The Glory of Tier 2 Search Engines

What is a tier 2 search engine? Let me Google that…

Or, maybe I’ll search for it on eZanga.com.

Ever since Yahoo! started using Bing to fulfill their searches in 2009, Google and Bing became the two primary players in the search market. 96% of people who use search engines use Google or Bing. 31% of those people have never used another search engine. We consider these tier 1 search engines. They drive the vast majority of search traffic. They’re like the mom vans of online search (no hate, I used to drive a mom van).

Tier 2 search engine refers to any other search engine. Think eZanga.com, Aol.com, Ask.com, and Business.com. They are the search engines that the remaining 4% of people use on a daily basis.

I’m not sure which car you’d compare these to. Maybe a Tesla. People still drive them, just not as many. And these people are quite important. I mean, Teslas are awesome.

Anyway, I digress.

I’m not telling you to go search for things on tier 2 search engines. Where you search for things is up to you. But as an advertiser, understanding and utilizing these other search engines is vital.

Now time for some pros and cons to tier 2 advertising. We’ll do this compliment sandwich style. I love sandwiches.

Pro: Niche Marketing

96% of people use Google and Bing. I mentioned this before. This means that no specific type of person uses Google. You can try to cater to specific people through your keywords, but that can get expensive. And some keywords, like insurance, can apply to a variety of people.

Say you choose to advertise with Business.com. Their search engine is used primarily for finding high quality business websites. In this case, the niche market is pre-chosen. If you are looking to advertise solely to business professionals, Business.com is a good outlet for you.

In fact, ignoring these niche markets is a mistake made by many advertisers. You can miss out on very valuable traffic sources, ones that can apply directly to your business.

Con: Less, Possibly Ingenuine Traffic

I mean, less traffic is an obvious con that goes with the whole niche market thing. While the people who use tier 2 search engines can definitely be valuable for you, it’s certainly less traffic in general. This is why tier 2 sources often supply supplemental traffic.

Again, 96% of search traffic goes through Google and Bing.

If you’re looking for quantity, lots of clicks, or are doing a PPI campaign and just want a lot of brand awareness, Google and Bing should be a top source for you.

Don’t ignore tier 2 advertising networks entirely. But they should be secondary to your primary efforts on Google and Bing if that’s going to help you reach your goals.

Also, a few of the smaller tier 2 networks can have a bad reputation, particularly with click fraud. In short, what traffic you do get can be ingenuine. It can come from bots rather than actual human clicks. Definitely run a test trial to compare the number of clicks to the number of conversions, or better, the cost per conversion.

Many of the secondary search engines offer click fraud prevention as well, just like the tier 1 search engines. We offer such a service in our search engine. You can see more about it here and here.

In short, know what you’re getting into. Be smart with your advertising.

Pro: Cost Effective, Higher ROI

The glory of the compliment sandwich is that you end on a good note.

Due to the lower traffic, tier 2 advertising networks have significantly lower bids for their keywords. It is not unheard of for your keyword to cost $0.10 per click on a smaller advertising network, while costing $4 on Google Adwords.

Yes, conversion rates are generally lower for these tier 2 networks. But let’s do some simple math. Assume Google gives you 1000 clicks with a 10% conversion rate, and eZanga gives you 200 clicks at a 4% conversion rate. Now assume your CPC is $1 on google and $0.04 on eZanga. Your cost per conversion for the tier 2 network would be lower ($1 per conversion, compared to $10 per conversion).

Lower cost per conversion = higher ROI.

In general, this applies across the board. The money you save in your keyword bids

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