Which is better?

[gnatik]

Hi All ...

Just wanted to get your opinion on which serch engine it is better to use for advertising on? Google, Yahoo, MSN?

Are there statistics as to which gets more conversions, etc? IS that even being at all measured?

Thanks!

[hhheng]

Google is the best, and then yahoo and msn. But I heard many story from forums that many people even can't own same money as invested in SE ads.

[gnatik]

Google is the best, and then yahoo and msn. But I heard many story from forums that many people even can't own same money as invested in SE ads.

You mean they spend on advertising more than they gain? I would imagine this wil be short term.

[mbm]

Google is best for traffic volume, while some advertisers report better ROI on Yahoo and MSN.
It would also depend on the content and target too. Some reports show that Google is used more by tech people, while Yahoo is preferred by female visitors. The best of all is to try all three of them and to check which one performs best for you.

[amar]

Majority of traffic will come from Google and Yahoo. Try both of them, compare the conversions. IMO Yahoo conversions are better than Google.

We need to choose the search engine based on the product or service we are going to promote.

[gnatik]

Google is best for traffic volume, while some advertisers report better ROI on Yahoo and MSN.
It would also depend on the content and target too. Some reports show that Google is used more by tech people, while Yahoo is preferred by female visitors. The best of all is to try all three of them and to check which one performs best for you.

Interesting, so Yahoo and MSN are better in terms of conversion.

[Gennady]

Google is the best, and then yahoo and msn. But I heard many story from forums that many people even can't own same money as invested in SE ads.

That is quite a blanket statement! Are you simply quoting market share? Perhaps you are referring strictly to the potential traffic volume from each? It sounds to me like you are simply estimating the CPC of each.

I do not think those are viable statistic on which to refer to one as being "better" than another.

In my opinion, much of this will require real world testing. However, I would definitely try to look at demographics. For example, as another poster here said, Yahoo has a greater female share while Google attracts the greater volume of "techies." In addition, Yahoo is traditionally used by those specifically looking for online shopping and finance information. Also, the MSN demographics tend to show an older (potentially more affluent) and less tech-savvy user.

[stevewaganer]

google is the best.yahoo is also good for traffic volume.

[Gennady]

google is the best.yahoo is also good for traffic volume.

Clearly!

[bathgems]

How do people get to the various search engines?

With Google one must go to Google or install the search bar. This tells me that Google caters to the more motivated among us.

MSN, I think, is the default search engine for those using MSN services. So those users are those who stay within their own realm.

I am not sure how users use Yahoo search. Are they going to the directoy and then choosing a web search? I use Yahoo for email, economic data, and news but have very rarely, if ever, used it for search. Maybe it is not really well integrated into this other content.

The reason I am trying to figure out how the users get to the various search engines is that it might tell us something about their persona that could give insight into the traffic from each.

Steve