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joey_skulls Joined: Sep 15, 2006
# Posts: 133
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Posted: 01/16/2007 09:33 am
Hi guys, I was wondering if any of you still use Looksmart? If yes, hows it doing for you? If not, why? The last time I mingled with Looksmart is when they were primary results for MSN.com and they only charge a yearly fee of $299 for inclusion...The good old days!  |
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SportsGuy Moderator
Joined: Aug 30, 2002
# Posts: 3550
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Posted: 01/17/2007 05:06 am
Haven't used them in years. Still don't do much PPC work right now anywhere, but when we start again, we won't be looking at LS unfortunately. I stick to where the larger volumes of traffic are. That said, I have a budget large enough to allow me to do that. If their current prices are reasonable, they might be worth testing. If they convert for you, then it's worth it. |
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flyingrose Moderator
Joined: Oct 30, 2003
# Posts: 3361
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Posted: 01/17/2007 07:27 pm
The old Looksmart had poor conversions. The "new" Looksmart has performed really well for me and I'm opening another new account there tonight. The main reason I'm moving this particular advertiser to Looksmart is that his budget can't buy enough traffic from Google or Yahoo to get consistent sales. My experience with them lately is that the bids can be 70-80% lower than Google or Yahoo and using the exact same ads I had at Yahoo generated higher conversions than from Google or Yahoo. My contacts at Looksmart tell me that although their home and garden vertical may not have as much traffic as some of the others it is one of the strongest converting and that has been my experience there. I have some old threads that have specifics about a test I ran in them. If you're interested I can find them and link them into this thread. I do recall that the first month we ran there we tracked an increase of 7% of total revenue directly to the Looksmart ads. I know that Looksmart probably only has maybe 1% of the search market so that is a really strong result from such low traffic (and tiny ad spend). I believe that is because they advertise heavily on what I consider "geek" sites like C-Net and techie types are more comfortable buying online from good sites. Bad sites will probably see bad conversions as I believe that those types of visitors aren't as tolerant of poorly designed sites and know how to find somewhere else to buy. |
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joey_skulls Joined: Sep 15, 2006
# Posts: 133
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Posted: 01/18/2007 06:47 am
I would like to see those tests you had done. |
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Hampstead Joined: Feb 20, 2001
# Posts: 1941
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Posted: 01/18/2007 09:09 am
Interesting - I'd all but forgotten about Looksmart. I may give them another go myself. |
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flyingrose Moderator
Joined: Oct 30, 2003
# Posts: 3361
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Posted: 01/18/2007 04:42 pm
I posted results almost immediately after starting the first test I did there. There is a thread with the preliminary Conversion Results for Looksmart PPC test. I later compiled extensive data on that test that I did not post here because it was being considered for publication in market research magazines which require information to be exclusive prior to publication. Now I can share the details below. I have left some additional information at the bottom regarding a strategy for expanding advertising to maximize return and minimize risk. I thought it might be useful to some. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The time period I have complete days of data for is February 25, 2006 (first full day of advertising with LookSmart) through May 24, 2006. This covers 88 days or just under three months. * LookSmart ads are providing a return more than 4.27 times higher than Google and more than 3.38 times higher than Yahoo. * Every dollar spent at LookSmart generated $15.04 in revenue versus $4.44 at Yahoo and $3.52 at Google. Average CPCs G $0.34 L $0.14 Y $0.58 Conversion rates: G 1.81% L 2.25% Y 2.60% Bounce rates: G 30.28% L 32.19% Y 20.58% Percentage of revenue driven by each PPC engine: G 53% L 42% Y 4% (NOTE: Google and Yahoo revenue include other products not advertised at LookSmart during this time period. Time constraints prevent compiling the data specific to only those keywords active on each PPC engine.) Strategy used for LookSmart Campaign: * Advertise one specific product line with known conversion rates at Yahoo and Google * Use all high traffic and best converting keywords plus additional long tail variations * Bid into third position (higher if there are no competitors bidding on those keywords) * Set budget to accept all available search traffic * Monitor initial traffic for quality based on bounce rates. (Block traffic from any referrer with a 100% bounce rate.) All high traffic and best converting keywords are running at all three PPC engines. The long tail versions are different primarily due to differences in the systems involved. (For example, some have been deleted over time at Google due to being "at risk" or "disabled".) Important points: * The ads running at LookSmart are identical to those at Yahoo * The landing pages used for the keywords are exactly the same for each PPC engine * The exact keywords vary due to differences in the systems at Yahoo and Google; however, they are very similar and all high traffic keywords are on all PPC engines * We buy all available SEARCH traffic from all three sources on all keywords. We do not buy any content traffic at this time * All keywords are targeted to appear in third position at Yahoo and LookSmart and on the first page at Google Our emphasis to date has been on maximizing results and traffic from Yahoo, Google and now MSN and LookSmart. We are not currently advertising on any other 2nd tier PPC engine; however, it is likely we will expand to some of the major 2nd tier engines such as Findwhat, Miva and/or Kanoodle. Given the success with LookSmart we will also consider other verticals. Based on the results of the above test, our current priority plans for expansion are: * Continue to maximize revenue and traffic at Yahoo, Google, LookSmart, and MSN (No MSN data was available for the time period involved.) * Add Campaigns at LookSmart for all products we currently advertise on the other primary PPC engines. * Add Campaigns at LookSmart for all products with conversions that were not sufficient to show a positive ROI at Yahoo or Google. It is likely most of these will be profitable to advertise at LookSmart. * Start all new product advertising at LookSmart to gauge conversion rates, ROI, and profitability. * Determine and prioritize which products to advertise at Yahoo and Google based on testing at LookSmart. * Design similar tests and run them on the 2nd tier PPC engines and other vertical platforms. |
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aliu88 Joined: Feb 06, 2007
# Posts: 7
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Posted: 02/06/2007 01:30 am
NO! For me, definitely no!! |
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flyingrose Moderator
Joined: Oct 30, 2003
# Posts: 3361
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Posted: 02/10/2007 04:19 pm
Hi aliu88. Can you share when you tried them and your experience? |
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