Things to Know About PPC Advertising on DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo is an independent search engine that provides search results for web search queries without tracking user behavior or search history ( like Google ). Their focus is on privacy.
This is a small search engine, less than 0.5% of the global search engine market.
It is also rapidly growing year-over-year and already has received 15 billion queries for 2019 Every time a story about Google’s data trove and “filter bubbles”, Online Privacy, more people switch over to DuckDuckGo.
DuckDuckGo makes up a small portion of the search market. It does share a small portion of the search market with a select group of people, however. These are tech-savvy individuals who care deeply about privacy.
If your customer falls into this category, how can you reach them?
DuckDuckGo advertising is a great way for this. You create ads based on search queries and then you pay for each click.
How to set up ads and what to do.
DuckDuckGo’s Advertising Audience & Considerations
Before we get into the advertising process for DuckDuckGo there are some important things to remember.
DuckDuckGo users are first and foremost wary of tracking, ads, and privacy. DuckDuckGo users use DuckDuckGo because of bad behavior by advertisers.
DuckDuckGo also uses Yahoo! Search Network to run its ads. Yahoo! Search Network.
Third, DuckDuckGo does not have the same search volume as Yahoo!, Bing, or Google. This means it will take more time to test your campaigns, and it won’t scale as quickly.
Fourth there will be less competition. Google has the highest volume search engine but also offers advertisers the best place to look. DuckDuckGo can be hidden in Bing Ads Search Network, so you have a slight edge through obscurity.
Fifth, DuckDuckGo campaigns are automatically tagged Yahoo Search ads as they run via Yahoo or Bing.
You will need to create your UTM parameters to see the campaign’s performance.
DuckDuckGo Ads – Setting up and maintaining
To begin, visit Microsoft Ads to create an account.
Create new campaigns or ad groups. Tag your destination URLs so they don’t show up as CPC/Bing.
Third, adjust the ad distribution using Advanced Settings. This is only for Syndicated Partners Other options must not be checked.
Next, launch the campaign Your ads will now appear on DuckDuckGo
Your ad will run on all search partners in Bing’s system
DuckDuckGo will need to manage our accounts.
You should review your campaign after your ads have been served. The exact timeframe will depend on your budget and keywords.
Next, click on the Dimensions tab of your Campaign Dashboard. To see all search partners showing your ads, choose “Publisher Website”.
Third, export your list and copy any URLs that are not DuckDuckGo.
Fourth, navigate toward Campaign Settings. Open Exclusions. Enter your URL list in the box and then save.
Fifth, keep an eye on both your website publishers and your ad performance.
DuckDuckGo won’t allow you to advertise if you exclude any other publishers.
our Results and Next Steps
We were mixed with our results from DuckDuckGo. The cost per click for target keywords is 10x less than Google at $0.41 per Click vs $4.93 per Click.
But it’s a lot lower click volume. There are no long-running campaigns we could run that would be great candidates.
DuckDuckGo might be worth looking into if you have large PPC campaigns and customers who are concerned about privacy.
Copy URLs from Google Ads and Bing campaigns, and then paste them into a separate Search Partner Test Campaign. Adjust the performance by looking at the results.
