Background
GoTo was the first search engine to launch a 'Pay Per Click' listing service in late 1997. They have grown rapidly and currently their results are integrated into a number of other search engines such as AltaVista, AOL Search, AskJeeves, Freeserve and many other partners as 'Sponsored Links'. GoTo has over 21,000 advertisers and according to Media Matrix 11% of web users visit the site each month.
Using a system of bids, GoTo lists sites in order of the value of their bid on a phrase and when a user clicks their link the bid amount is deducted from the advertisers account balance.
Database
GoTo uses two sets of results when a user makes a search. The first results are advertiser sites who pay the bid amount to GoTo whenever a user clicks on their link. The highest bidders will be listed first and will receive more traffic at a higher price than lower value bidders. A commercial decision has to be made by each advertiser based on the value of a visitor to their web site. After the paid-for bids are listed results which come from the Inktomi system. Inktomi also powers HotBot, MSN and Iwon.
Pay Per Click Management
GoTo works like an auction of individual phrases with your bid directly influencing the position your site appears at in the search results for that phrase. When submitting a bid you are required to provide the keyword phrase, a Title and Description to appear in the results, your bid and a URL to send visitors to. GoTo provide a number of tools to enable you to manage bids more effectively and their DirectTraffic Centre has different reporting options to allow you to see how much you have spent on which phrases.
If you only want to bid an a few selected phrases then you can enter the details into an online form in the DirectTraffic Centre. For larger numbers of bids GoTo provides a Power Advertisers spreadsheet which generates titles and descriptions for you based on your specifications. However, if you want to manage thousands of bids there are few tools to help you do so and a bespoke software solution may be required.
Ongoing management involves monitoring and specifying a bid price for each phrase which is high enough in the listings to generate traffic whilst keeping your bid within a level which allows you to make a profit. Your competitors will be doing the same and tools such as www.PPCBidTracker.com takes a lot of the hard work out of managing large numbers of bids by automating the checking process. Inevitably there is a price for this service based on the number of bids you want to manage.
Relevancy
All phrases and bids submitted are checked by the GoTo editors to ensure the phrase is relevant to your site to ensure the quality of the result for users. They will allow for example a men's clothing site to bid on 'business suits' but not on 'business'.
Regional
UK.GoTo.com have been supplying the search results on Freeserve since December 2000 but the minimum bid amount is 5p compared to GoTo.com at only 1c US. Because GoTo UK has only recently launched there are currently lots of opportunities to buy traffic in this manner for targeted UK visitors but inevitably the prices will rise as market forces take effect.
Top Ranking Secrets
The secret to bidding at GoTo is to avoid phrases which require high value bids and instead to target large numbers of low value clicks which will also deliver more targeted visitors to your site. When writing this article a #1 bid for 'Wales' costs 32c whilst the same position for 'hotels in Cardiff' costs only 5c. By submitting hundreds or thousands of relevant bids at lower prices you can generate lots of highly targeted traffic with your budget.
Click through rates increase significantly when the keyword phrase appears in the Title and Description of a listing. It is well worth spending time constructing these to make them attractive to users. Different GoTo partners list a different number of GoTo bids. AOL Search lists the top 3 bids whilst AskJeeves only lists the top 2. It is therefore necessary to ensure your site is at the top of the listings to generate the highest number of visitors. |
