There are many ways to spend your internet advertising dollar, and pay-per-click advertinsing is probably the most popular and most effective way to get immediate ROI. The pioneering program was Google Adwords, but now that the pay-per-click (PPC) channel is mature there are many other choices available. CitySearch is a website specializing in local business searches, so it would seem to be a perfect venue for drilling into those untapped local markets.

I received a free voucher for CitySearch WebConnect Advertising, so I thought I would try it out. First problem I noticed is that there is a minimum monthly buy-in of $99. You don't find that out until the end of the sign-up process though. There's also a $10 setup fee. Neither of these is true for Google Adwords.

After signing up I went to the Manager page. My first thought was "Is this a joke?" Less than impressive, to say the least. Not the powerfull interface I'm used to with Adwords:

Rather than keywords, your ad shows based on the region and categories you select. The user searches for your type of business within the selected area. Being part of the CitySearch WebConnect Advertising gives you a featured listing, and you pay only when the visitor clicks on it. In this way it works more similarly to AT&T Yellow Pages advertising than it does other pay-per-click advertising programs.

Once up and running, I was disappointed to get no clicks for most of two weeks. On Friday, I received 3 clicks, but could find no sign of them in my Google Analytics reports. On Saturday I received 10 clicks, but again, no sign of the visits in my analytics program. Click-fraud immediately came to mind, and the marked lack of sophistication of their front-end interface made me wonder about their methods of filtering bad clicks.

An email to my account manager, communicating my displeasure, questioning the clicks, and asking what they did to combat click-fraud got my account closed in short order. Not that I had asked for it to be closed. So my impression, correct or not, was that they did not want to delve into the subject of click-fraud.

CitySearch WebConnect Advertising is probably good for a larger company that's not too concerned with exact accounting of their pay-per-click advertising budget, but rather seeks to saturate the market. For smaller companies where every dollar counts, I'd recommend sticking with Google Adwords, Overture and Microsoft AdCenter.

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.