Home > Vertical PPC Search Engines and User Intent

Vertical PPC Search Engines and User Intent

Here at PPC Hero, we generally talk about the Googles, Yahoos and MSNs of the world. With good reason too, that’s where the bulk of traffic is and where you should spend most of your time. However, sometimes it makes sense to break out and try 2nd/3rd tier search engines – or better yet – vertical search engines. It all comes down to search intent.

Over the past few years I’ve been working with a client who is a niche job board. At first, my approach was to drive traffic (and conversions) with Google, Yahoo! and MSN. This particular website had 2 conversion types: a resume submission and a direct application to a job. However, I could never find the right balance of conversions (applies are worth more). Eventually, a few of the vertical search engines began to court me. Sites like Indeed.com, SimplyHired.com, TopUSAJobs.com began to reach out to me looking for another sale.

At first I resisted their temptations. But eventually I caved and began my vertical PPC journey timidly with small dollar tests. I realized very quickly that I could drive more traffic for less money – and the icing on the cake? This traffic converted into applies! In a matter of months, all of my PPC budget was transferred to these vertical search engines, drastically changing my client’s flow of traffic and job seeker applies.

Based on these results I had to ask myself some tough questions. Why did the vertical search engines perform better when Google obviously has more search traffic, impressions, etc.? What about these PPC campaigns made them convert at a higher rate?

Here are my observations and explanations:

  • In general, there is less advertiser competition on the vertical engines, allowing for cheaper cost-per-clicks – thus more traffic for the same amount of money.
  • At their core, these PPC models are very different. Google, Yahoo, MSN are all keyword based, and the traffic is directed to the landing page of your choice. The job board search engines are based on a live feed of your site’s jobs – whose titles and descriptions act as the keywords, and the traffic is sent to the job listing on your website.
  • User intent. Individuals searching Google vs. Indeed.com are in a different state of mind. Job seekers on Google are passive, which is why in my circumstance they converted to a resume on my site (sit and wait for an employer to call). On the flip-side, job seekers at Indeed or SimplyHired want to find a job today. They are active job seekers, and when they find a job they like, they apply right then and there. Period.
  • User intent part 2. When you think about it, the major search engines (sometimes referred to as “horizontal search“) offers quite a bit of noise – or tangential search results that aren’t necessarily what a job seeker is looking for. Whereas a search on Indeed provides you with one thing only: a list of available jobs relevant to your search. Which is what vertical search is all about, right?

I’ve used a job board vertical search engine example here. But the parallels are much the same when looking at shopping search engines or any other vertical you can think of. The moral of my story is that switching to vertical PPC search engines paid off for my campaign’s performance. It also goes to show why Google, Yahoo and MSN are so interested in fulfilling the needs of the “vertically inclined.” Take a look at Google Base, Yahoo! Shopping or MSN Shopping. In short, vertical search works!

What kind of success have you had with using vertical search engines for your PPC campaigns?

December 1, 2008

About the Author

John

John is a former Account Manger at Hanapin Marketing, a search engine marketing firm focused on generating results through pay-per-click advertising.
  • http://onlinemedialimited.com OnlineMediaLimited

    There is always going to be a need for the ‘mass market’ search engines but I think you will begin seeing a rise in the popularity of vertical SEs – from both a user perspective but also advertiser perspective.

    Much in the same way vertical social networks are coming more the fore.

    It just means another set of campaigns to monitor and optimise against – but like you say, its more than worth it if they are converting well enough!

  • http://www.ppchero.com John

    @ Online,

    Yes. There’s always going to be “another set of campaigns to monitor.” Never a dull moment! We just have to learn how to roll with the punches.

  • http://www.portentinteractive.com Elizabeth

    I’ve had some great results (and failures) with search verticals. The good news is since they cost less, the damage is minimal, but when they worked out, they really worked out. I’ve noticed it’s the B2B sites that have shown the most success for me.

  • http://www.ppchero.com John

    @ Elizabeth,

    Less cost, less risk… tis the way of the world! Have you seen any particular B2B niches perform better or worse in your experience?

  • Thagomizer

    I ran a campaign for a mining employment client of mine on google and the new vertical search engine http://www.searchmining.net. When we compared the cost and time spent in running, setting up and maintaining the campaign it was a real no brainer.

    To do keyword advertising on SearchMining we just bought a bundle of keywords we wanted for a fixed cost per month.

    Whilst our ad impressions were obviously far lower than our Google SEM campaign, the click through rate was 5 times higher. More importantly though was the fact that the conversion rate of those that came through to our site gave us a far higher return on investment. The targets of our campaign were to drive CV submission and job applications.

    Through SearchMining we received a much higher return on investment for the marketing dollars spent and didn’t have to make any time investment in setting up and tracking the campaign as we had to in Google.

    They also only let 3 people advertise against any one keyword at the same time – hence locking out our competitors was another benefit we got.

  • http://www.jon-lee-clark.com Jon Lee Clark

    I’ve been intrigued by the opportunities surround vertical searc also, however, having gotten burned by 3rd tier search engines I am a little skeptical of the search quality. Obviously, from a branding aspect, it would be worth the test but in this economy many advertisers are so budget/ROI conscious it is more and more difficult to justify to them the test. So, you use the job-seeker example which makes sense but what about a Business.com or similar ‘vertical search’? Do you find a lot of click fraud or questionable clicks coming down the pipe?

  • http://www.ppchero.com John

    @ Thagomizer,

    Thanks for the comment! Glad to hear you’ve had success with a great niche search engine.

    @ Jon,

    I’ve had mixed results with Business.com, and in terms of ‘questionable clicks’ – I think that is a valid concern. You need to carefully review your reports and take the good with the bad in this case. Look at clicks versus visits (in Analytics). Yes, these stats will always be a bit different, but if there is an excessive difference, you may be suffering from ‘questionable clicks.’ If that’s the case, you need to analyze the ROI of the ‘good clicks’ that are making it through. More times than not w/ Business.com, the good clicks pay for themselves and the bad clicks in terms of ROI. The same goes for any 3rd tier search engine or vertical search engines. Watch your reports, analyze the performance and decide whether it’s a profitable venture for you. No search engine is perfect, so we advertisers have to work with what we’re given!