Overture vs. Google

Without a doubt, I'm sure everybody has seen this type of thread. A one or the other but after experimenting with both services and doing well enough with Adwords...

I figured that my Overture days are numbered.

Why am I posting? Just to bitch? No.

To see if what I'm experiencing is what others have and if I should focus on what works and quit with what doesn't. Isn't that the age old question anyway?

What I Like About Google Adwords:

Cheaper
Instant Stats
Budgeting
Interface is quicker and easier to setup campaigns and keyword groups

What I Didn't Like About Overture:

Not so cheap. Have to resort to tricks to get in high bid positions not well written ads quite as much
Real-time what? Stats blew. By the time I saw I had spend $16 in clicks on one keyword.. that was AFTER it was out of control
Conversions were a joke. After calling Yahoo, they said that if somebody came back to my site (download page) in 5 minutes or later, it would show as a conversion. That means in the 3 days I was with them I had a total of 13 conversions according to the reports. But in fact, I only made 6 sales. I couldn't really tell if those 6 came from Overture or other free traffic sources.

Deciding Factor:

Stats mainly. I didn't like spending the money and THEN trying to figure out what went wrong. At least with Google I can work on my ads, writing better ones and getting rewarded for that.

With Overture I felt cheated, click fraud (but I can't prove that at all) and no control.

Somehow the people that search on Google are vastly different then those using the partners that Overture hooks up with SE.

FYI... I only did the Sponsored Match. Not content.

I'm a bid fan of getting traffic from all the sources I can. Paid, free, whatever. And I would use both gladly but I just think it might be time to use others like FindWhat. Cheaper at least.

I hated paying a minimum of 10 cents a click when it just was pretty hard to control.

The intra-day stats (updated several times a day) only ever show stuff for the previous day.

Just hated the stats. Always in the past compared to Google.

I don't mind critiques. If I am just wrong or there's something I should look at to get better.... I'm willing to hear it. I had a total of 202 online listings in categories. Bids were variable to get me into the 3-4-5 positions. Towards the end I just put it all to 10 cents so the money would last.

I've done my keyword research and I know these happen to be my most profitable keywords in their respective categories. I did eliminate non-performing ones as soon as I could but it was always AFTER.

Like I don't know how to improve right now until tomorrow when I can get today's report.

Thanks. Long post I know

Marc