Several years ago when Overture launched it’s cost per click bidding mechanism. I was trying to drive traffic to a site that I was promoting. We had a very small budget and we had to pick and choose our search keywords carefully. In order to ensure we where getting to our targeted audience we refined the search words to a point that approx 75% of the traffic coming to the site ended up creating business.
But there where always abusers from non affiliated topic site bidding up the cost. We and others complained and Overture implemented restrictions and reviewed sites and approved bids so those that where abusing where removed. The following articles are must read for those of you bidding on search terms. The strategy is essentially the same that I used and was very successful. [ClickZ Overture Review Part 1] [ClickZ Overture Review Part 2]
Great perspective on paid search engine — overture, google adwords, etc. (pay-per-click) — how-to. Nice article.