so you get paid for all traffic exiting you site regardless of its origin. They offer fee free payout via Check or PayPal with earnings of as little as $25 on a monthly basis.

ClickThruTraffic

Not the best option, but if nobody else picks your site, you can always rely on ClickThruTraffic. They claim to pay 6 to 20 cents each time a surfer clicks on the ad on your site. They offer textual links, buttons and banners.
There you go. We have covered 10 PPC ad serving options, from the big players to small timers. If you have any other suggestions, feel free to share in the comments section.