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It’s true that there are many different PPC (pay per click) services out there. So why is the landscape of PPC advertising dominated by just a couple of services? The answer is unsimple - volume.

So what services are in the top tier of PPC (pay per click)? The industry leaders are Google and Yahoo, with Google AdWords claiming the lion’s share of the PPC market. Both Yahoo and Google offer a similar compliment of features, and either can be used to manage a very successful PPC campaign. So what differentiates the two? Well, if you are looking to run a very large-scale pay per click campaign, then Google is the most logical choice. The number of potential customers in the Google enterprise is staggering when compared directly against the leading other search engine services.

Yahoo’s search marketing service has many of its own merits, and can work very effectively for a campaign that doesn’t require its owner to completely dominate their particular industry. Many people choose to use both Google and Yahoo, creating a campaign that incorporates both of these top PPC services. For someone with a larger budget, this can be a very effective way to maximize reach.

While Google and Yahoo are the top PPC services out there, many other exist such as MSN and Ask Jeeves (ask.com) to name a couple. Either of these would also be an effective way to run a smaller campaign. And, because these services are not as competitive as the top PPC services, it is actually possible to get a lower CPC (cost per click) on similar search terms, and to increase the efficiency of each conversion. The biggest drawback, though, is a smaller potential customer base. These smaller services simply cannot compete with the astronomical numbers of Google and, to a lesser degree, Yahoo.

When it comes right down to it, the majority of the PPC services out there offer a very similar host of features. In fact, the PPC method has become fairly standard across the board. Google and Yahoo, due to their financial prominence, have developed extremely fluid and powerful user back-ends. But any of these services can be used for your campaign. If you are looking to conduct a widespread campaign that targets the most people possible, you should probably use one of the top PPC services - Yahoo or Google. But, if you are simply looking to conduct a low-key, smaller campaign, one of the other services can be considered as an option, though Google and Yahoo are both equally good for smaller campaigns.