Top PPC Advertising Networks Comparison

Over the past two years, I have spent close to $3,500 on PPC Advertising. Of course, that kind of spending resulted in decent returns but the reality is that, only 3 ad networks out of the 8 or 9 that I tried, actually returned anything significant.

Based on my experience, here’s a table that contain the good and bad aspects of those best PPC advertising networks that I experimented with and my rating of them from an advertiser’s point of view. Please note that many of you may have a different story to talk about your specific campaigns and hence please pitch in with your comments.

PPC Advertising Networks Comparison

Comparison and rating of the Six PPC ad networks is given below. You can actually take it as a comparison of AdWords vs other advertising networks such as Microsoft AdCenter, Facebook Ads etc (As you may already know, Yahoo Publisher Network is now folded into Microsoft Advertising). And please note that the MY rating is based on what I got in return for my ad spending.

Network	Pros	Cons	Rating
Google AdWords	Leaps ahead of the competition Highest conversion rates Multi-format ads that gets highest CTR Highly Context specific ad-serving Numerous ad-sizes and device support Best geo-targeting and suits international customers	High Cost-per-Click Slow customer support Abrupt ban of advertiser accounts	9 / 10
Microsoft AdCenter	Second option for Search Advertising Reach on Bing and Yahoo Good Customer Support	No Image Ads No content publishers outside Microsoft Network Conversion rate not as good as AdWords Ads not as Intuitive	7 / 10
Facebook Ads	High Social reach Very good demographic options Very Good for brand building Highly specific targeting	Slow ad approval process Only one ad size/format Works only with specific niche products Low conversion rates	6 / 10
LinkedIn Ads	Extremely good for increasing brand awareness among professionals Lead generation options in campaigns Can target selected entrepreneurial roles	Limited ad size options PPC Bids not accepted below suggested range Poor direct conversion (but good leads) Phone numbers etc not allowed in ad text	5 / 10
Bidvertiser	Custom ad sizes Low CPC rates Easy to get started and drive traffic	Ads are not always context-aware No real search/social advertising options Not as effective as premium ad services mentioned above	3 / 10
Adbrite	Global reach Cheap advertising option to drive traffic Adult advertising options	Not as effective as premium ad services Your brand may be damaged if ads appear on adult sites	3 / 10

I didn’t try Miva, Ask.com PPC Advertising, Chitika, Infolinks etc yet nor have I focused on CPM advertising networks other than BuySellAds in CPM mode. [I must tell you that, BuySellAds from advertisers’ point of view has been very disappointing with the trials that I had. I still have four to five campaigns running on BSA. It seems to work well only with highly visible ad spots above the fold]

Disclaimer: Since I was banned from Google AdWords a few months back, the rating for AdWords is based on my past experience which has been extremely positive. Also, I do not run campaigns on Bidvertiser and Adbrite any longer but have used enough of them in the past. At the moment, I have several simultaneous campaigns running on Facebook Ads, Microsoft AdCenter, LinkedIn ads and BuySellAds.

AdWords vs AdCenter
AdWords vs Facebook Ads
Facebook Advertising Tips

Good luck with your PPC campaigns!

Comments

jayaar says:
December 16, 2011 at 8:25 pm
I am happy to have stumbled upon your site.
Very informative article! Analysis based on your personal experience gives us the best idea of the programs.
Best wishes!
Regards….
Praveen Rajarao says:
December 17, 2011 at 8:15 am
Hi Ajit,
Nicely composed and compared between the various PPC advertisers. Thanks for sharing the information.
- Ajith Prasad says:
  December 21, 2011 at 11:34 am
  Thanks Praveen. How’s DMC doing?
Shirley says:
December 21, 2011 at 10:27 am
Hi Ajith, I am surprised to see that you spend money to PPC advertising campaigns. Is that for other sites or do you use PPC for dollarshower traffic? As for me, I haven’t personally spent any money on PPC ads in over 3 years. I find that it is not as effective as organic search traffic.
- Ajith Prasad says:
  December 21, 2011 at 11:32 am
  @Shirley, Long time I have been using PPC for other small websites and a couple of landing pages. A few of them are in fact banned already by Google along with my AdWords account. With AdCenter/LinkedIn/Facebook, I am directly sending people to affiliate products – none too successful as compared to AdWords. By the way, AdCenter recently stopped distribution via their content partners and now focussing only on their own web content (e.g. MSN) along with Bing and Yahoo search marketing. It’s still good as Bing/Yahoo combo is improving in their search market share.
  On D$, direct relevant organic search is what converts!
David says:
December 30, 2011 at 9:22 pm
I just saw this list and thought I’d share.
Google – 156.1 million monthly unique – http://www.quantcast.com/google.com
Adblade – 139.8 million monthly uniques – http://www.quantcast.com/p-b8GPCpJxfqYm2
Meebo – 136.8 million monthly uniques – http://www.quantcast.com/p-93vmRJG_BQlqo
Vibrant media – 136.1 million monthly uniques – Comscore Oct 2011
Undertone – 125.2 million monthly unique – Comscore Oct 2011
Ask Network – 90 million monthly unique – Comscore Oct 2011
Kontera – 75.5 million monthly uniques – http://www.quantcast.com/kontera.com
AOL – 40.8 million monthly unique – http://www.quantcast.com/aol.com
Linkedin – 39.4 million monthly uniques – http://www.quantcast.com/linkedin.com
Pulse 360 – 39.6 million monthly uniques – http://www.quantcast.com/pulse360.com
Myspace – 14.8 million monthly uniques – http://www.quantcast.com/myspace.com
Pradeep | Slashsquare says:
January 13, 2012 at 7:49 pm
I guess StumbleUpon Ads (https://www.stumbleupon.com/pd/index/redirect-ads/) will also be a good deal. Some of my friends tried it.
They have 3 pricing tiers – Light, Standard, and Premium.