How to choose which search engine to start a PPC campaign with can be a tricky choice.  If you are considering running your very first pay per click campaign, have you actually given much thought to which search engine to use – or are you intending to go straight to Google?  Many people don't even think this through.

It’s worth hanging back for a moment to see whether you might get better results elsewhere, because while most people head for the Google AdWords program there are other options – it’s just that Google is the market leader and therefore tends to dominate this market.

But there are also a couple of other real possibilities that you should consider before setting foot in the PPC arena, just to see whether you might be better off going elsewhere.  You could even roll out a small test with each search engine to see which one gives you the best results.

Google AdWords is certainly straightforward to join and use.  One of its best features is that there is no minimum amount that you need to spend, and you are put firmly in the driving seat when it comes to working out how you want your campaign to run.  There is also the distinct advantage that Google is top of the heap, so the potential it offers is remarkable. 

However that can also be a bad thing, purely because so many people are out there bidding on search terms.  The more people there are that bid on the same term as you, the more likely it is that the amount you will pay for each click will be higher than it might be on another search engine.  This requires you to be a little more creative with your research and keyword selection.

The other main possibility is offered by Yahoo, which also has a pay per click opportunity.  It runs its scheme in much the same way as Google and it also has a cost calculator which you can use to get a rough recommendation of what words to use and the results you could expect.  If you use the calculator given on the Google site as well you can gain an idea of which search engine might bring the better results for the budget you have.

A third option to consider is LookSmart.  This network boasts over four hundred million searches a day, so it shouldn’t be dismissed lightly.  There are several different types of account available and while there isn’t quite as much upfront information available as there is for Google and Yahoo, if you have a heftier budget you might consider a test run with LookSmart to run alongside your other campaigns.

The key to success is not to automatically go with the most well known search engine.  Explore all your options first, take a look at what each one offers you in terms of approximate price and positioning for each word you want to target, and go from there.

After that, it’s merely a question of testing your results to see which search engine performs the best for you.

This content was provided by one of our users, Jamos