Worth the time or money?

[SusyQ]

Has anyone noticed a lot of traffic from ePilot? does anybody even use ePilot ;) it's not exactly like this section of the forum is buzzing. Just wondering though because the marketing manager received an email from them and wants me to look into it. So here I am...

I'm also curious because I would like to think of an alternative to Overture... I know it's not much of a comparison but if it is better than the regular spammy pay-per-clicks than that is good to know :D

[scottiecl]

Hi SusyQ-

I know nothing about ePilot- don't even know what it is! If it is sending you valid and converting traffic, it might be worth a shot at trying.

On the other hand, companies have been known to "spoof" referrals in order to get you to visit their site. If you feel certain that isn't the case, then maybe it is a good idea to run a trial of their service...although if it is already sending you traffic, why pay?

Just re-read your post and realized they are NOT sending you traffic, they are sending you e-mails. Two very different things!

[polarmate]

Found this:
http://www.payperclickanalyst.com/epilot.htm

They went from pay-for-search to pay-per-click and apparently they left a lot of accounts with balance due.

[scottiecl]

Nice post polarmate!

Looks like a good resource for anyone considering pay-per-click.

[SusyQ]

thanks for the replies...

i think i may give them a one month trial and see how it goes, lately the prices at overture have skyrocketed so i am looking for new ways for PPC

[Dan0]

They are weasels. In bed with Hotbar, etc. You can expect to get plenty of "clicks," but don't expect any results.

[markymark]

I've run two campaigns with Epilot in the past and won't use them again.

The first was for a free music download site, so ROI wasn't an issue....the number of downloads was the only criteria. This was quite a successful campaign as their listings were incorporated into the search of one or two of those download manager programs.

And here's where I made a mistake......I then ran a campaign for a commercial site and as DanO said, the clicks were eaten up by their dodgy affiliate partners and parasiteware applications. Number of sales.......0 .

Don't bother with them.

[SusyQ]

whoa, ok. thanks for the warning...

i won't even bother with a month trial then.

i guess my next question would be what is another good one other than Overture?

[ihelpyou]

ermmmm? :)

[polarmate]

Doug, I know you think the worst of Overture but our Overture conversions are the highest and so far the cheapest. And believe it or not, ContentSprinks is giving us very good conversions as well - but it is expensive with at least 21 cents to a click. Google usually comes in 2nd place but then their ad rules are stricter and also more expensive.

[Dan0]

We get goo-gobs of clicks from Google for 5 cents. Overture starts at a dime now.

[polarmate]

All our bids on Overture are grandfathered at below 10 cents. On Google, the keywords that bring in the conversions are almost reaching a dollar per click.

[SusyQ]

thanks for your replies...

currently i use google adwords and overture, but my industry for this particular site is so competitive that the costs for overture are climbing through the roof.

i guess i'm going to have to wait and see who comes out next, there has to be someone seeing as overture has a few things up their sleeves lately.

i'll do some research and if i find any new, credible and worthy PPCs other than Google adwords (is that even possible :D ?) than i will be sure to post it here for others.

[erck121]

the Lycos Adbuyer program gives you quality hits in my experience, the only problem is how few clicks you recieve. Might be worth trying for you, I found that your $50 initial deposit can last you months on end. Which is Lycos Adbuyer's positive and negative aspect. minimum investment, minimal results... but if your looking for as much exposure as possible it might be worth a try.